An empirical bracketed duration relation for stable continental regions of North America

An empirical predictive relationship correlating bracketed duration to earthquake magnitude, site-to-source distance, and local site conditions (i.e. rock vs. stiff soil) for stable continental regions of North America is presented herein. The correlation was developed from data from 620 horizontal motions for central and eastern North America (CENA), consisting of 28 recorded motions and 592 scaled motions. The bracketed duration data was comprised of nonzero and zero durations. The non-linear mixed-effects regression technique was used to fit a predictive model to the nonzero duration data. To account for the zero duration data, logistic regression was conducted to model the probability of zero duration occurrences. Then, the probability models were applied as weighting functions to the NLME regression results. Comparing the bracketed durations for CENA motions with those from active shallow crustal regions (e.g. western North America: WNA), the motions in CENA have longer bracketed durations than those in the WNA. Especially for larger magnitudes at far distances, the bracketed durations in CENA tend to be significantly longer than those in WNA.