%0 Article %J Pure and Applied Geophysics %D 2017 %T A Method to Estimate Shear Quality Factor of Hard Rocks %A Wang, X. %A Cai, M. %N 7 %P 2689--2703 %V 174 %1 10.1007/s00024-017-1577-z %X Attenuation has a large influence on ground motion intensity. Quality factors are used to measure wave attenuation in a medium and they are often difficult to estimate due to many factors such as the complex geology and underground mining environment. This study investigates the effect of attenuation on seismic wave propagation and ground motion using an advanced numerical toolÂ---SPECFEM2D. A method, which uses numerical modeling and site-specific scaling laws, is proposed to estimate the shear quality factor of hard rocks in underground mines. In the numerical modeling, the seismic source is represented by a moment tensor model and the considered medium is isotropic and homogeneous. Peak particle velocities along the strongest wave motion direction are compared with that from a design scaling law. Based on the field data that were used to derive a semi-empirical design scaling law, it is demonstrated that a shear quality factor of 60 seems to be a representative for the hard rocks in deep mines to consider the attenuation effect of seismic wave propagation. Using the proposed method, reasonable shear quality factors of hard rocks can be obtained and this, in turn, will assist accurate ground motion determination for mine design.