Comparative Study of Microtremor Analysis Methods

During a multidisciplinary microzonation pilot project in the city of Heraklion (Crete, Greece), microtremor data were collected at the top of exploratory boreholes specifically designed for the purposes of the project, over a period of 5 days, for 4 h/day at 125 Hz (continuous recordings). The data were analysed with the SSR and H/V Ratio techniques, using the standard FFT (applied to long data series) and a Multi-variate Maximum Entropy (MV-MAXENT) spectral analysis method. Both techniques, implemented with both spectral analysis methods, identify the same major resonance frequency band, albeit with different amplification levels. The MV-MAXENT however is effective in handling short data lengths while yielding high resolution spectra and addressing several shortcomings of the conventional FFT (windowing, zero padding etc.). Thus, it yields competitively similar results, with only a fraction (a few minutes) of the data required by the lower resolution (FFT) method and appears to be a powerful tool for site effect investigations. Moreover, the results of both microtremor-based techniques are consistent and remarkably similar to the results of microzonation methods that require (expensive) borehole data.