DATA PAPER

Chile Strong Ground Motion Flatfile

Nicolas Bastasa) and Gonzalo A. Montalva,a) M.EERI

The Nazca-South American plate boundary produces large-magnitude events

(Mw > 8) every 20 years on the coast of Chile. This work describes a public ground
motion database that contains 3,572 records from 477 earthquakes and 181 seismic
stations, which includes the recent 2015 Mw 8.3 Illapel earthquake. The data set is
controlled by subduction interface and inslab events. The oldest event included is
Valparaiso (1985), and the magnitude span is 4.68.8 Mw . The source-to-site dis-
tance metrics reported are the closest distance to the rupture plane (Rrup ), epicentral
(Repi ) and hypocentral (Rhyp ) distances, with a range for Rrup from 20 to 650 km.
Site characterization is based on V S30 , ranging from 110 to 1,951 ms. Intensity
measures included are peak ground acceleration, spectral acceleration values from
0.01 to 10 s, Arias intensity, and peak ground velocity. Each record was uniformly
processed component by component. A flatfile with the related metadata and the
spectral accelerations from processed ground motions is available at NEEShub
(http://doi.org/10.17603/DS2N30J; Bastas and Montalva 2015). [DOI: 10.1193/
102715EQS158DP]

INTRODUCTION
The high convergence rate at the boundary of the Nazca and South American plates gen-
erates moderate and high magnitude events, and it is possible to identify two main types of
seismicity associated with this subduction zone: interface and inslab (or intraplate) earth-
quakes. Although shallow crustal activity is low, and hence has very few records in the
last decades, recent findings (e.g., Corts-Aranda et al. 2015) show that these types of events
have occurred in the past. These authors also show active deformation rates in shallow crustal
faults, hence suggesting that these faults might be significant to earthquake hazard.
The effects of subduction events represent a risk to the population and the built envir-
onment. In the last century, Chile has suffered some of the largest earthquakes in the world,
including the largest earthquake instrumentally recorded: the 1960 Mw 9.5 Valdivia earth-
quake, causing approximately 1,700 deaths, 3,000 injured people, 2 million people homeless,
and a total cost of around 13% of Chiles GDP. In recent decades, there have been four big
earthquakes in the subduction interface zone: the 1985 Mw 7.9 Valparaiso earthquake, the
2014 Iquique Mw 8.2 earthquake, the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule earthquake, and the 2015 Mw 8.3
Illapel, the latest megathrust earthquake. Together these four events caused 670 deaths. The
Maule earthquake alone generated losses to the Chilean economy of US$1530 billion
(UNEP 2011). Regarding the inslab events, the two most significant ones in record are

a)
Civil Engineering Dept., Universidad de Concepcin, Casilla 160-C, Correo 3, Concepcin, Chile

2549
Earthquake Spectra, Volume 32, No. 4, pages 25492566, November 2016; 2016, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
2550 N. BASTAS AND G. A. MONTALVA

the 1939 Mw 7.8 Chilln earthquake, which produced the record number of deaths (28,000)
for a Chilean earthquake, and the 2005 Mw 7.8 Tarapac earthquake at 120 km of focal depth.
Only for the latter are ground motions records available.
The first compiled data set for the South and Central American subduction zone, includ-
ing Chilean data, is the Arango et al. (2011) work, which contains 98 records from sites in
Peru and Chile. The database presented herein includes metadata and strong motion records
thoroughly processed for 3,572 number of records from 477 events. The approach for the
development of the ground motion, station, and event data set, follows similar protocols to
the NGA studies (e.g., Chiou et al. 2008). The event data set processing follows the work by
Dawood et al. (2016) for the Kiban-Kyoshin network (KiK-Net).
The paper begins with the characterization of the events included in database, followed
by site characterization using time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the top 30 m (V S30 ), and
finally, a summary of the available records. An important issue in the development of the
ground motion database is the record processing. The target in this step is to remove the high
and low frequency noise of the Chilean records. The ground motions used to create the Chile
Strong Ground Motion flatfile are processed using a uniform filtering scheme in which the
cutoff frequencies are computed component-by-component, using criteria based on the
signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and the shape of the spectrum.

EARTHQUAKE DATABASE

COMPILATION OF DATA
The event information is collected from national and international agencies, namely the
Chilean National Seismological Centre (CSN), Harvard Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT,
Ekstrm et al. 2012), National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) and International Seis-
mological Centre (ISC; 2013). For hypocentral locations we used those reported by the CSN
catalog, all events within the data set are reported by this agency. The locations reported by
the ISC catalog were used to validate this information. The events included in this database
are shown in Figure 1. Moment magnitudes and focal mechanism were obtained from the
CMT catalog when available. However, when Mw was unavailable, relationships between
Mw and ML were needed. The Mw reported by CMT and ML reported by CSN for events
since 2001 were used to develop these correlations for the Chilean subduction zone. These
events were segregated by depth (Lin and Lee 2008), events with depth greater than 50 km
are grouped as deep-focus earthquakes (Equation 1) and the others are as shallow-focus
earthquakes (Equation 2). The regression is performed using maximum likelihood and
shown is with the data points in Figure 2.
M w 0.847M L 0.694 0.25
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e1;41;185 (1)

M w 0.915M L 0.491 0.26

EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e2;41;156 (2)

TECTONIC ENVIRONMENT
The tectonic environment (i.e., interface, inslab, or shallow crustal) is defined by
combining the information from the focal mechanism reported by CMT and the hypocentral
CHILE STRONG GROUND MOTION FLATFILE 2551

PerChile Trench PerChile Trench

Interplate Events Inslab Events
Cortical Events

500 km
N

500 km
20S

W E

20S
W E
S
S
30S

6700 m
30S

6700 m
5000
5000

4000
4000

3000 3000

2000 2000
40S

40S

1000 1000

0 0
3 m 3 m
74W 72W 70W 68W 74W 72W 70W 68W
(a) (b)

Figure 1. Geographic distribution of events included in the database.

location of each event. The moment tensor reported by the CMT catalog is used, interface
events are associated to reverse faulting, and inslab events are mostly normal (Arango et al.
2011). The style of faulting information is determined based on the rake angle in the same
2552 N. BASTAS AND G. A. MONTALVA

9 12 9 9
this study this study
8.5 8.5 8
10
8 8 7

8 6
7.5 7.5
ML CSN

ML CSN
counts

counts
5
7 6 7
4
6.5 6.5
4 3
6 6
2
2
5.5 5.5 1
5 0 5 0
5 6 7 8 9 5 6 7 8 9
Mw CMT Mw CMT

Figure 2. Density plot of events with local magnitude reported by CSN and moment magnitude
reported by CMT. The left panel shows shallow-focus earthquakes (#events = 254) and right
panel the deep-focus earthquakes (#events = 195); solid blue lines are the maximum likelihood
estimation, and dashed blue lines represent one standard deviation.

Mechanism Based on Rake Angle

180
StrikeSlip
150 Normal
Reverse
ReverseOblique
100 NormalOblique
Rake (degree)

50

50

100

150
180
0 20 40 60 80 90
Dip (degree)

Figure 3. Distribution of rake versus dip angle in Chilean Strong Ground Motion flatfile.

way as the NGA project (Figure 3). The data set is dominated by reverse events, associated
with the interface. Interface events are reverse faulting with hypocentral location up to 2.5
eastwards from the trench and a maximum depth of 50 km. Inslab events are deeper than
50 km and normal faulting shallower than 50 km but located further than 2.5 from the trench.
Finally, crustal events are those shallower than 50 km in continental Chile. Notable
CHILE STRONG GROUND MOTION FLATFILE 2553

exceptions such as the foreshock of the 2014 Iquique earthquake (Ruiz et al. 2014) are con-
sidered as reported in the literature.

FINITE FAULT MODELS AND RUPTURE AREA

Finite fault solutions for some events are available from the literature (Table 1) and have
been compiled by SRCMOD website (Mai and Thingbaijam, 2014), for these cases distance
metrics (Rrup , Repi , Rhyp ) are computed from them. For events with no published finite fault
solution, the rupture area is estimated using the centroid point, as the center of the plane, and
moment tensor (i.e., strike, dip and rake angle) reported by CMT. The fault dimensions for
these cases are computed from the equations proposed by Strasser et al. (2010) developed for
subduction environments.

DECLUSTERING
The declustering of a seismic catalog attempts to separate the events in main shocks
(independent), and foreshocks or aftershocks (dependent) earthquakes. This is a necessary
step in the seismic hazard assessment for the development of recurrence laws, and also
because dependent and independent events are treated differently in the development
of some ground motion predictions models including an aftershock scaling model (e.g.,
Abrahamson et al. 2014).
For the detection of main events the algorithms by Gardner and Knopoff (1974) and
Reasenberg (1985) are used. The theoretical framework and the parameters used in the declust-
tering process are discussed in detail by Dawood et al. (2016) and van Stiphout et al. (2012). A
summary of the declustering analysis (i.e., number of clusters and main shocks) results are
show in Table 2.

Table 1. Finite fault models for earthquakes recorded from Chilean stations

EQID Earthquake name/year Primary choice Others

50001 Valparaiso/1985 Mendoza et al. (1994)
50003 Antofagasta/1995 Shao and Ji (UCSB)
50020 Southern Peru/2001 Shao and Ji (UCSB)
50062 Tocopilla/2007 Sladen (Caltech) Bejar-Pizzaro et al. (2010)
Motagh et al. (2010)
Ji (UCSB)
Zeng et al. (USGS)
50087 Maule/2010 Sladen (Caltech) Hayes (USGS)
Luttrell et al. (2011)
Shao et al. (UCSB)
Delouis at al. (2010)
Lorito et al. (2011)
50091 Iquique/2014 Wei (Caltech)
50670 Illapel/2015 Hayes (USGS)[a]
[a]
Preliminary results of rupture model.
2554 N. BASTAS AND G. A. MONTALVA

Table 2. Summary of the seismic catalog declustering analysis

Number of Number of
Algorithm Parameters clusters main shocks
Reasenberg min 2 days, max 10 days, p1 0.99 33 459
(1985) xk 0.50, and rfact 10*
Gardner and Gardner and Knopoff (1974) 50 124
Knopoff (1974) Gruenthal (Pers. Comm.) 48 87
Uhrhammer (1986) 39 120
*
min : minimum value of the look-ahead time for building clusters when the first event is not clustered**
max : maximum value of the look-ahead time for building clusters**
p1 : probability of detecting the next clustered event used to compute the look-ahead time **
xk : the increase of the lower cut-off magnitude during clusters**
rfact : the number of crack radii surrounding each earthquake within new events considered to be part of the cluster**
**
As defined by Stiphout et al. (2012). More details can be found in Reasenberg (1985).

SITE DATABASE

COMPILATION OF DATA
The coordinates of the stations, type of instrument and characteristics of each instrument
(i.e., damping, natural frequency per component) are compiled from reports published in
websites of instruments operators (RENADIC, CSN, IPOC and RESIF-SISMOB). There
are 41 analog instruments and 155 digital instruments within the data set. The stations
included in this database are plotted in Figure 4.

CHARACTERIZATION OF GROUND MOTION STATIONS

The average shear-wave velocity in the top 30 m is compiled from information collected
from different publications (Rodriguez-Marek et al. 2010, Riddell et al. 1992, Kayen et al.
2014, Midorikawa et al. 2014, Mohlnar et al. 2015), and in 17 stations active and passive
array surveys are used to invert for shear-wave velocity profiles (see the Data and Resources
section).
For sites where the shear-wave velocity profile does not reach 30 meters, the methodol-
ogy proposed by Wang and Wang (2015) is used, where a simple extrapolation in the log-
space from the depth (z) and time averaged shear-wave velocity at depth z (V SZ ) is done.
The relationship used is described by:
log 30  log z2
log V S30 log V sz2 log V sz2  log V sz1  (3)
log z2  log z1
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e3;41;200

The advantage of this procedure is that it is not necessary to perform any regression to
obtain an empirical expression, and therefore has no regional dependency. Results from stu-
dies to estimate V S30 from shallower V S profiles (e.g., Boore 2004, Wang and Wang 2015)
show that the prediction accuracy improves when the depth of the known V Sz is the deepest
possible, therefore z2 is used as the deepest available V S value and z1 is the nearest depth
rounded to a multiple of 5.
CHILE STRONG GROUND MOTION FLATFILE 2555

PerChile Trench
Chilean Stations

500 km
20S
W E

S
30S

6700 m
5000

4000

3000

2000
40S

1000

0
3 m
74W 72W 70W 68W

Figure 4. Geographic distribution of the stations included in the database.

For sites where no V S information is available, a proxy-based estimation of V S30 was

implemented. The proxies used for this estimation are the predominant frequency (f 0 ),
and the topographic slope. The relationship between predominant frequency and shear-
2556 N. BASTAS AND G. A. MONTALVA

wave velocity has theoretical bases and has been used to assess site effects (e.g., Kanai et al.
1966, Molas and Yamazaki 1995, Zhao et al. 2006). In this work the proposal by Zhao et al
(2006) is used. The f 0 is computed from horizontal to vertical spectral ratios (H/V) and uses
the S-transform (Stockwell et al. 1996) due to the short duration of the records. For sites with
more than one record each record is considered as an independent measurement window, and
then the geometric mean of these records is used for each frequency and amplitude. These
values are reported as f 0 HVSR and A0 HVSR , while for sites where noise measurements are
available H/V predominant frequency and amplitude are reported as f 0 Noise and A0 Noise ,
respectively.
For the topographic slope proxy, the methodology by Wald and Allen (2007) is
used. Being aware that slope-based proxies are region dependent, the predictive capability
of the original proposal was tested with 54 stations with measured V S30 , yielding unbiased
residuals (i.e., zero mean), and a median likelihood value of 0.75, which reflects the good
prediction capability in spite of the regional difference. The use of the f 0 proxy needs to
overcome the limitations of the HVSR method to estimate V S30 from f 0 . These limitations
apply to sites with flat H/V spectrum (i.e., with no clear peak) or with a predominant fre-
quency less than 1.6 Hz. These conditions are associated with rock sites and with sediments
deeper than 30 meters; in these situations, f 0 is poorly correlated with measured V S30 values.
The weight of each proxy is computed using the residuals between the measured V S30 values
and the predicted V S30 by each proxy, using equations 4, 5, and 6 following Seyhan et al.
(2014).

R lnmeasured V S30  lnpredicted V S30

EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e4;41;377 (4)

1
wi (5)
2Ri 2Ri
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e5;41;346

w
wproxy i Pn i
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e6;41;306 (6)
i1 wi

where Ri is the mean of the residuals R and Ri the standard deviation of the residuals, both
for the i proxy, wi and wproxy i are the weight and normalized weight of each proxy. Table 3
summarizes the weights used to compute the predicted V S30 .

Table 3. Weights used to compute the predicted V S30

Flat H/V spectrum or

f 0 < 1.6 Hz In other cases

Ri Ri wproxy i Ri Ri wproxy i
Proxy 1: HVSR 0.9066 0.4672 0.1611 0.2327 0.3334 0.6641
Proxy 2: Slope topographic 0.1019 0.4552 0.8389 0.0243 0.5712 0.3359
CHILE STRONG GROUND MOTION FLATFILE 2557

RECORD DATABASE

GROUND MOTION PROCESSING

Records are processed component by component following the scheme described in
Figure 5. An advantage of this per component processing scheme is to avoid penalization
of a component over another with more noise. Typically, the vertical component contains
higher noise amplitudes than horizontal components, this means that if the processing is done
by record rather than by component, it would lead to higher low-cut frequencies.
The scheme starts with the segregation by type of recording (i.e., analog or digital), for
analog records a pre-processing that consists in an instrumental correction is necessary
(Trifunac 1972). The identification of late/normal triggered event is performed using the
Pacor et al. (2014) method who use cumulative Arias intensity to define D00-05 (time between
0% and 5% of cumulative Arias intensity), and D05-95 (time between 5% and 95%).
They propose that if the ratio between D00-05 and D05-95 is less than 0.05 the record is
late triggered. Finally, for analog records, visual inspection is used to identify and eliminate
spurious spikes.
Then, within the main shock four different time-windows are identified: noise, P-wave,
S-wave, and Coda window (see Figure 5). The P and S arrival times (t P and t S , respectively)

Station : T03A | 8.1Mw | Event : 50091 | NorthSouth

Acc (cm/sec2)

500 Noise Pwave Swave Coda

500
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (sec)

Station : T03A | 8.1Mw | Event : 50091 | EastWest

Acc (cm/sec2)

500 Noise Pwave Swave Coda

500
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (sec)

Station : T03A | 8.1Mw | Event : 50091 | Vertical

Acc (cm/sec2)

500 Noise Pwave Swave Coda

0
500
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (sec)

Figure 5. Example of the identification of different windows (Noise, P-wave, S-wave, and Coda)
that compose the main shock of a strong motion.
2558 N. BASTAS AND G. A. MONTALVA

are selected by visual inspection, the end of S-wave (t S-end ) is defined at the 80% of the
cumulative absolute velocity (CAV). Then the duration of the S-wave, DS , can be computed
as DS t S-end  t S . A similar scheme to define the duration of each window was used in
Kishida et al. (2014).
The start time of noise window (t n ) is defined by the maximum value between the start of
the record and the P-wave arrival time minus one DS i.e., t n max0, t P  DS . The end
time of the Coda (tc-end ) is defined by the minimum value between the ending of the
record (t end ) and the S-wave arrival time plus three times the S-wave duration
i.e., t c-end mint end , t S 3DS . Finally, the start time of Coda is determined as the
maximum value between the end of S-wave and the t c-end minus one S-wave duration
i.e., t c maxtS-f in , t c-f in  DS .
The low-cut frequencies (f low-cut ) are calculated, component by component, using a
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) criteria, with a lower limit for SNR of three. This is computed
using the Fourier spectrum from S-wave and noise windows defined in Figure 5. The SNR
spectrum is smoothed using the Konno-Ohmachi (1998) filter with parameter b equal to 20
(Figure 6), where small differences can be observed if the smoothing parameter b is chosen
differently (Oth et al. 2011). The high cutoff frequency (f high-cut ) is first selected as the
Nyquist frequency, and then checked to ensure that it meets the theoretical spectrum
shape (Akkar et al. 2011, Anderson and Hough 1984).
Each record is then processed using the methodologies proposed by Boore et al. (2012).
This consists in a bandpass filter (acausal filter with a fourth-order Butterworth filter) and a
base line correction fitting a sixth-order polynomial. A flowchart that summarizes the record
processing is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 8 shows the differences between the raw data provided from the owner agencies
and the processed data in this data set. Displacement traces are plotted, instead of the accel-
eration, to stress the impact of low-cut frequencies.
The usable frequency bandwidth depends on the selected corner frequencies for the band-
pass filter. To avoid the impact of the filters response on long periods a 1.25 reduction factor
is used on the on the highest usable period (Ancheta et al. 2014). Due to the filtering in
frequency, the number of usable records changes with period (Figure 9).

GROUND MOTION METADATA

The data set includes 3,572 records from 477 earthquakes, and has 2,229 records from
279 interface events, 43 records from 7 crustal events and 1300 records from 191 inslab
events. The magnitude range is Mw 4.68.8 and, closest distance range is 20 to 650
kilometers. Figure 10 shows the Mw versus rupture distance and focal depth distributions
separated by tectonic environment.
Epicentral distance (Repi ), hypocentral distance (Rhyp ), and azimuth (Az) are provided as
point-source distance metrics for all records. For interplate events the closest distance to
rupture plane (Rrup ) from finite fault solutions or simulated finite fault geometry (with depths
reported by CSN and CMT) are also provided. For the ruptures with no finite fault solution
available, the center of the rupture was taken at the centroid reported by CMT. Rrup values
CHILE STRONG GROUND MOTION FLATFILE 2559

Noise Window P Window S Window Coda Window Entire Window

106 106 106

104 104 104

Fourier Amplitude

Fourier Amplitude

Fourier Amplitude
102 102 102

100 100 100

102 102 102

100 100 100

SNR SNR K&O b=40 SNR K&O b=20

105 105 105

104 104 104

103 103 103

SNR

SNR

SNR

102 102 102

101 101 101

NorthSouth Component EastWest Component Vertical Component

100 100 100

102 100 102 100 102 100
frequency (Hz) frequency (Hz) frequency (Hz)

Figure 6. Examples of SNR spectrum computation using the S-wave and noise windows.

computed following Chiou and Youngs (2008) methodology is also reported (tagged as
RupDist_CSN). Interplate events with no CMT report are relatively small in magnitude
(between Mw 4.66.0) and number, for these events the centroid was assumed at the hypo-
center location. The preferred hypocenter locations (i.e., reported as Lat., Long., and Depth)
are the coordinates reported by CSN.
The intensity measures included in the database are, the 5% damped pseudo-spectral
horizontal accelerations (computed using the Nigam and Jennings algorithm; Boore
2001) for periods from 0.01 to 10 seconds, Arias intensity, bracketed and significant dura-
tions, peak ground acceleration and velocity (which has shown good correlation with damage
in Chilean sites, e.g., Montalva et al. 2016). The intensities are reported for the north-south,
east-west, and vertical components.
2560 N. BASTAS AND G. A. MONTALVA

Read raw
accelerograms
Plot raw
data
Instrument
type
Analog

Instrumental correction (Trifunac, 1970)

Digital
Record type: Identification of late/normal triggered event
normal triggered (Pacor et al, 2014)
event
Identification of spurious spikes.
(Boore and Bommer, 2005).

Reduce multiple shocks to main shock

Calculate low-cut frequency using SNR

> 3 for each component

Remove mean from the uncorrected

acceleration.

Record type
Normal triggered Late triggered

Taper the beginning and end of Taper only the end of

acceleration traces acceleration traces

Apply some zero pads to the end of

f_low-cut
record.
+
Apply 4-pole acausal Butterworth
f_high-cut
filter in frequency domain.

Double integrate the filtered

acceleration to obtain displacement.

Fit a polynomial of order 6 to the displacement

trace (with the coefficients for the zeroth and first
terms constrained to be 0.0).

Subtract the second derivative of polynomial from

acceleration

Integrate the corrected acceleration to obtain

corrected velocity and displacement time series.

Calculate Intensity
measures (e.g. Sa,
Sv, Sd, Ia)
Plot processed
data
Save processed
data

Figure 7. Flowchart of ground motion record processing scheme.

CHILE STRONG GROUND MOTION FLATFILE 2561

Station: REGIMIENTO GRANADEROS, IQUIQUE (T03A)

| Event: 50091 | Mag: 8.1 | NorthSouth Component
PGDraw=67 cm
50 PGDproc=16 cm

Disp (cm)
0

50

0 50 100 150
Time (sec)
Station: REGIMIENTO GRANADEROS, IQUIQUE (T03A)
| Event: 50091 | Mag: 8.1 | EastWest Component
PGDraw=68 cm
50 PGDproc=27 cm
Disp (cm)

50

0 50 100 150
Time (sec)
Station: REGIMIENTO GRANADEROS, IQUIQUE (T03A)
| Event: 50091 | Mag: 8.1 | Vertical Component
20
PGDraw=12 cm
PGDproc=12 cm
Disp (cm)

20
0 50 100 150
Time (sec)

Figure 8. Comparison between displacement traces of raw and processed data.

Horizontal component Vertical component

4000 4000

3000 3000
# of records

# of records

2000 2000

1000 1000

0 0
0.01 0.1 1 10 40 0.01 0.1 1 10 40
Usable period (sec) Usable period (sec)

Figure 9. Usable period versus number of records.

2562 N. BASTAS AND G. A. MONTALVA

interplate inslab cortical

9 9

8 8

Moment Magnitude, Mw
Moment Magnitude, Mw

7 7

6 6

5 5
20 100 700 10 100
Distance, R rup or R hyp (km) Focal Depth, H (km)

Figure 10. (a) Magnitude versus distance distribution, and (b) magnitude versus focal depth.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

A public database of intensity measures for the Peru-Chile subduction zone registered by
Chilean stations has been compiled. A semi-automatic processing scheme is used for strong
motion processing in the frequency domain based on the SNR ratio and Fourier spectrum.
The data reported in this database extends from 1985 to 2015, with event metadata compiled
from different seismic catalogs. Station metadata, based on V S30 , was measured using non-
invasive methods (i.e., surface waves) in some cases, and for the others estimations were
performed based on commonly used proxies.
This data set should serve as a tool to develop and evaluate modern ground motion pre-
diction equations (GMPEs), and can be helpful in several engineering applications in the
region.
The strong ground motion database discussed in this manuscript, including the event, site
characterization, and the intensities measures computed are freely available at NEEShub
website (https://nees.org/resources/13694).

DATA AND RESOURCES

Declustering algorithms programmed in MatLab included in the seismic package ZMAP
(available at www.seismo.ethz.ch/prod/software/zmap).
Pre-2010 strong motion and instrument data were downloaded from RENADIC http://
terremotos.ing.uchile.cl (last accessed 27 July 2015). Post-2010 data, from networks C1 and
C, and stations of agreement between ONEMI and CSN, were provided by the Chilean
CHILE STRONG GROUND MOTION FLATFILE 2563

National Seismological Centre (CSN, http://www.sismologia.cl/). The strong motion data of

CX network is available at http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/ and is part of the Integrated Plate
Boundary Observatory Chile (IPOC, http://www.ipoc-network.org) initiative. The USGS-
NEIC catalog is available at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/.
The shear-wave velocity profiles at the ground motion stations, that were in-situ mea-
sured, are available at FUCHIGEs website (www.fuchige.cl).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was partially funded by FONDECYT 11121404 and CONICYT/FONDAP/
15130015 (CRHIAM center); this support is greatly acknowledged. This work is part of an
ongoing effort by the Global Earthquake Model - Seismic Risk in South America (GEM-
SARA) Topic 6 Work Group, the CRHIAM Center, and the FUCHIGE Foundation.
Dr. Felipe Leyton was a great help in providing timely strong motion records from
CSNs networks and associated metadata. We thank Dr. Gail Atkinson and two anonymous
reviewers for their insightful comments. Finally, special thanks go to the geotechnical
research group at the University of Concepcin for the fieldwork performed to collect
and process data.

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response spectral ordinates from filtered analogue and digital strong-motion accelerograms,
Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics 40, 13871401.
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(Received 27 October 2015; accepted 10 August 2016)