Characteristics of strong motions and damage implications of M_S6.5 Ludian earthquake on August 3, 2014

The Ludian County of Yunnan Province in southwestern China was struck by an M_S6.5 earthquake on August 3, 2014, which was another destructive event following the M_S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, M_S7.1 Yushu earthquake in 2010, and M_S7.0 Lushan earthquake in 2013. National Strong-Motion Observation Network System of China collected 74 strong motion recordings, which the maximum peak ground acceleration recorded by the 053LLT station in Longtoushan Town was 949 cm/s² in E-W component. The observed PGAs and spectral ordinates were compared with ground-motion prediction equation in China and the NGA-West2 developed by Pacific Earthquake Engineering Researcher Center. This earthquake is considered as the first case for testing applicability of NGA-West2 in China. Results indicate that the observed PGAs and the 5 % damped pseudo-response spectral accelerations are significantly lower than the predicted ones. The field survey around some typical strong motion stations verified that the earthquake damage was consistent with the official isoseismal by China Earthquake Administration.