[en] This thesis intends to characterize ground motion during earthquake. This work is based on two Japanese networks. It deals with databases of shallow events, depth less than 25 km, with magnitude between 4.0 and 7.3. The analysis of K-net allows to compute a spectral ground motion prediction equation and to review the shape of the Eurocode 8 design spectra. We show the larger amplification at short period for Japanese data and bring in light the soil amplification that takes place at large period. In addition, we develop a new empirical model for simulating synthetic stochastic nonstationary acceleration time histories. By specifying magnitude, distance and site effect, this model allows to produce many time histories, that a seismic event is liable to produce at the place of interest. Furthermore, the study of near-field borehole records of the Kik-net allows to explore the validity domain of predictive equations and to explain what occurs by extrapolating ground motion predictions. Finally, we show that nonlinearity reduces the dispersion of ground motion at the surface. (author)