seismic hazard analysis for mirabad pumpedstorage project

the mirabad pumped-storage project, now under feasibility study stage and predicted as a lower cfr dam and a upper cut & cover dam, is located in a region of high seismicity. a seismic hazard analysis was performed to determine the design ground motion parameters for the project the ground motion parameters for the mdl, dbl and cl were obtained from a psha whereas the mcl ground motion was derived from a dsha. among the many faults occurring within the area considered for the analysis, there are four major faults (i.e. binalud, neyshabur, north neyshabur and fariman), all with a seismic potential of m≥6.9 and a rupture length exceeding 0.5 km, regarded as the most critical ones for the mirabad dam site. the binalud fault, a wnw-ese-striking thrust fault is the one closest to the project site with a distance to the seismogenic rupture surface of only 0.5 km. with this fault the medians (50^th percentile) of the pga for the mcl are respectively: 0.72g and 0.57g for the lower dam site.