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Ground motions during the 1994

Northridge earthquake
W.D. Liam Finn, Carlos E. Ventura, and Norman D. Schuster

Abstract: The seismological background of the Northridge earthquake on a blind thrust fault is
presented. The extensive data base of recorded ground motion provided the opportunity to review the
effectiveness of some widely used attenuation relations for peak horizontal acceleration and
pseudo-spectral velocity. Large pulses of velocity and displacement were noted in some records and the
potential implications of these for tall buildings are noted. Some major damage centres coincided with
alluvial basins. Generation of surface waves within the basins during the main shock contributed to
increased amplification and duration. Surface waves were detected at the site of the collapse of the 1-10
interchange and in the damaged area of Sherman Oaks using aftershock data. Cedar Hill seismographic
station in Tarzana recorded the highest accelerations of the earthquake, much higher than motions at
nearby stations. These are currently attributed to topographic effects of the hill on which the station is
located. Aftershock data from two major arrays found that the low amplitude motions were magnified
significantly at the crest of the hill compared to motions at the base.

Key words: earthquake, thrust fault, ground motion attenuation, fault fling, surface waves, basin effects,
topographic effects.

RCsurnC : Le cadre sismologique du tremblement de terre de Northridge, qui s'est produit sur une faille
chevauchante, est prCsentC. La base de donnees exhaustives relatives aux mouvements du sol enregistrks
durant le sCisme, a permis d'examiner l'efficacitk de certaines Cquations d'amortissement utilisCes B
grande Cchelle dans le calcul de l'accC1Cration horizontale maximale et de la vitesse pseudospectrale.
D'importantes impulsions de vitesse et de dkplacement ont CtC observCes dans certains rapports de
sCisme et leurs consCquences possibles pour les bdtiments en hauteur sont discutCes. Certains principaux
centres de dommages correspondent B des bassins d'alluvions. La production d'ondes superficielles B
I'interieur des bassins durant le choc principal a contribuC B accroitre l'amplification et la duree. Des
ondes superficielles ont CtC dCtectCes au lieu d'effondrement de 1'Cchangeur 1-10 ainsi que dans la zone
sinistree de Sherman Oaks B l'aide des donnCes de rCplique sismique. La station sismographique de
Cedar Hill, B Tarzana, a enregistre les plus fortes accClCrations du tremblement de terre, beaucoup plus
ClevCes que les mouvements enregistrCs aux stations plus rapprochCes. Cette situation est attribuable aux
effets topographiques de la colline sur laquelle la station est situCe. Les donnees de replique sismique
provenant de deux importantes stations complexes indiquent que les mouvements de faible amplitude ont
CtC caractCrisCs par une plus grande amplification au sommet de la colline qu'au pied de celle-ci.

Mots clis : tremblement de terre, faille chevauchante, amortissement des mouvements du sol, ondes
superficielles, effets de bassin, effets topographiques.
[Traduit par la rCdaction]

Introduction
The California Northridge earthquake, Mw = 6.7, occurred
on January 17, 1994, at 4:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
The epicentre was located about 30 km west-northwest of
downtown Los Angeles. The earthquake is the largest of the
Received June 21, 1994.
Revised manuscript accepted January 5, 1995.

W.D.L. Finn, C.E. Ventura, and N.D. Schuster. Department

of Civil Engineering, The University of British Columbia,
2324 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 124, Canada.
Written discussion of this paper is welcomed and will be
received by the Editor until August 3 1, 1995 (address inside
front cover).

significant earthquakes that have occurred in the area since

the 197 1 San Fernando earthquake, which was also of magnitude Mw = 6.7. However, the Northridge earthquake was
much more damaging because its epicentre was located in a
densely populated area and very strong ground motions were
generated. A powerful impression of the overall seismic
threat to Los Angeles is given by Fig. 1 (EERI 1994), which
shows that potential source zones of major earthquakes blanket
metropolitan Los Angeles and the surrounding cities. Significant historical earthquakes that have occurred at these sources
are Long Beach 1933, San Fernando 1971, Whittier 1987,
and Northridge 1994.
The Northridge earthquake triggered a very large number
of strong motion instruments throughout southern California,
providing the most extensive strong motion data for any
earthquake to date. These data will be reviewed here with

Can. J. Civ. Eng. 22: 300-315 (1995). Printed in Canada 1 Imprimt au Canada

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particular emphasis on ground motion attenuation, topographical and basin effects, and response spectra. Much of
the data are still unprocessed and therefore detailed studies
of many important sites are not yet possible.
The seismological background to the earthquake will be
described briefly first. Then the contours of peak acceleration for the epicentral region will be presented and some
recent attenuation studies will be reviewed. Average normalized response spectra will be presented for rock and alluvial
sites using the limited number of records that have already
been processed. Spectra for a number of sites which showed
very high accelerations such as Santa Monica City Hall
Grounds, Sylmar, and Newhall will be discussed individually.
Special topics such as topographic and basin effects on
recorded motions and soil-structure interaction effects are
also treated below.

Seismological background
The coordinates of the epicentre of the Northridge earthquake
are 34.209"N and 118.541 OW. Scientists at the California
Institute of Technology assigned a local magnitude, ML, of
6.4 and a moment magnitude, Mw, of 6.7 to the earthquake.
The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) assigned
a surface wave magnitude, Ms, of 6.8 (Shakal et al. 1994).
The earthquake occurred at a focal depth of 19 km on a fault
striking N60W and dipping towards the south at an angle of
35" -45" (Shakal et al. 1994). The south dipping fault plane
is consistent with south dipping planes known from oil explo-

Fig. 2. Preliminary cross section of Northridge fault (after Ando

and Irikura 1994).
San Gabriel
Mountains

S
Santa Monica Mountains

ration in the northern San Fernando Valley. These faults may

be part of the Oakridge fault system (CSL 1994). A simplified cross section of the fault region is shown in Fig. 2 (Ando
and Irikura 1994). The section illustrates the key structural
aspects of the event. At that time, estimates of the focal depth
were about 18 km.
Thio and Kanamori (1994) studied the complexity of the
source using P and S waves and concluded that there were
three subevents with intervals of 2 s between them. They
occurred successively at depths of 19, 17, and 13 km. The
upward propagation of the subevents is consistent with the
distribution of aftershocks which are shallower and to the north
of the main shock. Thio and Kanamori (1994) suggested a
slip of about 2 m on the fault.

Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 22, 1995

302

Fig. 3. Distribution of aftershocks in the failure zone (after USC, USGS, and SCEC 1994).
Santa Monica Mtns

San Fernando Valley

n t a Susana Mtns
Santa

Castaic
Junction

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Potrero Canvon

The aftershock zone extends 30 km east -west, from San

Fernando to Santa Susana, and from Northridge in the south
to the Santa Clara Valley in the north (CSL and USGS 1994).
As shown in Fig. 3, aftershocks occurred on the main rupture surface (CSL, USGS, and SCEC 1994). Some aftershocks
are reported to have occurred on the 1971 San Fernando
rupture surface.
The aftershocks of the Northridge earthquake followed the
normal pattern for California aftershock sequences. The largest
aftershock had a magnitude M L = 6.0 and five aftershocks
had magnitudes in the range 5.0 < ML < 5.7 (Trifunac et al.
1994). Both the magnitude distribution and the decay rate
were as expected. Generally, the rate of decay is inversely
proportional to the time, so that at day N after the earthquake, the expected number of aftershocks is 1/N times the
number of aftershocks on the first day (EERI 1994).
The thrust mechanism of the earthquake is consistent with
the north-south compressive deformations of the Transverse
Ranges caused by the big bend in the San Andreas fault in
the region. The rupture propagated upwards from the focus
towards the northeast. Shakal et al. (1994) inferred that the
rupture stopped 5 km below the surface. The lack of a surface break is consistent with well data from the northern San
Fernando Valley which shows that the south dipping faults
there have not moved at or near the surface in half a million
years (CSL 1994). It is also consistent with the distribution
of aftershocks on the cross section shown in Fig. 3 (CSL,
USGS, and SCEC 1994).
The Northridge earthquake occurred on a blind thrust fault.
In the last 10 years, a number of major earthquakes have
occurred on buried faults in the U.S.A. In California, no
surface fault was associated with the following recent earthquakes (Stein 1994):
1983, M = 6.5, Coalinga, eastern margin of the California Coast Ranges;
1985, M = 6.0, Kettelman Hills, eastern margin of the
Coast Ranges:

1987, M = 6.0, Whittier Narrows, Los Angeles basin;

1992, M = 6.0, Sierra Madre, San Gabriel Mountains;
1992, M = 7.0, Cape Mendocino shock, Mendocino
Triple Junction.
These earthquakes involved slips on buried faults at depths
below young folding. Stein (1994) generalized from these
data that folds develop sporadically during earthquakes on
the buried faults rather than by slow progressive deformation. This implies that active folds must now be included in
the list of potential earthquake sources. As pointed out by
Jackson (1994), the estimation of seismic hazard should reflect
the results of regional deformation studies in addition to
surface fault mapping.

Ground motions: unprocessed

There are three main sources of data on the ground motions
associated with the Northridge earthquake.
(1) California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program
(CSMIP) stations. These stations are maintained by the
CSMIP of the California Division of Mines and Geology
(CDMG).
(2) National Strong Motion Program (NSMP) stations. This
network is a cooperative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other parties in southern California, including the following: ( i ) U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers (AE); (ii) Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California (MWD); (iii) U.S. Department of
Veteran Affairs (VA); (iv) Individual Building Owners
(CODE); and (v) U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
(3) Los Angeles Strong Motion Accelerograph Network
(LASMAN). The array consists of about 80 ground
response stations maintained by the University of Southern
California (USC).
Many records from the Northridge earthquake were
recorded on digital instruments. Digital records permit a
more accurate determination of ground velocity and displace-

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Fig. 4. Peak ground accelerations recorded at CSMIP stations in epicentral area, Northridge earthquake,
17 January 1994 (after Shakal et al. 1994).

VENTURA
COUNTY

\
\

LOS ANGELES

ment and provide a much better frequency response. They

also allow a better definition of the attenuation of ground
motion at extended distances (Shakal et al. 1994).
Strong motion records were recovered from 193 CSMIP
stations. There are records from 116 ground response stations
and 77 records from a variety of structures, including buildings, bridges, and dams. A location map for CSMIP stations
in the epicentral area showing the peak horizontal and vertical
accelerations scaled from unprocessed records from these

stations is given in Fig. 4 (Shakal et al. 1994). Peak ground

accelerations recorded at close-in NSMP stations during the
main shock are shown in Fig. 5 (Porcella et al. 1994). A total
of 65 of the 1,ASMAN instruments were triggered during the
main shock.
All the CSMIP, NSMP, and LASMAN stations in the
region of strong shaking are shown in Fig. 6 and data froin
these stations were used to develop the contours of peak
horizontal accelerations in the epicentral area shown in Fig. 7.

Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 22, 1995

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Fig. 5. Peak ground accelerations recorded at NSMP stations in the epicentral area,
Northridge earthquake, 17 January 1994 (after Porcella et al. 1994).

San Fernando Valley

PACIFIC OCEAN

Fig. 6. CSMIP, NSMP, and LASMAN ground response stations

in the vicinity of the epicentre of the Northridge earthquake used
to establish acceleration contours.

34'24'-

.SYLMAR

*.*

34"18'-.

.SIMI HILLS

34'12'-

34'06'-

34"

VALLEY
SANTA

Z'ob A ~ E L E S

\.

Epicenter - Northridge Earthquake

s.,

** *;

Fig. 7. Contours of peak accelerations, random component,

Northridge earthquake of 17 January 1994.

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Fig. 8. Attenuation of peak horizontal accelerations vs. distance from the surface projection of the
causative fault (after Ando and Irikura, from Idriss 1994).

.oo

.I0

Recorded Accelerations - Rock Sites

.O1

10
100
Closest Distance to the Rupture Surface (km)

At each station the peak horizontal acceleration was selected

irrespective of direction.

Attenuation of ground motions

The extensive database on the variation of accelerations with
distance in the Northridge earthquake provides the opportunity to review the effectiveness of ground motion attenuation
relations for peak acceleration and pseudo-spectral velocity,
which are used in engineering practice.
The Idriss (1991) attenuation relation for peak horizontal
accelerations is compared with the Northridge data in Fig. 8.
The median and the median plus and minus one standard
deviation curves for rock and stiff soil sites are plotted for
Mw = 6.7. Accelerations recorded on both rock and soil
sites are also shown in Fig. 8. Most of the accelerations on
rock are within one standard deviation of the median.
However, the soil data appear to spread to two standard deviations or more. The Idriss (1991) attenuation relation is in
use in British Columbia for site-specific seismic hazard studies
for important projects.
Boore (1994) compared the Northridge acceleration data
with the Boore et al. (1993, 1994) attenuation relation (BJF93)
in Fig. 9 for soil class B. The BJF93 relation is a revision
of the ground motion attenuation relation (JB88) of Joyner
and Boore (1988) based on data from recent large earthquakes:
1989 Loma Prieta, 1992 Petrolia, and 1992 Landers. Boore
et al. (1993) also introduced a new classification for site stiffness based on the time averaged shear wave velocity in the
top 30 m of the ground. Four soil classes were introduced,
which are defined in Table 1.
The BJF93 attenuation relation is being evaluated for use
in new seismic hazard studies for western Canada being

Fig. 9. Attenuation of peak horizontal accelerations vs.

distance from the surface projection of the causative fault (after
Boore 1994).
I

1 l l I l 1

1 1 1 1 1 1

I
I

- - - BJF93, Site C l a s s B f o

1971 S a n Fernando, M = 6.6

o
I

0.01
1

1 1 1 1 1 1

10

1 1 1 1 1 1

100

Distance from Surface Projection

of Causative Fault (km)
planned for the next revision of the National Building Code
of Canada in the year 2000.
A plot of the ratios of peak vertical accelerations to peak
horizontal accelerations for rock and soil sites is shown in
Fig. 10. For the majority of the data, the ratio of peak vertical

Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 22, 1995

Fig. 10. Ratios of peak vertical to peak horizontal acceleration (after Ando and Irikura, from
Idriss 1994).
2.0

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1 . 8

'

'

'

' " " " "

I Motions Recorded During the 1

I 1994 Northridge ~ a r t h ~ u s k Ie1

Rock Sites
Soil Sites

1.2

1.0.

=:

r,

Ratio = I

Closest Distance to the Rupture Surface (km)

Table 1. Definition of site class.
Site class

Range of shear wave

velocities* (mls)

on February 24, 1994. The representation of this distribution

by Ando and Irikura (1994) is shown in Fig. 11. The epicentral intensity was IX. The regular attenuation of intensity
was interrupted by pockets of high intensity that seemed to
be related to ground motion amplification due to local soil
conditions or basin effects.

Ground motions: processed

*Shear wave velocity is time averaged
over the upper 30 m.

to horizontal acceleration is less than 0.67. However, some

sites recorded ratios greater than 1 .O. These high vertical
accelerations have led to speculations about the need to consider vertical accelerations in design.
Egan et al. (1994) have made a study of ground motion
data from recent moderate to large California earthquakes
and found that within about 15 km of the fault ruptures, the
peak ground accelerations and spectral ordinates for the vertical components are approximately equal to, or exceed, the
horizontal components at periods less than 0.2 s. In general,
for peak accelerations and high frequency spectral ordinates,
vertical to horizontal ratios greater than unity occur at close
fault rupture distances and decrease strongly with distance
from the rupture. The ratios for periods greater than 0.3 s
show little dependence on distance and are commonly about
112 or less. These findings are consistent with observations
on data in eastern Canada by Atkinson (1993).
Modified Mercalli intensity
The distribution of modified Mercalli intensities, MMI, in the
epicentral region was presented by members of the Southern
California Earthquake Center (SCEC) at a briefing meeting

Response spectra
Response spectra at the mean level for a damping ratio of 5 %
were calculated for all free-field CSMIP records processed
to March 15, 1994, by Darragh et al. (1994a, 19946, 1994~).
The sites are listed in Table 2. The spectra were normalized
to peak ground acceleration. The mean horizontal absolute
acceleration and mean pseudo-velocity spectra for the 28
ground motion components recorded on alluvium are compared with the corresponding spectra for the six components
of rock motion in Fig. 12.
The horizontal acceleration spectra for alluvium and rock
are remarkably similar and do not reflect the major differences between rock and alluvial spectra noted in recent earthquakes such as the Kushiro and Nansei-Oki earthquakes in
Hokkaido in 1993 (Finn et al. 1994). The pseudo-velocity
spectra for both alluvium and rock show the same peak
response, but for the period range 0.4 - 1 s, the alluvium sites
show greater normalized response.
The corresponding spectra for the vertical components of
motions on rock and alluvium are shown in Fig. 13. In this
case, the rock spectra show higher normalized response in
the period range 0.3 - 1 s. The alluvium spectra indicate a
high response in the range 0.1-0.3 s. The spectra beyond
1 s are very similar. The peak pseudo-velocity normalized
response is about the same for soil as for rock, but for
periods less than about 0.3 s and greater than 2 s, the spectral

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Table 2. Stations from which records have been processed as of February 18, 1994.

Station

Epicentral
distance
(km)

Site geology

Sylmar (County Hospital parking lot)

Pacoima Dam (downstream station)
Newhall (L.A. County Fire Station)
Arleta - Nordoff Fire Station
Santa Monica - City Hall grounds
Los Angeles - Hollywood Storage Building grounds (Station 24303)
Los Angeles - Baldwin Hills (Station 24157)
Los Angeles - Obregon Park (Station 24400)
Los Angeles - 116th Street School (Station 14403)
Castaic - Old Ridge Route (Station 24278)
Pacoima - Kagel Canyon (Station 24088)
Century City - LACC North (Station 24389)
Malibu - Point Dume (Station 24396)
Moorpark (Station 24283)
San Marino - Southwestern Academy (Station 24401)
Downey - County Maintenance Building (Station 24368)
Long Beach - City Hall grounds (Station 14560)

15
18
19
9
24
23
28
39
41
41
18
20
32
33
39
47
58

Alluvium
Rock
Alluvium
Alluvium
Alluvium
Deep alluvium
Thin fill and alluvium over rock
Alluvium
Alluvium
Rock
Rock
Alluvium
Thin alluvium on rock
Alluvium
Deep alluvium
Deep alluvium
Alluvium

response on alluvium is greater.

Individual acceleration spectra for sites in Sylmar (I5 km),
Newhall (19 km), and Santa Monica (24 km) are shown in
Fig. 14. (The numbers in parentheses are epicentral distances.)
The Santa Monica spectra show a pronounced peak of about

2.5g at a period of about 0.2 s. It is not surprising that there

was extensive damage to low period, unreinforced masonry
buildings in Santa Monica. The Sylmar and Newhall spectra
show peak spectral accelerations of 2.85g at a period of 0.4 s
and 2.20g at 0.7 s, respectively. Both spectra show strong

Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 22, 1995

Fig. 12. Comparison of (a) average horizontal acceleration and (b) horizontal pseudo-velocity
spectra for alluvium (28 records) and rock (6 records).
4.0

3.5 -

(a)

....................

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3.0-

0.0
0.0

10

-I

alluvium
rock

alluvium

(b)

....................

5%)Damping

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

rock

5% Damping

4.0

0.1

1.O

Period (s)

10

Period (s)

Fig. 13. Comparison of (a) average vertical acceleration and (b) vertical pseudo-velocity spectra for
alluvium (14 records) and rock (3 records).

3.5 -

alluvium

(a)

....................

rock

alluvium

(b)

.................... rock

5%)Damping

.........
0.0
0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5 2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

Period (s)
response of a wide period range. The damage to a broad range
of structures around these sites is consistent with these spectra.
Surprisingly, the Arleta site, which, at an epicentre distance of 9 h, is one of the closest to the epicentre, shows
much smaller spectral acceleration response with a peak value
less than 1.0g. Little severe damage occurred near this site.
The elastic acceleration spectrum from the National Building Code of Canada (NRC 1990) corresponding to conditions
in the Vancouver area is also shown in Fig. 14. The seismic
shear coefficient, VIW, where V is the design shear and W
is the weight of the structure, is also plotted in Fig. 14 for
code response modification factors R = 1 (elastic demand)
and R = 4; V is calculated using the base shear formula in
NBCC (NRC 1990) with the importance factor I = 1 and the
foundation factor F = 1. Clearly, the elastic demand in areas
of the epicentral region of the Northridge earthquake is much
greater than that specified by the NBCC for Vancouver.

0.1

'

' ' ' ""I

'

1.o

' '

""I

10

Period (s)
The demand spectrum also exceeds significantly the elastic
seismic demand for California, which has a peak value of 1.0
in the short period range. That such a large seismic demand
relative to design provisions should be created by a moderate
earthquake at distances up to 25 h from epicentre should be
cause for an examination of the levels of protection currently
provided by applicable building codes.

Fault fling: large velocity and displacement pulses

Large fault displacements tend to produce large velocities
and displacements at near-source sites. Although very large
accelerations and velocities were recorded in the epicentral
region of the Northridge earthquake, the peak horizontal
ground displacements are only about 50% of the largest displacements associated with another California earthquake of
similar size, the 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake, Mw =
6.6 (Naeim 1994). The ground motion components from the

Finn et al.

Fig. 14. Comparison of response spectra for four sites in the epicentral area of Northridge
earthquake and elastic and design spectra from the National Building Code of Canada for
conditions in Vancouver, B.C.

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3.0

NBCC 1990 spectrum

,,.,,,,,.,,.,,~,,., NBCC 1990; VIW,K=l

------.

NBCC 1990; VIW,K=4

-----

Santa Monica

....................

Newhall

------- Arleta

0.0

0.5

1.O

1.S

2.0

2.5

3.O

3.5

4.0

Period (s)
Fig. 15. Ground accelerations, velocities, and displacements at the Sylmar County Hospital site
(NS component).
1000 . . .

.s?
e

r...-l.-..--...I..-r...I..7-LLT

Peak: 826.76

n
Nv,

22

g 2.

d
-1000
200

..............................................................................

Peak: -128.88

5
Peak: -32.55

10

Time (s)
Sylmar and Newhall sites in Figs. 15 and 16 show large
pulses in velocity and displacement closely associated with
the pulses of peak accelerations. According to Heaton and
Wald (1994), such pulses are caused by directivity resulting
from rupture propagation velocities that are close to the shear

wave velocity. The velocity pulses account for most of the

radiated kinetic energy.
Heaton and Wald (1994) drew attention to potential effects
of these pulses on tall flexible buildings. The pulses may
propagate up the buildings and induce large strains. Proper

Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 22, 1995

Fig. 16. Ground accelerations, velocities, and displacements at the L.A. County Fire Station,
Newhall, site (NS component).

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C
'3
0 "

1000

1 ' '

Peak: 578.19

e
I . _ . . ~ . . . . I . . . . I . . . . I . . . . I . _ _ _ I . l . . . . l ~ . . . l . . _ . . I . . . . I . . . . I . .. I

Peak: -94.72

'

L '

Peak: 30.47

I........III..I.....I..I_LY..I.........I......I..lI..1....11.......1...........

10

12

14

16

18

20

Time (s)
dynamic evaluation of these effects requires consideration of
many modes of vibration of the structure taking into account
the phases between modes. Therefore, typical code analyses
based on response spectra may not show the full damage
potential of these pulses. Naeim (1994) suggested that the
significant "fling" of records such as Sylmar and Newhall
calls for a serious reevaluation of current design requirements for buildings in the near field. The large displacement
pulses may also have serious implications for base-isolation
systems because of the elongation of the natural periods of
these structures due to the isolation system.

Basin effects
The distribution of some of the major damage centres during
the Northridge earthquake coincided roughly with alluvial
basins such as the Los Angeles Basin and San Fernando
Basin. Some amplification of incident body waves would be
expected in the basins compared with adjacent rock sites
because of the reduced shear wave velocity in the alluvial
soils in the basins (Borcherdt and Glassmoyer 1992). However,
a major factor contributing to damage appears to have been
the generation of surface waves within the basins during the
main shock that had a major effect on the amplification of
ground motions and the duration of shaking.
Surface waves in these basins during the 1971 San Fernando
earthquake were detected by Hanks (1975) and Liu and Heaton
(1984). Frankel et al. (1994) found clear indications of surface
waves at the site of the 1-10 collapse and in the damaged area
of Sherman Oaks using aftershocks recorded on temporary
arrays of digital seismic recorders.
The surface waves are generated by conversion of shear
waves to surface waves at the edges of the basin. These
waves have slower speeds than the body waves and have
periods greater than 0.5 s. They are reflected back and forth
between the walls of the basin and this results in a significant

increase in the duration of strong shaking. The transverse

components of ground velocities in the centres of the basins
showed very strong shaking due to surface waves. Records
near Santa Monica Mountains indicated that the surface waves
were not transmitted through the mountains but were generated independently in each basin.
It should be noted that these basin effects cannot be simulated by the typical I-D site response analyses conducted in
practice (Finn 1991). Graves (1993) modelled successfully
the characteristics (including duration) of the ground motions
recorded in the Marina District of San Francisco during the
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake by 3-D analysis. He found that
the usual 1-D analysis was unable to model the motions.
One-dimensional analyses work well for sites away from the
edges of basins with large width-to-depth ratios. Two- or
three-dimensional analyses are required for sites on steep
buried valleys with low width-to-depth ratios.

Topographical effects
Theoretical studies (Aki 1988; Geli et al. 1988; Faccioli 1991)
have indicated that free-field ground motions are amplified
by topography with respect to motions on level ground.
These conclusions are supported by field data from the 1980
Fruili earthquake (Brambati et al. 1980) and the 1985 Chilean
earthquake (Celebi and Hanks 1986). The pattern of amplification is clearly illustrated by data from the Matsuzaki array
in Japan (PWRI 1986), shown in Fig. 17. The mean values
and standard error bars of peak accelerations normalized to
the crest acceleration for five earthquakes are plotted in
Fig. 17 (Jibson 1987) as a function of elevation. The range
in peak accelerations for the five earthquakes is rather limited,
ranging from a low of a few gals at station 5 to a maximum
of about 100 gals at the crest (1 gal = 1 cm/s2). The amplification of the crest relative to the base is about 2.5. Note that
the amplification factor increases rapidly as the crest of the
ridge is approached.

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Finn et al.

The Cedar Hills Nursery Station in Tarzana, about 7 krn

south of the epicenter, recorded the greatest horizontal peak
ground acceleration of the Northridge earthquake, 1.8g. The
station is situated on a 20 m high hill striking east-west,
about 500 m long and about 200 m wide at the crest. The site
has about 6 m of silty clay loam overlying shale. The shear
wave velocity in the loam ranges from 240 to 280 m/s, the
average velocity in the shale is about 360 m/s (Fumal et al.
1981). This station has recorded unusually high accelerations
in past earthquakes compared to level ground stations at
equivalent epicentral distances (Shakal et al. 1987). It is
speculated that these high amplifications are due to the effects
of topography on the incoming waves.
The record from the Cedar Hill station in Tarzana is
shown in Fig. 18. All three components show accelerations
over lg. The LASMAN station, which is only 2 km from the
epicentre, recorded only 0.51g. The closest CSMIP station,
which is in an instrumented building in Van Nuys about 6 km
east of the epicentre, recorded 0.47g at the base. Although
soil - structure interaction may have reduced that peak acceleration somewhat, the difference between the peak accelerations
at Tarzana and Van Nuys is striking.
Tarzana also had an isolated very high peak during the
1987 Whittier earthquake (Shakal et al. 1987). At that time
the peak horizontal acceleration at Tarzana was 0.62g, whereas
at Arleta, which was closer to the epicentre, only 0.09g
was recorded.
Temporary stations were established around the Tarzana
site to investigate topographic effects using data from aftershocks. Wennerberg et al. (1994) deployed instruments at
several sites near the base of the hill on a hard rock site a few
kilometres away and at a number of CSMIP and USGS
strong motion sites which recorded the main shock. The
Tarzana site showed coda spectral amplitudes in the frequency
band of 0.5 - 15 Hz between 5 and 10 times as large as those
at the hard rock site. S-wave spectral amplitudes in the frequency ranges of 0.5- 1 Hz and 2-5 Hz showed amplifications of 3 and 10, respectively. A station at the base of the
hill had one fifth of the spectral amplitude of the station at
the top of the hill, for S-waves in the 3-10 Hz range.
Spudich et al. (1994) deployed a 16-bit digital, PC-based,
seismic array of 21 three-component L-22 geophones in two
orthogonal lines centered on the strong motion accelerometer
at the crest of the hill and extending to the base of the hill
in each direction at an average spacing of about 35 m.
Recorded peak velocities correlated with station elevation.
The peak velocities at the instrument site on top of the hill
were 2-3 times larger than those observed only 50 m away
on the slopes. This sharp increase in amplification near the
crest is similar to that noted in the data from the Matsuzaki
array in Japan, although in this case the hill is many times
higher than Cedar Hill (Fig. 17). The findings from the
Wennerberg and Spudich studies are preliminary, but are in
keeping with previous theoretical and field data on the effects
of topography.
Similar studies on topographic effects were conducted
after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake (CDMG 1975). Two
separate topographic structures, Kagel Mountain and Josephine
Peak, were instrumented at the crest and base to record aftershock motions. In each case, the measured responses were
amplified substantially at the crest compared with the lower

Fig. 17. Relative distribution of peak accelerations along

a flank of a ridge from Matsuzaki array in Japan (after
Jibson 1987).
I

--

RIDGE PROFILE

--

Elevation (m)

slope. The greatest amplifications occurred at the crest of

Kagel Mountain. Peak accelerations were amplified up to 2.3
times with respect to the values at the base, velocities up to
4 times, and displacements up to 6 times (CDMG 1975).

Soil - structure interaction

Strong motion data from instrumented structures and nearby
free-field sites permit assessment of soil -structure interaction
effects during the Northridge earthquake. One such example
is the 14-storey Hollywood Storage Building (Fig. 19).
Accelerometers have been installed in the basement and
parking lot of the building for over 40 years. They provide
data for soil-structure interaction studies. The site consists
of about 10 m of clay loam with a P-wave velocity of 332 m/s
(1090 fils) followed by 100 m of a sandy clay with a P-wave
velocity of 732 m/s (2400 fils), resting on gravel-sand layers
with a P-wave velocity of about 1524 m/s (5000 fils).
Ground motions from five significant earthquakes have
been recorded by now at the site: Kern County 1952, San
Fernando 197 1, Whittier Narrows 1987, Sierra Madre 199 1,
and Northridge 1994. In the Northridge earthquake, 0.41g
peak acceleration was measured in the parking lot and 0.29g
in the basement of the building. In the Whittier earthquake,
the corresponding accelerations were 0.213 and 0.12g (Shakal
et al. 1987). These reductions in peak accelerations associated
with high frequencies are typical of kinematic interaction
(Newmark et al. 1977; Fenves and Serino 1992).
The effects of kinematic interaction are produced by the
scattering and reflection of incident waves from the foundation. These secondary motions modify the free-field ground
motions to produce resultant motions at foundation levels

Can. J . Civ. Eng. Vol. 22, 1995

Fig. 18. Interim acceleration records from Cedar Hill Station in Tarzana

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2000

....

l . . . . l . . . . ! ~ . . . t . . . . b . . . ~ ~ . . . . ~ . . . . ~ . . . . ~ . . . . ~ - . . ~ . . . . ~ . . . . f i . . ~ ~ 1 ~ ~ ~ . 1 . . ~ ~ t . . . ~ l ~ .

Peak: 1744.53

Vertical Component

2000

Peak: -970.74

10 1 1 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Time (s)
Fig. 19. View of the Hollywood Storage Building.

that may be significantly different from the free-field motions.

The significance of kinematic interaction depends on the
characteristics of the incident waves and the size, embedment, and flexibility of the foundation. Kinematic interaction
is generally most pronounced for the high frequency components of motion because the wavelengths are comparable to
the dimensions of large foundations such as rafts or slabs
(Fenves and Serino 1992).
Following the Whittier earthquake, Fenves and Serino
(1992) analyzed the response of the building. They found
strong kinematic interaction in the longitudinal direction, but

little kinematic interaction in the transverse direction. These

findings are consistent with the dimensions of the foundation
of the building (Fig. 19).
Fenves and Serino (1992) found significant inertial interaction in the transverse direction around the fundamental
transverse period of 0.5 s. Inertial interaction describes the
secondary motions generated in the foundation soils by the
inertial forces generated in the structure and foundation. The
inertial forces are usually significant at the fundamental period
of the structure, so inertial interaction is more pronounced in
a narrow period range around the fundamental period.

It seems likely that the same interaction effects occurred

during the Northridge earthquake. The kinematic interaction
is evident but the inertial interaction analysis must await the
availability of processed records from the site.

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Conclusions
The 1994 Northridge earthquake is the sixth major earthquake
in California to have occurred on a blind thrust fault in the
last 10 years. It is now widely accepted that these types of
faults can pose major seismic threats. It is difficult in cases
where earthquake occurrence has not been documented in
historical times to arrive at a reasonably conservative estimate of the seismic potential of a suspected thrust fault. This
is especially true when data from regional deformation studies
are not available. This has long been the situation in eastern
North America and much of western Canada also.
Major structural damage during the Northridge earthquake
is attributed to strong ground shaking. Liquefaction and lateral
spreads were not major factors causing building damage, in
contrast to the contribution they made to damage in the 1971
San Fernando earthquake.
Some of the highest accelerations and velocities ever
recorded were features of this earthquake. However, ground
displacements were relatively low, being less than 50% of
the peak displacements recorded during the 1979 Imperial
Valley earthquake.
Significant ground motion amplification and increased
duration were attributed to the conversion of the shear waves
to surface waves and the reverberation of the surface waves
in basins. It is speculated that the large acceleration, 0.88g,
recorded at Santa Monica City Hall grounds may be due to
basin effects near the edge of the basin.
Fault fling involving large velocity and displacement
pulses were present in some records, notably the records from
the free-field sites at Sylmar County Hospital and Newhall.
These were attributed to the proximity to the rupture surface
and directivity effects in the near field.
It has been suggested that the propagation of large pulses
of acceleration (and velocity) up tall buildings may pose some
hitherto unsuspected problems. To investigate these effects,
it is necessary to consider many of the structural modes and
to sum them in phase. The Newhall record shows very strong
spectral acceleration, at the 3g level, in a direction parallel
to the direction of fault slip.
The motion at the Cedar Hills Nursery strong motion site
in Tarzana showed large amplification of ground motions
during the main shock of the Northridge earthquake compared
to nearby rock sites closer to the epicentre. Such amplifications have been observed at the site during previous earthquakes, notably the 1987 Whittier earthquake. The station is
situated on top of a small hill and the amplifications have been
attributed to topographic effects. Data from arrays deployed
over the hill to record aftershock motions corroborated the
high amplification factors. Depending on the frequency range,
amplification factors from the aftershock data ranged from
5 to 10.
Some interesting ground motion anomalies occurred. The
spectral accelerations and velocities at Arleta, which is only
9 km from the epicentre, were only a fraction of those at
Sylmar and Newhall, 15 and 19 km away, respectively. Sitespecific response analyses to explain some of these anomalies

must await the processing of the relevant records and the

availability of data to characterize the sites.
The elastic force demand spectrum for the Northridge
earthquake greatly exceeds the design loads specified in the
National Building Code of Canada for Vancouver, B.C., that
is, seismic conditions for force modification factors of R =
1 and R = 4, which span the range of modification factors
allowable under the Canadian code. The demand spectrum
also exceeds significantly the elastic seismic demand for
California, which has a peak value of 1.0 in the short period
range. That such a large seismic demand relative to design
provisions should be created by a moderate earthquake at
distances up to 25 km from epicentre should be cause for an
examination of the levels of protection currently provided by
applicable building codes.

Acknowledgements
The reconnaissance trip by the first two authors to study the
effects of the Northridge earthquake was supported by grants
from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
of Canada. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance
of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Oakland,
California, who did much to facilitate their postearthquake
study. The authors express their appreciation to members of
California Institute of Technology, University of California
at Berkeley, United States Geological Survey, Southern
California Earthquake Center, and the Office of Emergency
Services in Pasadena, for their guidance and help. Special
thanks are due to R. Borcherdt, M. Celebi, W.B. Joyner,
P. Spudich, and L. Wennerberg, all at the United States
Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, and M. Trifunac,
University of Southern California, for discussions and reports.
The manuscript was typed by Kelly Lamb.

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