Technical note

An indication of the soil topmost layer response in Quito (Ecuador)

using noise H/V spectral ratio
P. Gueguen
a,b,c,
*
, J.-L. Chatelain
a,b,c
, B. Guillier
b,c
, H. Yepes
c
a
LGIT-IRIGM, BP53, 38041 Grenoble, Cedex 09, France
b
ORSTOM, apartado 17-12-857, Quito, Ecuador
c
EPN, apartado 2759, Quito, Ecuador
Accepted 25 November 1999
Communicated by D.E. Beskos
Abstract
H/V noise spectral ratio (HVSR), standard spectral ratio (SSR), and receiver functions (RF) techniques have been used in the Quito
(Ecuador) urban area to estimate the frequency dependence of soil response. Two amplied frequencies obtained by the HVSR method
appear on about 60 sites. Taking into account the most amplied frequency rather than considering only the rst amplied frequency,
generally associated with the fundamental frequency, we nd that iso-frequency curves tightly t the surface geology. The second amplied
frequency is interpreted as the fundamental frequency of the soft thin topmost layer, which in some cases amplies the surface ground motion
more than the rest of the soil column. This hypothesis is further supported by the results provided from the SSR and RF studies at a station
located on top of a solid waste landll, and by a study of known thickness of a waste landll, using the HVSR method. 2000 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Noise spectral ratio; Zonation; Quito; Ecuador
1. Introduction
The importance of the effects of surface geology in seis-
mic design has been extensively studied and well estab-
lished for a long time. It has been noticed that local site
geology effects on strong motion can be important as
shown, for example, in the distribution of earthquake
damage following the 1906 San Francisco and 1989 Loma
Prieta events, and the well-known damages associated with
the Guerrero-Michoacan earthquake in the lake-bed zone
of Mexico City. Although various methods have been devel-
oped to estimate the frequency dependence of site effects,
one of the main goals in these studies over the last two
decades has been to obtain information about the so-called
fundamental frequency of soil response, which is character-
ized by the highest amplication factor of ground motion.
In recent studies (e.g. in Mexico [1], New Zealand [2] and
Ecuador [3]), a second amplied frequency has been locally
revealed by different methods. Gueguen et al. [3] linked the
building damage distribution in Pujili (Ecuador) following a
Ms 5:7 earthquake, with the second amplied frequency
peak obtained using the H/V noise spectral ratio technique
proposed by Nakamura [4]. Gueguen et al. [3] explained the
secondpeakas representingthe response of a soft surcial layer.
Following the Quito, Ecuador, Earthquake Risk Manage-
ment Project [5], a routine site effects study was
conducted throughout the city. Ambient noise was recorded
on 673 sites in the Quito urban area in order to estimate the
distribution of the soil fundamental frequency using the H/V
spectral ratio technique. Two obvious peaks are observed on
about 10% of the sites. The spatial distribution of the highest
amplied frequency, computed at four temporary 3C-
stations installed in the city, is compared to the surcial
geology [5] and to results obtained by the standard spectral
ratio (SSR) [6] and receiver functions (RF) [7] techniques.
Finally, a frequency dependence analysis using the H/V
spectral ratio was performed on a thin solid waste landll
to conrm the tie between the second peak and the topmost
soil layer response.
2. Techniques used
In the Quito case, three widely used site effect estimation
Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 19 (2000) 127133
0267-7261/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0267-7261(99)00035-4
www.elsevier.com/locate/soildyn
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 33-4-76-82-80-74; fax: 33-4-76-82-
81-01. Present address: LGIT-IRIGM, BP53, 38041 Grenoble, Cedex 09,
France.
E-mail address: philippe.gueguen@obs.ujf-grenoble.fr (P. Gueguen).
procedures have been used: the commonly called SSR and
RF techniques, which use earthquake records, and the noise
horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) spectral ratio (HVSR)
technique.
The SSR technique was rst introduced by Borchedt [6]
and is still widely used. It consists in using earthquake
recordings obtained simultaneously at a reference site (i.e.
supposedly without amplication) and nearby locations
sitting on sediments, where source and path effects are
believed to be identical to those observed at the reference
site. The sedimentary/reference site ratio then shows the
frequency dependence of the sedimentary site by removing
source and path effects. The major limitation of this method
is due to the reference site concept, which assumes a site
free of amplication usually associated with very rm
soil. However, Gagnepain-Beyneix et al. [8] observed
signicant amplication at rock sites, rst considered to
lack amplication. Moreover, detailed studies of this tech-
nique by Field and Jacob [9] showed that numerous records
(about 80 events) for which the signal to noise ratio remains
below an a-priori threshold value, are required to obtain
valid results. Such experimental conditions are generally
difcult to meet in regions with moderate seismicity and/
or noisy urban areas.
The RF technique was rst developed to study crustal
velocity structures using P-waves from teleseismic events
[7]. Field and Jacob [9] and Lachet et al. [10] experimented
with the RF technique using earthquake S-waves, and
assuming that, compared to its horizontal component, the
vertical component of S-waves is moderately affected by the
sediments of surcial layers. These authors found an overall
frequency dependence of site response in good agreement
with results obtained using the SSR technique. All these
studies conclude that the RF technique underestimates the
amplication at the resonance frequency.
Nakamura [4] explained the HVSR technique and
detailed its subsequent assumptions. Due to the non-linear
behavior of soil the response frequencies determined from
strong motion (SSR and RF techniques) may be expected to
be different from those obtained from weak motion (HVSR
technique). However, various sets of experimental data
conrmed that the HVSR method does produce an obvious
peak on soft soil sites [24,9,10]. This peak is well corre-
lated with the fundamental resonance frequency obtained by
the SSR and RF techniques [9,10] and by several theoretical
investigations (e.g. Ref. [11]). Although several questions
are yet to be answered, these studies suggest that, concern-
ing the resonance frequency, non-linear effects do not mark-
edly affect the behavior of sediments, although there is no
doubt that the non-linear behavior of soil produces a decay
of the amplication factor of the sediments [12]. However,
all these experimental and theoretical studies did not allow
to conclude about the signicance of the amplication
obtained with the HVSR technique, which is systematically
underestimated compared to those obtained with the SSR
and RF techniques.
3. Results
3.1. Noise (H/V) spectral ratio
Following the Quito, Ecuador, Earthquake Risk Manage-
ment Project [5], the goal of the main routine study
conducted in Quito was to estimate the site effects distribu-
tion in the urban area of the city. Urban ambient noise has
been recorded on 673 sites throughout the 290 km
2
of the
city area (Fig. 1b) in order to estimate the frequency depen-
dence using the HVSR technique. At each site, ambient
noise has been recorded using a LEAS-SISMALP3 seismic
station, connected to a 3C f
0
1 Hz L-4-3D seismometer.
The signal was recorded at a sampling rate of 100 Hz during
2 min. Each record was then divided into twelve 10 s
windows, for which a FFT was calculated for each compo-
nent. The three components (NS, EW and Z) were smoothed
with a triangular window of varying half-width depending
on the frequency, and then used to get average ratios of NS/
Z and EW/Z. As both ratios were found to be very similar,
we calculated their average spectrum following the proce-
dure proposed by Lachet et al. [10]. Different window
lengths were tested in previous studies [3] and no signicant
variations were observed on the H/V spectral ratio, espe-
cially when peaks higher than 1 Hz characterized most of
these ratios.
A previous soil zonation of the Quito urban area based on
surcial data (such as water drillings) and topographical
P. Gueguen et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 19 (2000) 127133 128
Fig. 1. (a) Surface geology map [5] and location of the four temporary
stations used for SSR and RF experiments. (b) Location of the 673
HVSR recording points, together with the limits of the main geological
zones delimited by the thin lines.
observations [5] lead to the identication of three main
zones (Fig. 1a).
1. The anks of the Pichincha volcano (F), located through
the West of the city area and constituted by Cangahua
deposits, volcanic ash and alluvial deposits.
2. A central depression (L), covered by recent lake deposits,
with topmost soft soil layers, with water channels coming
from the Pichincha anks.
3. The city East side lifting (Q), made of Cangahua deposits
and covered in some parts by top layers of soft soil along
its western limits.
A secondary zone, the Panecillo Hill (Pn), located in the
central part of the city, is mainly composed of old volcanic
formations.
The recording sites were selected to cover the three main
geological zones. However, because of the poor resolution
of the Quito district map, some parts of the city were left
without recording points.
About ten percent of the HVSRs on the L-zone exhibit
two amplied frequencies around 1 and 58 Hz, respec-
tively, while on the Q and F zones they show only one
peak (mostly around 12 Hz) (Fig. 3). In Quito, as
previously observed in Pujili [3], the amplitude of the
second peak can be higher than the amplitude of the rst
peak. Therefore, it was decided in this study to represent the
soil frequency distribution by taking into account (a) the
rst amplied frequency (Fig. 4a and b) the frequency
with the highest amplitude (Fig. 4b).
The 1D-resonance frequency f
0
is usually dened as the
function of the S-wave velocity b and thickness H of the
soil, by the expression:
f
0

b
4H
1
In the case of a multi-stratied half-space (n layers), f
0
can
easily be expressed by considering a single equivalent layer:
f
0

X
n
i1
b
i
H
i
4
X
n
i1
H
i
!
2
2
Unfortunately, no detailed geotechnical information on the
deep structure of the Quito sedimentary basin is available.
As far as we know, only one rough cross section (Fig. 2)
derived from seismic refraction tests conducted over the
central depression (L) [5] is available. Application of Eq.
(2) to the shear velocity prole of Fig. 2 yields a theoretical
f
0
value of 1.1 Hz in agreement with the experimental
HVSR amplied frequency observed along the prole (f
0
value between 1 and 1.8 Hz). However, the resonance
frequency distribution over the Quito area does not t the
soil zonation based on surcial investigations (Figs. 3 and
4a).
To the contrary, a very good t is observed between the
iso-frequency curves obtained with the highest amplied
frequency and the limits of the surface geology zones
(Fig. 4b). Low frequencies (between 0.8 and 1.5 Hz) are
observed on the Pichincha anks (F) and along the city
East Side (Q), while higher frequencies (up to around
10 Hz) appear in the central depression (L). The latter are
separated into two groups, to the North and South of the
city, separated by the Panecillo Hill zone (Pn), where lower
frequencies are observed in conformity with the surface
geology. Using a 200 m/s S-wave velocity from the shear
velocity prole of Fig. 2 and the frequency of the second
peak observed along the prole f
0
5 Hz Eq. (1) yields a
thickness H 10 m; equal to the thickness of the topmost
layer shown in Fig. 2.
Although recent studies [2,3] using HVSR also show
evidences for two amplied frequencies, the resonant
frequency of a site is usually dened as the frequency of
the rst peak [10], i.e. the lowest frequency, the so-called
the fundamental frequency of the soil. However, in the
presence of very high impedance contrast as observed in
the Mexico basin, Fah et al. [1] analyzed the effects of a
supercial clay layer using the SSR method and the
2D-model nite-difference method, and demonstrated the
presence of two peaks linked to the topmost soft layer and
P. Gueguen et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 19 (2000) 127133 129
Fig. 2. Subsoil prole resulting from seismic refraction tests conducted over
the central depression in Quito [5].
Fig. 3. Examples of noise (H/V) spectral ratio performed in the Quito urban
area. Vertical bars show amplied frequencies. Their location is shown in
Fig. 4 by their corresponding landmarks.
to the layers underneath. Moreover, Gueguen et al. [3]
linked the distribution of a second peak revealed by the
HVSR method and mainly observed on old river deposits,
to the damage distribution to adobe buildings following the
28 March 1996 Pujili earthquake Ms 5:7:
Theoretical and experimental results obtained in this
study also favor the hypothesis that the high frequency
peaks are related to a thin topmost soft layer, which may
behave independently of the rest of the soil column when a
second peak is observed in the lower frequencies.
3.2. Standard spectral ratio and receiver functions
In order to validate the HVSR results by comparing these
results with those obtained using the SSR and RF techni-
ques, four seismic stations were installed for one month
close to the down town area (Fig. 1a). Station GUAP1
was installed on volcanic rocks from the last eruption of
Pichincha volcano (12 million years), and was used as
the reference site for the temporary survey. Stations
BERT and COND were installed on the Q and L geological
zones, respectively, while station TENI was sited on top of a
quebrada, i.e. a deep man-lled ravine. Quito is crossed
in the EastWest direction by about seventy quebradas,
which are generally lled and covered to allow urban
development. Most of these quebradas are located in the
western and eastern sides of the city (i.e. over Cangahua
formation), and have widths (2w) ranging from 30 to
100 m and depths (H) ranging from 5 to 70 m.
For spectral calculations, we only considered the twenty-
two events which were reported in the Bulletin of the
Geophysics Institute of the Escuela Politecnica Nacional
of Quito (Fig. 5a), and for which the signal to noise ratio
at each station remained below three threshold value, as
proposed by Field and Jacob [9]. RFs were computed for
the twenty-two events. The SSR could be computed for the
only two events that were simultaneously recorded by the
reference station (GUAP1) and another station. Although
two events constitute only a small for comparison of the
SSR and HVSR results, these nevertheless yield relevant
information.
The majority of events with magnitudes (M
l
) ranging
from 3.0 to 5.1 occurred during the 0713 May, 1996
Quito seismic crisis (Fig. 5a). These events were recorded
with a sampling rate of 100 Hz using the same seismometer-
recorder system as used in the ambient noise recording. For
the sake of simplicity, and because of the mixed P and S
waves due to the very close proximity of the events to the
P. Gueguen et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 19 (2000) 127133 130
Fig. 4. Distribution of amplied frequencies in Quito City obtained from HVSR results with the rst amplied frequency (a) and the most amplied frequency
(b).
stations, we computed RF and SSR on the entire signal. For
each record, a time window was selected, smoothing was
performed, and the average horizontal spectra for the NS
and EW components were calculated as described above.
The HVSR was also computed at each station using the
procedure described above.
We observe a fairly good similarity in the shape of the
spectral dependence performed by the three methods (Fig.
5bd), although, as observed by other authors, e.g. Refs.
[9,10], the HVSR underestimates the amplication level.
At BERT (Fig. 5b) and COND (Fig. 5c), the spectral ratio
obtained with the three methods clearly show only one
amplied frequency around 1.5 and 3 Hz, respectively.
The TENI ratio (Fig. 5d) exhibits two amplied frequencies
(at 1 and 3.5 Hz) from both earthquake and noise record-
ings. As this station is located on top of a lled quebrada, the
second peak is assumed to originate in the lling, which is
responding independently from the remainder of the soil
column.
3.3. Complementary solid waste landll experiment
In order to better tie the second peak obtained by the
HVSR technique to the topmost layer response, we studied
the frequency response of a quebrada. Quebradas are usually
solid waste landlls, generally under-consolidated, and
therefore provide a good tool to test the hypothesis of a
topmost soft layer behaving independently from the under-
lying material. The selected quebrada is located on the
Pichincha anks (F) geological zone, which is made of
hard materials. This site was selected because it was
recently lled (6 months earlier) and its thickness is
known (about 57 m).
Although the main axis of the quebrada can be dened
precisely, its outer limits are not well known, especially
because of the increasing urbanization density. We
performed noise recordings (at a 100 Hz sample rate)
along two proles perpendicular to the quebrada axis (Fig.
6). At each point, HVSR was computed as described above,
using fteen 20 s windows selected from 5 min-long
records.
The boundaries of the quebrada appear clearly on the
HVSR curves (Fig. 6). The frequency responses of HVSR
computed at points furthest from the quebrada axis do not
exhibit an amplied frequency although some HVSR results
(e.g. point 1, 2, 12) show a peak near 1 Hz. In contrast, the
HVSRs obtained on the waste landll show a strong ampli-
ed frequency (around 7 Hz) which progressively appears
as the measurements approach the axis of the quebrada.
Thus, HVSR points 3 and 11 rst exhibit the landll
P. Gueguen et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 19 (2000) 127133 131
Fig. 5. (a) Epicenters of the earthquakes recorded by the temporary survey and located by the Ecuadorian National Survey, together with the means of the
spectral ratio obtained with the HVSR, RF, and SSR methods at stations BERT (b), COND (c) and TENI (d). Vertical bars denote the amplied frequencies.
resonance frequency (Fig. 6) and may be interpreted as
dening the quebrada half-width, w w 30 m: Moreover,
the corresponding amplication is largest near the center of
the landll and decays toward the edges. The high amplitude
is also in conformity with the estimated velocity contrast
between the under-consolidated material of the waste land-
ll and the Cangahua formation of the F geological zone [5].
The interpretation of the HVSR method is based on the
assumption that the noise predominantly consists of surface
waves. Under that assumption, several authors e.g. Ref. [11]
agree on the following two points: (1) the HVSR is basically
a measure of the ellipticity of Rayleigh waves which are
predominant in the vertical component; (2) Rayleigh wave
ellipticity is frequency-dependent and exhibits a peak at the
fundamental frequency of sites for which the impedance
contrast between surface and deep materials is strong
enough. The particular geometry of the solid waste landll
helps generate surface waves, which may explain the sharp
peaks in our HVSR results (Fig. 6). Although two peaks are
not clearly apparent on the landll response, our results
show the frequency dependence variation between rm
soil (around 1 Hz) and solid waste landll (around 7 Hz)
(Fig. 6). Due to the particular geometry of the landll, its
behavior may be interpreted in terms of a 2D-response. Bard
and Bouchon [13] showed the existence and importance in
relatively embanked sediment-lled valleys of specic two-
dimensional resonance patterns controlled by the shape-
ratio (i.e. the ratio of the maximum sediment thickness H
to the valley half-width w) and velocity contrast. These
authors proposed a quantitative relationship in the antiplane
case, giving the 2D fundamental frequency as:
f
nm
f
0

2m 1
2
n 1
2
H
2
=w
2
q
3
where n and m correspond to the order of the horizontal and
vertical resonance modes, respectively, and f
0
b=4H is the
relationship for1D-fundamental frequency. Therefore, for
the fundamental mode n m 0; the 2D response can
be expressed as:
f
00
f
0

1 H
2
=w
2
p
4
Using formula (4), the resonance frequency obtained on the
waste landll with HVSR gives an S-wave velocity between
142 and 201 m/s (H 57 m; w 30 m; i.e. H=w 0:2).
These values fall in the range of solid waste landll shear
wave velocities (50 m/s to over 350 m/s) compiled by
Kavazanjian et al. [14]. Because of the relative simplicity
P. Gueguen et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 19 (2000) 127133 132
Fig. 6. HVSRresults obtained over a solid waste landll. The dashed line on the map indicates the axis of the landll. Note the progressive apparition of a peak
at higher frequencies as the measurements approach the axis of the landll.
and availability of 1D-analysis techniques, 1D-analysis is
often used to evaluate the seismic response of 2D sections
within solid waste landlls. Recent numerical results [15]
have shown that the 1D analysis underestimates the
amplication effect of solid waste landlls, but that the
1D-resonance frequency f
00
b=4H for shallow valleys
H=w 0:2 [13] is very close to the 2D-resonance
frequency. Thus, the peak observed on the landll by the
HVSR can be tied to the fundamental frequency of the
topmost layer, which responds independently of the rest of
the soil column.
4. Conclusions
The HVSR results, conrmed by the SSR and RF results,
in Quito show that a second amplied frequency appears on
about 10% of the sites, which are mainly located in the
central depression. The central depression is characterized
by soft lacustrian deposits and is crossed by water channels
coming from the anks of the Pichincha volcano. We
suggest that the presence of the second amplied frequency
be due to a thin topmost layer responding independently
from the rest of the soil column. This assumption was
conrmed by simulation (2D-model) and experimental
data (SSR method) 1 in the case of the Mexico basin,
where the second peak was attributed to the presence of a
very soft topmost clay layer resting on semi-innite media.
The S-wave velocity prole available in the central depres-
sion of Quito conrms our hypothesis as demonstrated in the
application of the 1D-resonance frequency formulation to
the entire soil column and/or topmost layer. Observations
from one of the stations used for the SSRand RF techniques,
namely, station TENI installed on top of a solid waste land-
ll also justies our hypothesis as the three methods applied
to the records obtained at this station clearly exhibit two
amplied frequencies. Further, our hypothesis is conrmed
by a HVSR study conducted on a known solid waste landll.
The two perpendicular-to-landll-axis-crossing lines of
measurements clearly show the transition zone between
the rm soil and the quebrada lling. The peak frequency
relates well to the expected shear velocities usually consid-
ered as representative of waste landlls. This paper shows
that the HVSR method allows estimating the response of a
very thin topmost layer independently of the rest of the
sediment-lled column.
Experimental data conrm the possibility to separate the
effect of the topmost layer using the HVSR method. The
behavior of this layer should be taken into consideration in
seismic risk studies in cases such as Quito, for which moder-
ate-to-high magnitude (up to 5.5) local seismic events are
expected, and where the urban area is composed mainly of
low-rise buildings and/or self-man made houses with high
resonance frequencies [5]. This topmost layer should also be
considered when generating models as it can produce high
amplication levels as demonstrated in this study for Quito.
Finally, the HVSR proved to be a useful method provid-
ing an efcient substitute to geological zonation, at least as a
rst step and at a large scale. The largest amplied peak
should be taken into account when a second peak is
observed, rather than only the fundamental frequency of
the site, as demonstrated by the good t obtained by this
method between the iso-frequency curves and the surface
geology.
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