Geophysical Characterization of the Chilean Seismological Stations: First Results

Abstract

The Chilean Seismological Network has been rapidly growing in recent years, going from a few dozens stations working before 2010 to nearly a 100 installed all over the territory. Even more, nearly 300 strong-motion stations from the Accelerographic National Network have recently comple- mented this network, mainly deployed in large cities, at a variety of site conditions. All of these stations are currently providing useful information of Chilean earthquakes and are expected to record moderate-to-large events. However, the lack of appropriate site characterization sets an important limit to its usefulness. In this work, we present the geophysical characterization of 163 stations, the first results of larger effort to complete the characterization at all sites, based on array measurements of microtremors and horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios. This information will help improve our under- standing of the dynamic behavior of soils during earthquakes, providing relevant information for seismic design and seismic codes