Seismic Coda-Waves Imaging Based on Sensitivity Kernels Calculated Using an Heuristic Approach

In this paper we review and discuss the seismic method based on the analysis of seismic coda waves used in the last 10 years by the present authors and/or their co-workers, to produce separate images of intrinsic- and scattering attenuation in zones of peculiar geological interest (mainly volcanoes). Such separate attenuation images are considered by the scientific community as complementary to those from ordinary velocity-tomography and useful to improve the geological interpretation in volcanoes and in tectonically active zones. In this review we only list but do not discuss the most significative papers showing the images obtained, as we are focused to review the method and not the interpretation of data analysis. For sake of completeness, we anyway show also a new analysis applied to data from Stromboli volcano. We thus first introduce the physical model describing the seismogram Energy Envelope (derived from the solution of the Energy Transport integral Equation) and discuss its asymptotic approximations (Diffusion- and Single-scattering model). Then, we describe a numerical method to heuristically calculate the Sensitivity Kernels for the propagation of the scattered waves in the assumption of isotropic scattering. We attribute to these Sensitivity Kernels the physical meaning of probability that for a single source-receiver couple the measured attenuation parameters can be associated with the space coordinates. Based on this definition, the attenuation image can be obtained mapping the estimated attenuation parameters onto the zone under study weighting with the Sensitivity Kernels. We further discuss how to estimate the uncertainties associated with the results and report the list of the papers describing the (separated) scattering- and intrinsic-attenuation structures investigated using this approach.

First 2-D intrinsic and scattering attenuation images of Mt Etna volcano and surrounding region from active seismic data

SUMMARY We present 2-D attenuation images of the Mt Etna volcanic region on the basis of separation of intrinsic and scattering effects. The analysis presented here exploits a large active seismic database that fully covers the area under study. We observe that scattering effects dominate over intrinsic attenuation, suggesting that the region is very heterogeneous. Comparison with analyses conducted at other volcanoes reveals that the Mt Etna region is characterized by high intrinsic attenuation, resulting from the presence of large volcanoclastic deposits at shallow depth. The 2-D distributions of intrinsic and scattering anomalies show the presence of regions characterized by high and low attenuation effects, corresponding to several tectonic and volcanic features. In particular, we identify a high attenuation region in the SW sector of the Mt Etna volcanic complex, which is correlated with high seismicity rates and volcanism. This work supports the hypothesis of a link between the dynamics of the SW flank and the recharge of the volcano in the last decades, occurring under the summit crater and, secondarily, the upper South rift zone.