Orientation-Independent, Nongeometric-Mean Measures of Seismic Intensity from Two Horizontal Components of Motion

Abstract New measures of spectral intensity based on the horizontal components of ground shaking are introduced. These new measures are independent of the in situ orientation of the recordings and encompass the full range of spectral amplitudes over all possible rotation angles. Unlike previously introduced measures that are also orientation independent, no geometric means are used in the computation of the new measures. The new measures based on fiftieth percentile values of the response spectra show small but systematic increases (to a factor of about 1.07 at a 10 sec period) compared to the comparable geometric-mean measure.