Revisiting Seismic Hazard of Peninsular Malaysia: Comprehensive PSH Analysis

Earthquakes had caused devastating damage around the world especially in the countries with the existence of active seismic sources. However, there are many cases where felt tremors and the corresponding destruction can be occurred in the area without the presence of seismically active sources, as per case in the famous case study of Michoacán’s 1985 earthquake. This proved that a far-field earthquake can be as destructive as a near-field earthquake. Throughout the years, Peninsular Malaysia is classified as a low to zero seismicity region, with the local seismic hazard is measured based on the far field and regional earthquake sources. Nevertheless, it should be note that more than 30 local earthquakes had been recorded by the Malaysia Meteorological Department (MMD) for the past decade particularly within the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. To address the lack of seismic hazard map of the Peninsular Malaysia region, this research work developed an earthquakes’ catalogue using the existing recorded data collected from 1900 till 2016. In addition, average shear-wave velocity (VS30) data was utilized in generating the uniform hazard spectra for nine major cities in Peninsular Malaysia. The comparison between locally derived ground motion prediction (GMP) equation with regional equation has led to a comprehensive probabilistic approach in the new seismic hazard analysis of the region. The hazard map of the selected cities illustrates the probability of exceedance (PE) of 10% and 2% within 50 years are in the range of 10 gal to 50 gal and 20 gal to 80 gal for Return Period of 475 and 2,475 years respectively. Both PE yields similar Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) distribution patterns where the values decrease northeastward with the sites closer to the local sources was measured having the greater PGA value.