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Effects of Surface Geology on Seismic Motion (ESG): General State-of-Research

Earth, Planets and Space welcomes submissions to this special issue on “Effects of Surface Geology on Seismic Motion (ESG): General State-of-Research”.

In the quest to understand and predict the behavior of strong ground motions during devastating earthquakes, studies about the effects of surface geology on seismic motion (ESG) have progressed considerably in the last three decades. Concurrently, advancements in the ESG related research can be readily attributed to the proliferation of available strong motion data and accessible computational power. Despite these improvements, there remains significant shortfall in our understanding of ESG as demonstrated by phenomena from recent devastating earthquake-related site effects. Thus, investigations toward the quantification of ESG should be underscored in efforts toward earthquake disaster mitigation because of the significant influence of ESG on strong motion characteristics. 
The IASPEI/IAEE Joint Working Group on the Effects of Surface Geology on Seismic Motion (JWG-ESG) organized the 6th International ESG Symposium (ESG6) in Japan in August 2021, which yielded submissions of more than 100 papers that originated from 21 countries. ESG6 is the 6th successive JWG-ESG gathering, since the inaugural 1992 ESG1 held in Odawara, Japan. After the recent 2016 ESG5, which was held in Taipei, Taiwan, JWG-ESG organized a special issue on the journal Earth, Planetary and Space (EPS) entitled “Effect of Surface Geology on Seismic Motion: Challenges of Applying Ground Motion Simulation to Seismology and Earthquake Engineering” from 2017 to 2018, in which 16 papers were collected and published. For the 2021 ESG6 Symposium, JWG-ESG observe tradition and propose to publish a special issue (or issues) about recent studies related to ESG through the EPS journal to share and disseminate the state-of-the-art in this important research field. 
We expect that a significant portion of the authors who contribute to ESG6 will submit their materials to the proposed EPS special issue(s). We also expect to find submissions from authors who indirectly or did not participate in ESG6 but wish to contribute relevant papers about ESG. We believe that this special issue(s) will attract a broad spectrum of readers and thus, contribute to stimulating discussions about new paradigms and influencing future ESG studies, as well as seismology in general.

Submission Instructions

Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the submission Guidelines  Earth, Planets and Space. The complete manuscript should be submitted through the Earth, Planets and Space submission system. To ensure that you submit to the correct special issue please select the appropriate special issue in the drop-down menu upon submission. In addition, indicate within your cover letter that you wish your manuscript to be considered as part of the special issue on 'Effects of Surface Geology on Seismic Motion (ESG): General State-of-Research'.  All submissions will undergo rigorous peer review and accepted articles will be published within the journal as a collection.


Deadline for submissions: 30 September 2022


Lead Guest Editor

Hiroshi KAWASE, Kyoto University, Japan


Guest Editors

Hideo AOCHI,  BRGM, France

Cécile CORNOU,  Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, IRD, Univ. Gustave Eiffel, ISTerre, France

Fabrice COTTON, German Research Center for Geosciences and University of Potsdam, Germany

Shinichi MATSUSHIMA, Kyoto University, Japan

Alan YONG,  U.S. Geological Survey, USA


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  1. This technical report explains details on the results of the investigation to build a subsurface structural model and a selection of earthquake data at the target site of the blind prediction exercise for “The...

    Authors: Shinichi Matsushima, Hiroaki Yamanaka, Seiji Tsuno, Kosuke Chimoto, Haruhiko Suzuki, Hiroshi Kawase and Takeshi Matsushima
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2024 76:43
  2. The on-site P-wave earthquake early warning (EEW) based on the site-specific ratios of S-waves to P-waves has been applied to large-sized offshore earthquakes, and the efficiency of the method has been validat...

    Authors: Seiji Tsuno, Katsutomo Niwa, Masahiro Korenaga, Hiroaki Yamanaka, Kosuke Chimoto, Hiroe Miyake and Nobuyuki Yamada
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2024 76:32
  3. We present the 1D subsoil structure and local site effects at KUMA strong ground motion station in Kumamoto City, Japan. We analyze data from a field campaign conducted in the framework of the Blind Prediction...

    Authors: Maria Manakou, Zafeiria Roumelioti and Evi Riga
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:163
  4. A numerical investigation of surface wave propagation in the surface wave exploration of river embankments is implemented using 3D shallow soil models with different subsurface shapes and S-wave velocities. Th...

    Authors: Shuntaro Miyanaga and Hiroaki Yamanaka
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:135
  5. In this study, we compared observations and predictions submitted by participants for blind prediction experiments for ground motions using aftershocks, foreshock, and mainshock of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake...

    Authors: Seiji Tsuno, Fumiaki Nagashima, Hiroshi Kawase, Hiroaki Yamanaka and Shinichi Matsushima
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:130
  6. We present horizontal ground motion predictions at a soft site in the Kumamoto alluvial plain for the Mj 5.9 and Mj 6.5 Kumamoto earthquakes of April 2016, in the framework of an international blind prediction...

    Authors: Salomon Hailemikael, Giuseppe Di Giulio, Giuliano Milana, Maurizio Vassallo and Paola Bordoni
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:105
  7. For the accurate prediction of earthquake ground motions, the investigation of three elements in its process, namely the source, path, and site effects, is crucial, and their accuracy and reliability should be...

    Authors: Fumiaki Nagashima, Hiroshi Kawase, Kenichi Nakano and Eri Ito
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:104
  8. After the occurrence of a large earthquake, engineering seismologists are often requested to estimate strong ground motions at a site where strong motion data were not obtained. The goal of this study was to t...

    Authors: Atsushi Nozu
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:101
  9. Precisely evaluating the source, path, and site terms in a broadband frequency range is indispensable for quantitatively predicting strong motions. We conducted a generalized spectral inversion of strong motio...

    Authors: Eri Ito, Kenichi Nakano, Haruko Sekiguchi, Fumiaki Nagashima and Hiroshi Kawase
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:97
  10. Following the 1923 Kanto earthquake in Japan, Japanese researchers noticed the strong effects of surface geology on seismic motion (ESG) and began to investigate these effects to quantify the site amplificatio...

    Authors: Hiroshi Kawase, Kenichi Nakano, Fumiaki Nagashima, Eri Ito, Jikai Sun and Ziqian Wang
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:95
  11. We present velocity structure inversion for three stations of Iranian Strong Motion Network (ISMN), and one KiK-net station that is used as a benchmark, for the application of diffuse wave-field concept in tec...

    Authors: Iman Ashayeri, Eri Ito and Hiroshi Kawase
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:94
  12. To estimate the phase velocity using the array observations of microtremors, some algorithms for the estimation include constraints on the array shape, such as equilateral triangles or the placement of receive...

    Authors: Harusato Kimura, Hitoshi Morikawa, Haruka Tomobe and Kahori Iiyama
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:88
  13. The mainshock of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake (Mw 7.0) caused extensive damage to buildings in downtown Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The heavy building damage in the area was associated with both stron...

    Authors: Kiyoshi Fukutake, Kazuhiro Yoshida, Hiroshi Kawase, Fumiaki Nagashima and Jikai Sun
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:87
  14. 1D velocity profiles at a strong motion station in the northern part of the Kumamoto plain, Japan, were submitted in Step-1 of the blind prediction exercise of strong ground motions in the sixth international ...

    Authors: Kosuke Chimoto, Hiroaki Yamanaka, Seiji Tsuno and Shinichi Matsushima
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:79
  15. The study of ground resonances is important to assess seismic site amplification and to infer information on the geometrical and mechanical properties of the resonating structures. 1D- and 2D-type resonances i...

    Authors: Giulia Sgattoni, Giovanni Lattanzi and Silvia Castellaro
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:74
  16. To advance the methodology for validating velocity models by waveform comparison, we estimated source parameters for small magnitude earthquakes that can be approximated by point sources. Instead of using publ...

    Authors: Anatoly Petukhin and Yoshinori Iwasaki
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:69
  17. Site amplification is an important component of strong ground motion prediction as it differs among sites, reflecting its specific local subsurface geology. Here, we confirm that site amplifications are simila...

    Authors: Kenichi Nakano and Hiroshi Kawase
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:65
  18. This paper describes the methods and results of the strong ground motion simulations for three earthquakes from the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake sequence using corrected empirical Green’s functions. The target ear...

    Authors: Yosuke Nagasaka
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:61
  19. The long-period strong ground motions with periods above 1 s have, in the case of farther or deeper earthquakes, potential to cause serious damage to structures with low eigen frequency, such as long bridges, ...

    Authors: Ivo Oprsal, Haruko Sekiguchi, Tomotaka Iwata and Jan Burjanek
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:55
  20. The Yufutsu Plain, a sedimentary basin surrounded by mountains, is located in the southern part of the Ishikari–Yufutsu Lowlands, Hokkaido, Japan. The Hidaka arc–arc collision zone, located in the eastern part...

    Authors: Naofumi Nakagawa, Nobuo Takai and Michiko Shigefuji
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:42
  21. The study used data acquired by the ESG6 Blind Prediction Step BP1 Working Group for purposes of facilitating a comparison of interpretation methods for obtaining shear-wave velocity profiles (Vs) from array obse...

    Authors: Michael Asten, Aysegul Askan and Shaghayegh Karimzadeh
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:40
  22. We participated in the blind prediction exercise organized by the committee of the blind prediction experiment during the 6th International Symposium on Effects of Surface Geology on Seismic Motion (CBP-ESG6)....

    Authors: Fumiaki Nagashima, Hiroshi Kawase, Kenichi Nakano and Eri Ito
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:35
  23. We present our pathway through participation in the blind Kumamoto exercise, particularly the Step 1 of site characterization. The combination of passive and active seismic imaging techniques is used to image ...

    Authors: E. Diego Mercerat and T. Dylan Mikesell
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:31
  24. The elastodynamic half-space Green’s function has been the subject of research for more than a century since the Lamb’s classical solution. Here, we revisit the problem and present a new closed analytical solu...

    Authors: Francisco J. Sánchez-Sesma, Francisco Luzón, Antonio García-Jerez, Mathieu Perton, Mario A. Sáenz-Castillo and César A. Sierra-Álvarez
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:29
  25. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes caused severe damage centering on the Mashiki residential area. The velocity waveforms at station KMMH16 in Mashiki, during the M7.3 mainshock, show large pulses. We found that sever...

    Authors: Anatoly Petukhin, Hiroshi Kawase, Fumiaki Nagashima and Eri Ito
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:16
  26. S-net is a large-scale ocean bottom (OB) network in the Japan Trench area, consisting of inline-type 150 observatories equipped with seismometers and pressure gauges. Among them, 41 observatories have been bur...

    Authors: Yadab P. Dhakal, Takashi Kunugi, Hiroaki Yamanaka, Atsushi Wakai, Shin Aoi and Azusa Nishizawa
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2023 75:1