Topographic effects are rarely accounted for in seismic design codes, despite their potential to significantly modify surface ground motions. This paper investigates the influence of a canyon’s slope height on the surface ground motion through a parametric time-domain Finite Element (FE) study. A two-dimensional plane-strain model of an idealised canyon is considered for vertically propagating SV waves, using wavelets as input excitation. The model consists of two step-like slopes with slope height (H), in a homogeneous linear elastic soil layer overlying rigid bedrock. The analysis results show that the distribution of topographic aggravation at the ground surface varies significantly with normalized canyon depth over the input wavelength (H/λ) and it does not necessarily reach a maximum at a specific H/λ ratio, as has been suggested in previous studies. The validity of this conclusion is investigated for different depths to bedrock and soil layer properties
