Simulation of Strong Ground Motion of Bam Earthquake Using Stochastic Finite Fault Method

In the morning of a Friday, December 26th, 2003 at 01:56 UTC (5:26 AM Iran Standard Time), the Bam Earthquake occurred with a moment magnitude of 6.5 at Bam City and surrounding areas in east of Kerman Province, Iran. In the present research, in order to estimate source parameters and rupture propagation mechanism, accelerograms resulted from the rupture were simulated using stochastic finite fault method based on dynamic corner frequency. A comparison between the simulated records and observed ones shows that, rupture propagation has occurred on the fault plane in a northward direction. By averaging over 23 recording accelerograph stations, strike and dip of the fault plane were found to be 90 and 257 degrees, respectively. Spectral decay parameters for horizontal and vertical components were estimated at 0.06 and 0.05, respectively, with stress drop and focal depth estimated to be 130 bar.