Earthquakes are the fatal and most
unpredictable among all the natural disasters. Geographical areas which have
experienced great earthquakes in the past are most probable candidates for the
future major/great earthquakes. Seismically active regions should be considered
for seismic hazard assessment in a deterministic way for worst case scenario
earthquakes. Therefore, in this study, the north-eastern region of India has
been chosen as the setting for simulations of strong ground motion for a
hypothetical major earthquake (Mw 7.0) using the empirical Green’s function
method. Recordings of the 2009 Bhutan earthquake (Mw 5.1 and 6.1) are
considered as empirical Green’s functions with a characterized source model
with asperities. Source scaling for the validation of the technique was
accomplished by simulation of the Mw 6.1 event using recordings of the Mw 5.1
earthquake with the fault extended to Mw 7.0. As a result, it was observed that
cities in the north-eastern region of India will exhibit peak ground
acceleration (PGA) for a maximum of 121 gals in the case of a major earthquake
of Mw 7.0. Sites located near the rupture initiation point/scenarios can expect
higher level accelerations. For validation, estimates of the PGA for the Mw 7.0
simulation were compared with predictive ground motion equations for the
Himalayan region with comparable PGA estimates. The obtained PGA values have
provided an idea about the level of accelerations experienced in the area for a
hypothetical, and probable, future Mw 7.0 earthquake. With the data of ground
motions and PGA values obtained in the present analysis, future construction in
the area can be regulated and built environments strengthened accordingly.
Keywords: Simulation, Peak Ground
Acceleration, Strong Motion Generation Area, Background Area