scholarly journals Study of Love and Rayleigh waves from earthquakes with fault plane solutions or with known faulting. Part 1. A phase difference method based on a new model of earthquake source

1964 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-527
Author(s):  
Keiiti Aki

ABSTRACT For the purpose of examining the basic assumptions underlying the surface wave method of earthquake mechanism study, we investigated Love and Rayleigh waves from earthquakes with known faulting and/or fault plane solutions obtained from initial motion studies. In order to eliminate the effect of the source time function and finiteness of the fault and to concentrate on the nature of the earthquake force system and its space parameters, we are primarily concerned with the phase differences between Love and Rayleigh waves and their amplitude ratios. We studied about 30 earthquakes which occurred in the Mediterranean region, California, and Japan. The results are given in Part 2, and the method used is described in the present paper. The theoretical phase and amplitude of Love and Rayleigh waves were computed on the basis of observed faulting or fault plane solution under various hypotheses about the equivalent force system. Then, we obtained from the record, the Fourier phase difference of Love and Rayleigh waves, corrected it for propagation in a layered earth and compared it with the corresponding theoretical value. In computing the theoretical values, we assumed a homogeneous half space for Rayleigh waves. For Love waves, the layered structure of the earth was taken into account in an approximate way. We have constructed a table of the theoretical values for all possible parameters of fault system and also for various focal depths. A part of the table is given in a concise form in Part 3. The measurement of the phase difference between Love and Rayleigh waves was made by two methods. One is the stationary phase analysis, first applied to seismograms by Brune, Nafe and Oliver (1960), and the other is a filtering-correlation method. The latter method is appropriate for those records where the waves are less dispersed and noise is a factor. It was found that the single couple hypothesis fails to explain the observations on surface waves, and must be modified in some way. A modified single couple hypothesis is proposed which appears to explain the observations generally better than the double couple hypothesis as will be shown in Part 2.

1964 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 529-558
Author(s):  
Keiiti Aki

ABSTRACT The method described in Part 1 of this paper was applied to about 30 earthquakes in various parts of the world. The modified single couple hypothesis proposed in Part 1 appears to explain the observations generally better than the double couple hypothesis. Surprisingly consistent pictures of tectonics were obtained in the Mediterranean region and in Japan on the basis of the modified single couple hypothesis.


1970 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1669-1699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Seeber ◽  
Muawia Barazangi ◽  
Ali Nowroozi

Abstract This paper demonstrates that high-gain, high-frequency portable seismographs operated for short intervals can provide unique data on the details of the current tectonic activity in a very small area. Five high-frequency, high-gain seismographs were operated at 25 sites along the coast of northern California during the summer of 1968. Eighty per cent of 160 microearthquakes located in the Cape Mendocino area occurred at depths between 15 and 35 km in a well-defined, horizontal seismic layer. These depths are significantly greater than those reported for other areas along the San Andreas fault system in California. Many of the earthquakes of the Cape Mendocino area occurred in sequences that have approximately the same magnitude versus length of faulting characteristics as other California earthquakes. Consistent first-motion directions are recorded from microearthquakes located within suitably chosen subdivisions of the active area. Composite fault plane solutions indicate that right-lateral movement prevails on strike-slip faults that radiate from Cape Mendocino northwest toward the Gorda basin. This is evidence that the Gorda basin is undergoing internal deformation. Inland, east of Cape Mendocino, a significant component of thrust faulting prevails for all the composite fault plane solutions. Thrusting is predominant in the fault plane solution of the June 26 1968 earthquake located along the Gorda escarpement. In general, the pattern of slip is consistent with a north-south crustal shortening. The Gorda escarpment, the Mattole River Valley, and the 1906 fault break northwest of Shelter Cove define a sharp bend that forms a possible connection between the Mendocino escarpment and the San Andreas fault. The distribution of hypocenters, relative travel times of P waves, and focal mechanisms strongly indicate that the above three features are surface expressions of an important structural boundary. The sharp bend in this boundary, which is concave toward the southwest, would tend to lock the dextral slip along the San Andreas fault and thus cause the regional north-south compression observed at Cape Mendocino. The above conclusions support the hypothesis that dextral strike-slip motion along the San Andreas fault is currently being taken up by slip along the Mendocino escarpment as well as by slip along northwest trending faults in the Gorda basin.


1976 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 1931-1952
Author(s):  
Donald J. Stierman ◽  
William L. Ellsworth

abstract The ML 6.0 Point Mugu, California earthquake of February 21, 1973 and its aftershocks occurred within the complex fault system that bounds the southern front of the Transverse Ranges province of southern California. P-wave fault plane solutions for 51 events include reverse, strike slip and normal faulting mechanisms, indicating complex deformation within the 10-km broad fault zone. Hypocenters of 141 aftershocks fail to delineate any single fault plane clearly associated with the main shock rupture. Most aftershocks cluster in a region 5 km in diameter centered 5 km from the main shock hypocenter and well beyond the extent of fault rupture estimated from analysis of body-wave radiation. Strain release within the imbricate fault zone was controlled by slip on preexisting planes of weakness under the influence of a NE-SW compressive stress.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Maria Adinolfi ◽  
Raffaella De Matteis ◽  
Rita De Nardis ◽  
Aldo Zollo

Abstract. Improving the knowledge of seismogenic faults requires the integration of geological, seismological, and geophysical information. Among several analyses, the definition of earthquake focal mechanisms plays an essential role in providing information about the geometry of individual faults and the stress regime acting in a region. Fault plane solutions can be retrieved by several techniques operating in specific magnitude ranges, both in the time and frequency domain and using different data. For earthquakes of low magnitude, the limited number of available data and their uncertainties can compromise the stability of fault plane solutions. In this work, we propose a useful methodology to evaluate how well a seismic network used to monitor natural and/or induced micro-seismicity estimates focal mechanisms as function of magnitude, location, and kinematics of seismic source and consequently their reliability in defining seismotectonic models. To study the consistency of focal mechanism solutions, we use a Bayesian approach that jointly inverts the P/S long-period spectral-level ratios and the P polarities to infer the fault-plane solutions. We applied this methodology, by computing synthetic data, to the local seismic network operated in the Campania-Lucania Apennines (Southern Italy) to monitor the complex normal fault system activated during the Ms 6.9, 1980 earthquake. We demonstrate that the method we propose can have a double purpose. It can be a valid tool to design or to test the performance of local seismic networks and more generally it can be used to assign an absolute uncertainty to focal mechanism solutions fundamental for seismotectonic studies.


1964 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 559-570
Author(s):  
Keiiti Aki

ABSTRACT The table of source phase differences between Rayleigh and Love waves which was described in Part 1 and used in Part 2 is presented in a concise form for the case of a surface focus.


Solid Earth ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Guido Maria Adinolfi ◽  
Raffaella De Matteis ◽  
Rita de Nardis ◽  
Aldo Zollo

Abstract. Improving the knowledge of seismogenic faults requires the integration of geological, seismological, and geophysical information. Among several analyses, the definition of earthquake focal mechanisms plays an essential role in providing information about the geometry of individual faults and the stress regime acting in a region. Fault plane solutions can be retrieved by several techniques operating in specific magnitude ranges, both in the time and frequency domain and using different data. For earthquakes of low magnitude, the limited number of available data and their uncertainties can compromise the stability of fault plane solutions. In this work, we propose a useful methodology to evaluate how well a seismic network, used to monitor natural and/or induced micro-seismicity, estimates focal mechanisms as a function of magnitude, location, and kinematics of seismic source and consequently their reliability in defining seismotectonic models. To study the consistency of focal mechanism solutions, we use a Bayesian approach that jointly inverts the P/S long-period spectral-level ratios and the P polarities to infer the fault plane solutions. We applied this methodology, by computing synthetic data, to the local seismic network operating in the Campania–Lucania Apennines (southern Italy) aimed to monitor the complex normal fault system activated during the Ms 6.9, 1980 earthquake. We demonstrate that the method we propose is effective and can be adapted for other case studies with a double purpose. It can be a valid tool to design or to test the performance of local seismic networks, and more generally it can be used to assign an absolute uncertainty to focal mechanism solutions fundamental for seismotectonic studies.


1981 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1143-1159
Author(s):  
Ray Buland ◽  
James Taggart

abstract We have investigated surface and mantle waves from the St. Elias earthquake (28 February 1979, 21:27:06.1 UTC) using standard time-domain techniques and highly automated procedure for frequency-domain analysis. Mantle wave spectral densities at periods of 100, 150, 200, and 250 sec were determined from R1 through R5 and G1 through G6 recorded by 10 stations of the Global Digital Seismograph Network using a method similar to one developed by Brune and Engen (1969) for 100-sec Love waves. For comparison we have generated synthetic seismograms by normal mode summation using two published fault plane solutions (Lahr et al., 1979; Hasegawa et al., 1980) and assuming a point source. For the St. Elias event we find that the precise orientation of the focal mechanism has a significant impact on the efficiency of mantle wave generation and hence on moment inference. Further, source finiteness effects, expressed as distortion of the radiation pattern and a disparity between moment estimates made using Love and Rayleigh waves, are clearly visible at all periods we examined. However, these effects decrease dramatically with increasing periods and are gratifyingly small by 250 sec allowing us to make a moment estimate. We have made the following measurements of the size of the St. Elias earthquake 20-sec Rayleigh waves (30 observations) Ms = 7.08 20-sec Rayleigh waves Ms = 7.23 (30 observations azimuthally weighted) Seismic moment (dyne-cm) Mo = 2.36 x 1027 Moment magnitude Mw = 7.52.


2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-316
Author(s):  
Mohamad Khir Abdul-Wahed ◽  
Mohammed ALISSA

Northwestern Syria is a key area in the eastern Mediterranean to study the active tectonics and stress pattern across the Arabia-Eurasia convergent plate boundary. This study aims to outline the present-day stress regime in this region of Syria using the fault plane solutions of the largest events recorded by the Syrian National Seismological Network from 1995 to 2011. A dataset of fault-plane solutions was obtained for 48 events having at least 5 P-wave polarities. The tectonic regime for most of these events is extensional and produces normal mechanisms in agreement with the local configurations of the seismogenic faults in the region. Strike-slip mechanisms are more scarce and restricted to certain areas, such as the northern extension of the Dead Sea fault system. The results of the current study reveal the spatial variations of SHmax orientation across the northwestern Syria region. This spatial variation of the present-day stress field highlights the role of main geometrically complex shear zones in the present-day stress pattern of northwestern Syria. However, these results show, regardless of the relatively small magnitudes of the studied events, they provide a picture of the local stress deviations that have currently been taking place along the local active faults.


1974 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 1005-1016
Author(s):  
C. J. Langer ◽  
M. G. Hopper ◽  
S. T. Algermissen ◽  
J. W. Dewey

abstract Epicenters determined from 164 of the Managua aftershocks define two seismic zones. The primary zone, which is 15 to 20 km in length and strikes northeast along the Tiscapa-Ciudad Jardin fault system, contains 80 per cent of the aftershock locations. A subsidiary zone, northwest of Managua, suggests strain release possibly related to the north-south striking San Judas fault. Depth of foci are principally in the upper 7 km for both zones. Composite fault-plane solutions indicate a predominate left-lateral strike-slip displacement; the preferred planes for each zone agree with the strike of surface fractures or previously mapped faults.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brijesh K. Bansal ◽  
Kapil Mohan ◽  
Mithila Verma ◽  
Anup K. Sutar

AbstractDelhi region in northern India experiences frequent shaking due to both far-field and near-field earthquakes from the Himalayan and local sources, respectively. The recent M3.5 and M3.4 earthquakes of 12th April 2020 and 10th May 2020 respectively in northeast Delhi and M4.4 earthquake of 29th May 2020 near Rohtak (~ 50 km west of Delhi), followed by more than a dozen aftershocks, created panic in this densely populated habitat. The past seismic history and the current activity emphasize the need to revisit the subsurface structural setting and its association with the seismicity of the region. Fault plane solutions are determined using data collected from a dense network in Delhi region. The strain energy released in the last two decades is also estimated to understand the subsurface structural environment. Based on fault plane solutions, together with information obtained from strain energy estimates and the available geophysical and geological studies, it is inferred that the Delhi region is sitting on two contrasting structural environments: reverse faulting in the west and normal faulting in the east, separated by the NE-SW trending Delhi Hardwar Ridge/Mahendragarh-Dehradun Fault (DHR-MDF). The WNW-ESE trending Delhi Sargoda Ridge (DSR), which intersects DHR-MDF in the west, is inferred as a thrust fault. The transfer of stress from the interaction zone of DHR-MDF and DSR to nearby smaller faults could further contribute to the scattered shallow seismicity in Delhi region.


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