Narrowbandness of seismic ground displacement on a broader area of the lithosphere and importance on base motion in isolated structures

Power spectral density of horizontal ground displacement of large and recent events in earthquake-prone Latin America is analyzed. The results confirm-in a larger region of the world-that strong motion horizontal displacement is a narrowband process, which was previously demonstrated solely on a very limited area: the State of California. Nonetheless, those limited and previous results proved to be important in seismic base isolation; particularly, in the solution of the problem of large displacements at the structure base. This is a current problem for which more expensive techniques than passive control are presently being implemented, as active or hybrid control; therefore, it is emphasized that a solution exists within simple base isolation, and it is based on ground displacement narrowbandness.