W. Olimat¹

¹Jordan Seismological Observatory, Amman, Jordan

Abstract:

Abstract Zarqa governorate is an important governorates in Jordan. It is the second most populated after Amman, the location of Zarqa gives the city a great importance because it lies on the main highways leading to Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and power plants which gives this city a special importance. Nakamura's technique is applied in this study to both areas; Zarqa city and Hashemite University Campus in order to determine the resonance frequencies (RF) and amplification factors (AF) for each site, and then draw maps which will be of a great use in the field of civil and structural engineering by enriching the building codes. The results of our study show that values of RF are not affected by the time of recording, while values of AF can vary accordingly. Results also show that the AF varies from 0.8 to 8.55 in Zarqa city and varies from 0.4 to 9.36 in the Hashemite University Campus. RF also varies between 0.37 Hz and 2.98 Hz in Zarqa city and varies from 0.59 Hz to 1.77 Hz in the Hashemite Campus. This means that in the case of a major earthquake some structures in the study area may experience minor damage.