| Abstract: |
Kuwait is an Arab country located in theArabian Peninsula near the active Zagros fold belt. This country is bordered on the south and west by Saudi Arabia, on the north and west by Iraq and on the east by the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. It has 10% of the oil reserves in the world. Low to moderate seismic activity is observed in Kuwait. Accordingly, seismic hazard valuation is critical to reduce seismic risk and establish a standardized seismic code for inhabited areas in Kuwait. The seismic hazard in Kuwait was assessed using probabilistic and deterministic approaches. The first step to analyzing the hazard is the compilation of a catalog of all the earthquakes that affected Kuwait, which was built in this study considering local, regional, and teleseismic earthquakes. Based on seismicity, structure, tectonics, focal mechanisms, and seismotectonic of Kuwait, alternative seismotectonic models were built to eliminate the uncertainty effect. Finally, the seismicity recurrence parameters (b-value, β and λ), the maximum expected earthquake, and an appropriate ground motion prediction equation of each seismic source in the seismotectonic model were calculated. Probabilistic hazard maps were produced for PGA and 0.1, 1, and 4 s spectral periods for the 75, 475, 975, and 2475 years return periods. Deaggregation of probabilistic hazard and the probabilistic and deterministic hazard spectra were estimated at six governorates in Kuwait. Moreover, sensitivity analysis was implemented to minimize uncertainties in a maximum expected earthquake, seismotectonic source models, and predictive ground motion equations.
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