The effects of local geology on ground-motion amplification and building damage were
studied in Palestine-West Bank. Nakamura's method of microtremor analysis was applied in this study.
The measurements showed significantly higher amplification in the frequency range of building
vulnerability in different parts of Nablus city. This finding is consistent with the distribution of the
earthquake damage grades in the urban areas struck by the 11 February 2004 earthquake (ML= 5.2)
with a focal depth of 17 km beneath the northeastern part of the Dead Sea Basin. Quite large differences
in amplification between around 1 and 9 were computed between the eastern and western rims of the
city. The downtown built in the central part of the city on soft clay, marl and valley deposits, whereas
the northern and southern parts of urban areas in Nablus city lying on mountains consist of consolidated
carbonates bedrock. In the central part of the city and at the rims, where the thickness of fluvial deposits
and soft formations is about 15 m, amplifications between 6.74 and 8.67 for dominant natural period
range of 0.8 - 1.1 sec were obtained. On the southern and northern mountains, which are located on
limestone rocks covered with a thin layer of soil, the amplification in the same frequency range was
low. Calculating the natural period of the existing common buildings (Tb) in the studied area (buildings
with 10-12 stories), by using the dynamic analysis method. The values of Tb obtained were much closed
to the site dominant natural period (Ts).The findings of this study indicate that the expected differences
in damage grades for urban areas in Nablus city could be attributed to variations in the thickness and
physical properties of Tertiary-Quaternary sediments, which appear to be rather heterogeneous.
