Inversion of long-period body-wave data for the source process of the Gonghe, Qinghai, China earthquake

1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Li ◽  
Yun-Tai Chen
1989 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
Jiajun Zhang ◽  
Thorne Lay

Abstract The 22 June 1977 (Mw = 8.2) Tonga earthquake has the longest rupture duration ever reported for a normal fault event. The 150-km depth range spanned by aftershocks of the earthquake is also unusually large. There has been substantial controversy over both the depth and duration of faulting for this great event, obscuring its tectonic significance. We study the source process of the Tonga event using long-period Rayleigh waves recorded by the Global Digital Seismograph Network (GDSN) and International Deployment of Accelerometers (IDA) networks. For a standard assumption of a Haskell source, a total duration of 84 ± 4 sec is obtained using a least-squares inversion method. We introduce the use of the spectral amplitude as a weighting factor in measuring the misfit between the data and a given source finiteness model, which reduces the scatter and improves the resolution of source duration determined from data ranging in period from 150 to 300 sec. Using a more realistic shape for the source-time function in the inversion (drawing upon results from body-wave analysis) reveals a much longer (165-sec process time) component of the source process of the Tonga earthquake. The fundamental mode Rayleigh waves do not resolve any horizontal source directivity. However, the centroid depth of the earthquake is well resolved as 96 km with 90 per cent confidence range (93, 104 km). The estimated error in the depth determination due to the uncertainties in the source finiteness and earth models is only a few kilometers. The results indicate that the rupture of the earthquake excited long-period seismic waves at depths somewhat greater than the 70 to 80 km depth range where the primary body-wave radiation occurred, favoring rupture on the steeply dipping plane of the focal mechanism. The fundamental mode Rayleigh waves with periods longer than 150 sec cannot resolve vertical extent of the faulting; however, additional information from body-wave and free oscillation analyses indicates a vertical fault extent of about 50 km with a frequency-dependent variation in seismic radiation with depth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 222 (3) ◽  
pp. 1639-1655
Author(s):  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Corinna Roy ◽  
Andrew Curtis ◽  
Andy Nowacki ◽  
Brian Baptie

SUMMARY Seismic body wave traveltime tomography and surface wave dispersion tomography have been used widely to characterize earthquakes and to study the subsurface structure of the Earth. Since these types of problem are often significantly non-linear and have non-unique solutions, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods have been used to find probabilistic solutions. Body and surface wave data are usually inverted separately to produce independent velocity models. However, body wave tomography is generally sensitive to structure around the subvolume in which earthquakes occur and produces limited resolution in the shallower Earth, whereas surface wave tomography is often sensitive to shallower structure. To better estimate subsurface properties, we therefore jointly invert for the seismic velocity structure and earthquake locations using body and surface wave data simultaneously. We apply the new joint inversion method to a mining site in the United Kingdom at which induced seismicity occurred and was recorded on a small local network of stations, and where ambient noise recordings are available from the same stations. The ambient noise is processed to obtain inter-receiver surface wave dispersion measurements which are inverted jointly with body wave arrival times from local earthquakes. The results show that by using both types of data, the earthquake source parameters and the velocity structure can be better constrained than in independent inversions. To further understand and interpret the results, we conduct synthetic tests to compare the results from body wave inversion and joint inversion. The results show that trade-offs between source parameters and velocities appear to bias results if only body wave data are used, but this issue is largely resolved by using the joint inversion method. Thus the use of ambient seismic noise and our fully non-linear inversion provides a valuable, improved method to image the subsurface velocity and seismicity.


1988 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 1707-1724
Author(s):  
Masayuki Kikuchi ◽  
Yoshio Fukao

Abstract The seismic wave energy is evaluated for 35 large earthquakes by inverting far-field long-period P waves into the multiple-shock sequence. The results show that the seismic wave energy thus obtained is systematically less than that inferred from the Gutenberg-Richter's formula with the seismic magnitude. The difference amounts to one order of magnitude. The results also show that the energy-moment ratio is well confined to a narrow range: 10−6 < ES/Mo < 10−5 with the average of ∼5 × 10−6. This average value is exactly one order of magnitude as small as the energy-moment ratio inferred from the Gutenberg-Richter's formula using the moment magnitude. Comparing the energy-moment ratio with Δσo/2μ, where Δσo and μ are the stress drop and the rigidity, we obtain an empirical relation: ES/Mo ∼ 0.1 × Δσ0/2μ. Such a relation can be interpreted in terms of a subsonic rupture where the energy loss due to cohesion is not negligible to the seismic wave energy.


1971 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1369-1379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nezihi Canitez ◽  
M. Nafi Toksöz

abstract The determination of focal depth and other source parameters by the use of first-motion data and surface-wave spectra is investigated. It is shown that the spectral ratio of Love to Rayleigh waves (L/R) is sensitive to all source parameters. The azimuthal variation of the L/R spectral ratios can be used to check the fault-plane solution as well as for focal depth determinations. Medium response, attenuation, and source finiteness seriously affect the absolute spectra and introduce uncertainty into the focal depth determinations. These effects are nearly canceled out when L/R amplitude ratios are used. Thus, the preferred procedure for source mechanism studies of shallow earthquakes is to use jointly the body-wave data, absolute spectra of surface waves, and the Love/Rayleigh spectral ratios. With this procedure, focal depths can be determined to an accuracy of a few kilometers.


1990 ◽  
Vol 80 (5) ◽  
pp. 1205-1231
Author(s):  
Jiajun Zhang ◽  
Thorne Lay

Abstract Determination of shallow earthquake source mechanisms by inversion of long-period (150 to 300 sec) Rayleigh waves requires epicentral locations with greater accuracy than that provided by routine source locations of the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) and International Seismological Centre (ISC). The effects of epicentral mislocation on such inversions are examined using synthetic calculations as well as actual data for three large Mexican earthquakes. For Rayleigh waves of 150-sec period, an epicentral mislocation of 30 km introduces observed source spectra phase errors of 0.6 radian for stations at opposing azimuths along the source mislocation vector. This is larger than the 0.5-radian azimuthal variation of the phase spectra at the same period for a thrust fault with 15° dip and 24-km depth. The typical landward mislocation of routinely determined epicenters of shallow subduction zone earthquakes causes source moment tensor inversions of long-period Rayleigh waves to predict larger fault dip than indicated by teleseismic P-wave first-motion data. For dip-slip earthquakes, inversions of long-period Rayleigh waves that use an erroneous source location in the down-dip or along-strike directions of a nodal plane, overestimate the strike, dip, and slip of that nodal plane. Inversions of strike-slip earthquakes that utilize an erroneous location along the strike of a nodal plane overestimate the slip of that nodal plane, causing the second nodal plane to dip incorrectly in the direction opposite to the mislocation vector. The effects of epicentral mislocation for earthquakes with 45° dip-slip fault mechanisms are more severe than for events with other fault mechanisms. Existing earth model propagation corrections do not appear to be sufficiently accurate to routinely determine the optimal surface-wave source location without constraints from body-wave information, unless extensive direct path (R1) data are available or empirical path calibrations are performed. However, independent surface-wave and body-wave solutions can be remarkably consistent when the effects of epicentral mislocation are accounted for. This will allow simultaneous unconstrained body-wave and surface-wave inversions to be performed despite the well known difficulties of extracting the complete moment tensor of shallow sources from fundamental modes.


1969 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 2071-2078
Author(s):  
Tom Landers ◽  
Jon F. Claerbout

abstract The inability of simple layered models to fit both Rayleigh wave and Love wave data has led to the proposal of an upper mantle interleaved with thin soft horizontal layers. Since surface-wave dispersion is not sensitive to the distribution of soft material but only to the fraction of soft material a variety of models is possible. The solution to this indeterminancy is found through body-wave analysis. It is shown that body waves are dispersed according to the thinness and softness of the layers. Three models, each of which satisfy all surface-wave data, are examined. Transmission seismograms calculated for these models show one to be impossible, one improbable and the other possible. Synthesis of the seismograms is accomplished through the use of time domain theory as the complicated frequency response of the models makes a frequency oriented Haskell-Thompson approach impractical.


Geophysics ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Capon ◽  
R. J. Greenfield ◽  
R. T. Lacoss

The results of a series of off‐line signal processing experiments are presented for long‐period data obtained from the Large Aperture Seismic Array (LASA) located in eastern Montana. The signal‐to‐noise ratio gains obtained with maximum‐likelihood processing, as well as other simpler forms of processing, are presented for body‐wave as well as surface‐wave phases. A discussion of the frequency‐wavenumber characteristics of the noise which led to these results is also given. On the basis of these experiments, several recommendations are made concerning optimum long‐period array configurations and on‐line or off‐line processing methods. The usefulness of maximum‐likelihood processing in suppressing an interfering teleseism is demonstrated. An experiment is given in which maximum‐likelihood processing achieved about 20 db suppression of an interfering teleseism, while simpler forms of processing such as beam‐forming obtained about 11 db. The matched filtering of surface waves using chirp waveforms is shown to be highly effective. A useful discriminant for distinguishing between natural seismic events and underground nuclear explosions, using both the long‐period and short‐period data, was found to be the relationship between the surface‐wave and body‐wave magnitudes. Measurements of this discriminant made on events from four tectonic regions of the earth are presented. It is shown that 60 and 100 percent detectability of surface waves for natural seismic events from the Central Asian‐Kurile Islands‐Kamchatka region occurs at about LASA body‐wave magnitudes 4.5 and 4.9, respectively.


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