Determination of source parameters of small earthquakes from P-wave rise time

1973 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 599-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. O'Neill ◽  
J. H. Healy

abstract A simple method of estimating source dimensions and stress drops of small earthquakes is presented. The basic measurement is the time from the first break to the first zero crossing on short-period seismograms. Graphs relating these measurements to rise time as a function of Q and instrument response permit an estimate of earthquake source parameters without the calculation of spectra. Tests on data from Rangely, Colorado, and Hollister, California, indicate that the method gives reasonable results.

1984 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-40
Author(s):  
M. E. O'Neill

Abstract Source dimensions and stress drops of 30 small Parkfield, California, earthquakes with coda duration magnitudes between 1.2 and 3.9 have been estimated from measurements on short-period velocity-transducer seismograms. Times from the initial onset to the first zero crossing, corrected for attenuation and instrument response, have been interpreted in terms of a circular source model in which rupture expands radially outward from a point until it stops abruptly at radius a. For each earthquake, duration magnitude MD gave an estimate of seismic moment MO and MO and a together gave an estimate of static stress drop. All 30 earthquakes are located on a 6-km-long segment of the San Andreas fault at a depth range of about 8 to 13 km. Source radius systemically increases with magnitude from about 70 m for events near MD 1.4 to about 600 m for an event of MD 3.9. Static stress drop ranges from about 2 to 30 bars and is not strongly correlated with magnitude. Static stress drop does appear to be spatially dependent; the earthquakes with stress drops greater than 20 bars are concentrated in a small region close to the hypocenter of the magnitude 512 1966 Parkfield earthquake.


2019 ◽  
pp. 68-75
Author(s):  
A. S. Fomochkina ◽  
V. G. Bukchin

Alongside the determination of the focal mechanism and source depth of an earthquake by direct examination of their probable values on a grid in the parameter space, also the resolution of these determinations can be estimated. However, this approach requires considerable time in the case of a detailed search. A special case of a shallow earthquake whose one nodal plane is subhorizontal is an example of the sources that require the use of a detailed grid. For studying these events based on the records of the long-period surface waves, the grids with high degree of detail in the angles of the focal mechanism are required. We discuss the application of the methods of parallel computing for speeding up the calculations of earthquake parameters and present the results of studying the strongest aftershock of the Tohoku, Japan, earthquake by this approach.


1981 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1173-1190
Author(s):  
Arthur Frankel

abstract The seismic moments and stress drops of 23 earthquakes (1.1 ≦ M ≦ 2.4) that occurred during an earthquake swarm in the Virgin Islands were determined from the analysis of their P waveforms. The data consist of digitally recorded seismograms collected by a short-period seismic network operating in the northeastern Caribbean. The events of the swarm are particularly useful for comparing the relative stress drops of small earthquakes, because their source to receiver paths and focal mechanisms are very similar. The static stress drops calculated for these earthquakes varied from about 0.2 to 2 bars. The data clearly illustrate that the static and dynamic stress drops of these earthquakes generally increased with the size (moment) of the events. The fault radii for these shocks increased with seismic moment, but only by a factor of 2 for a 100-fold increase in seismic moment. The velocity waveforms of the larger events were systematically more impulsive than those of the smaller earthquakes. These observations imply that, for this set of earthquakes, the final fault radius is a function of the stress drop that occurs during the rupture process.


1999 ◽  
Vol 89 (4) ◽  
pp. 1077-1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
So Gu Kim ◽  
Nadeja Kraeva

Abstract The purpose of this investigation is to determine source parameters such as focal mechanism, seismic moment, moment magnitude, and source depth from recent small earthquakes in the Korcan Peninsula using broadband records of three-component single station. It is very important and worthwhile to use a three-component single station in Korea because for most Korean earthquakes it is not possible to read enough first motions of P-wave arrivals because of the poor coverage of the seismic network and the small size (ML 5.0 or less) of the events. Furthermore the recent installation of the very broadband seismic stations in Korea and use of a 3D tomography technique can enhance moment tensor inversion to determine the source parameters of small earthquakes (ML 5.0 or less) that occur at near-regional distances (Δ ≤ 500 km). The focal solution for the Youngwol earthquake of 13 December 1996 is found to be a right-lateral strike slip event with a NE strike, and the Kyongju earthquake of 25 June 1997 is found to be an oblique reverse fault with a slight component of left-lateral slip in the SE direction.


1977 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 693-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Langston ◽  
David E. Blum

abstract Simultaneous modeling of source parameters and local layered earth structure for the April 29, 1965, Puget Sound earthquake was done using both ray and layer matrix formulations for point dislocations imbedded in layered media. The source parameters obtained are: dip 70° to the east, strike 344°, rake −75°, 63 km depth, average moment of 1.4 ± 0.6 × 1026 dyne-cm, and a triangular time function with a rise time of 0.5 sec and falloff of 2.5 sec. An upper mantle and crustal model for southern Puget Sound was determined from inferred reflections from interfaces above the source. The main features of the model include a distinct 15-km-thick low-velocity zone with a 2.5-km/sec P-wave-velocity contrast lower boundary situated at approximately 56-km depth. Ray calculations which allow for sources in dipping structure indicate that the inferred high contrast value can trade off significantly with interface dip provided the structure dips eastward. The effective crustal model is less than 15 km thick with a substantial sediment section near the surface. A stacking technique using the instantaneous amplitude of the analytic signal is developed for interpreting short-period teleseismic observations. The inferred reflection from the base of the low-velocity zone is recovered from short-period P and S waves. An apparent attenuation is also observed for pP from comparisons between the short- and long-period data sets. This correlates with the local surface structure of Puget Sound and yields an effective Q of approximately 65 for the crust and upper mantle.


Author(s):  
Sunanda Manneela ◽  
T. Srinivasa Kumar ◽  
Shailesh R. Nayak

Exemplifying the tsunami source immediately after an earthquake is the most critical component of tsunami early warning, as not every earthquake generates a tsunami. After a major under sea earthquake, it is very important to determine whether or not it has actually triggered the deadly wave. The near real-time observations from near field networks such as strong motion and Global Positioning System (GPS) allows rapid determination of fault geometry. Here we present a complete processing chain of Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS), starting from acquisition of geodetic raw data, processing, inversion and simulating the situation as it would be at warning center during any major earthquake. We determine the earthquake moment magnitude and generate the centroid moment tensor solution using a novel approach which are the key elements for tsunami early warning. Though the well established seismic monitoring network, numerical modeling and dissemination system are currently capable to provide tsunami warnings to most of the countries in and around the Indian Ocean, the study highlights the critical role of geodetic observations in determination of tsunami source for high-quality forecasting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 219 (2) ◽  
pp. 1148-1162
Author(s):  
Jiun-Ting Lin ◽  
Wu-Lung Chang ◽  
Diego Melgar ◽  
Amanda Thomas ◽  
Chi-Yu Chiu

SUMMARY We test the feasibility of GPS-based rapid centroid moment tensor (GPS CMT) methods for Taiwan, one of the most earthquake prone areas in the world. In recent years, Taiwan has become a leading developer of seismometer-based earthquake early warning systems, which have successfully been applied to several large events. The rapid determination of earthquake magnitude and focal mechanism, important for a number of rapid response applications, including tsunami warning, is still challenging because of the limitations of near-field inertial recordings. This instrumental issue can be solved by an entirely different observation system: a GPS network. Taiwan is well posed to take advantage of GPS because in the last decade it has developed a very dense network. Thus, in this research, we explore the suitability of the GPS CMT inversion for Taiwan. We retrospectively investigate six moderate to large (Mw6.0 ∼ 7.0) earthquakes and propose a resolution test for our model, we find that the minimum resolvable earthquake magnitude of this system is ∼Mw5.5 (at 5 km depth). Our tests also suggest that the finite fault complexity, often challenging for the near-field methodology, can be ignored under such good station coverage and thus, can provide a fast and robust solution for large earthquake directly from the near field. Our findings help to understand and quantify how the proposed methodology could be implemented in real time and what its contributions could be to the overall earthquake monitoring system.


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