Bradley, Brendon2016-01-252016-01-252015Bradley BA (2015) Systematic ground motion observations in the Canterbury earthquakes and region-specific non-ergodic empirical ground motion modeling. Earthquake Spectra, 31(3), pp. 1735-1761.http://hdl.handle.net/10092/11695This paper presents an examination of ground motion observations from 20 near-source strong motion stations during the most significant 10 events in the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake to examine region-specific systematic effects based on relaxing the conventional ergodic assumption. On the basis of similar site-to-site residuals, surfical geology, and geographical proximity, 15 of the 20 stations are grouped into four sub-regions: the Central Business District; and Western, Eastern, and Northern suburbs. Mean site-to-site residuals for these sub-regions then allows for the possibility of non-ergodic ground motion prediction over these sub-regions of Canterbury, rather than only at strong motion station locations. The ratio of the total non-ergodic vs. ergodic standard deviation is found to be, on average, consistent with previous studies, however it is emphasized that on a site-by-site basis the non-ergodic standard deviation can easily vary by ±20%.enJournal ArticleFields of Research::37 - Earth sciences::3706 - Geophysics::370609 - Seismology and seismic exploration