A reappraisal of Attenuation of Seismic Waves and its relevance towards Seismic Hazard

The evaluation of attenuation of seismic waves in a seismically active region plays an important role in risk studies. Generally, damages are resulted from the amplitude of waves originating from the earthquake source, which are highly dependent on attenuation property of the medium. Therefore, the good knowledge of attenuation is the first step for obtaining a better understanding of source spectra as inferred from seismograms. Understanding the attenuation property of a medium gives important signs to design suitable preventive measures to minimize seismic hazard in a region. Full information on seismic wave attenuation has been desired to investigate the structure of the interior of the earth and to predict strong earthquake ground motion in engineering seismology.