RESONANT FREQUENCY AND SEISMIC AMPLIFICATION CHARACTERISTICS OF DILI, TIMOR-LESTE

Dili City is the capital of Timor-Leste in SE Asia. It is surrounded by 3 active faults that threaten the sustainability of the fledgling nation and the safety of its people. As a first step in determining the seismic characteristics of Dili, Timor-Leste, we employed HVSR (Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio) to characterize seismic vulnerability of site characteristics for the city. HVSR is a passive-seismic form of data collection, making it much easier to use when traveling, and requiring less man-hours. This method of data collection provides information on the sites’ resonant frequency and factor of amplification. The results range from resonant frequencies of 0.53-2.7 Hz, and amplification factors between 3 and 10. The resonant frequency correlate with the distance from the mountains to the south, while there is no such relationship apparent in the amplification factor values. These results should be incorporated into building codes of the rapidly developing new country.