Active and passive seismic methods for site characterization in Nuweiba, Gulf of Aqaba, Egypt

Nuweiba is located on the western coast of the Gulf of Aqaba (GoA), which represents the southern part of the Gulf of Aqaba - Dead Sea transform fault (GoA-DST). The GoA is characterized by high seismic activity and is the source of the November 22, 1995, Nuweiba earthquake, with a moment magnitude of Mw 7.3. This seismic unrest caused extensive damage in the city of Nuweiba due to the strong shaking caused by the earthquake. In addition, soil amplification triggered by the thick soft-sediments of the Wadi Watir delta beneath the city amplified the destructive power of the event. Therefore, an assessment of the effect of the Wadi Watir sediments on the ground motion at Nuweiba is very important for future construction, seismic hazard assessment, and seismic risk mitigation. Accordingly, the goal of the current study is to define the amplification characteristics of the Wadi Watir deposits using microtremor and surface wave data sets. The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) technique is applied to the microtremor data and Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) is applied to the surface wave data. The data are processed to obtain the distribution of the fundamental resonance frequency (F0), the depth of the geophysical bedrock using joint inversion of the Rayleigh wave dispersion curve and ellipticity peak, the shear wave velocity structure, the time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the topmost 30 m (Vs30), and the shear wave transfer function. The results of the HVSR show that F0 in the northern part of the city is 4.2–5.2 Hz and 0.5–0.8 Hz in the middle of the city. Bedrock depth is found to be in the range of 27 and 199 m. The one-dimensional velocity structure obtained from the MASW measurements has resolved two sedimentary layers within the upper 15 m. The Vs30 ranges between 207 and 556 m/s, according to the Vs30 the soil in the study area is categorized into soil classes B and C according to Eurocode 8. The obtained shear wave transfer functions show that the highest amplification factors are observed in the middle part of the study area.