scholarly journals Seismic Moment, Stress Drop, Strain Energy, Dislocation Radius, and Location of Seismic Acoustic Emissions Associated with a High Alpine Snowpack at Berthoud Pass, Colorado, U.S.A. (Abstract only)

1983 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 304
Author(s):  
Charles Cleland Rosé

The monitoring of the number of acoustic seismic impulses arising from snow instabilities is regarded as a relative indicator of an unstable snow slope but has not yielded a qualitative, predictive indicator. Until now, the source parameters (fracture area and length), seismic moment, energy released, stress drop, and location of acoustic seismic emissions arising from the snowpack have been neglected. A comprehension of these parameters leads to a better understanding of the event and may help in avalanche prediction. The location of a seismic event is derived from time differences between P-wave arrivals at four sensors located at the snow-ground interface. Three methods confirm the location of an acoustic seismic snow event to within 2 to 4 cm when the event is inside a seismic net. Spectral analyses of body waves from seismic snow events yield estimates of source parameters, stress drop and energy released. Equivalent dislocation surface radii range from 4.8 to 9.0 cm, which give stress drops of 0.20 to 0.29 bar, with a dissipated energy in the range of 0.0205 to 0.0632 J. Spectral analysis of the acoustic seismic snow event with application of dislocation theory provides several likely methods to predict avalanches of a climax type.

1983 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 304-304
Author(s):  
Charles Cleland Rosé

The monitoring of the number of acoustic seismic impulses arising from snow instabilities is regarded as a relative indicator of an unstable snow slope but has not yielded a qualitative, predictive indicator. Until now, the source parameters (fracture area and length), seismic moment, energy released, stress drop, and location of acoustic seismic emissions arising from the snowpack have been neglected. A comprehension of these parameters leads to a better understanding of the event and may help in avalanche prediction.The location of a seismic event is derived from time differences between P-wave arrivals at four sensors located at the snow-ground interface. Three methods confirm the location of an acoustic seismic snow event to within 2 to 4 cm when the event is inside a seismic net.Spectral analyses of body waves from seismic snow events yield estimates of source parameters, stress drop and energy released. Equivalent dislocation surface radii range from 4.8 to 9.0 cm, which give stress drops of 0.20 to 0.29 bar, with a dissipated energy in the range of 0.0205 to 0.0632 J.Spectral analysis of the acoustic seismic snow event with application of dislocation theory provides several likely methods to predict avalanches of a climax type.


1991 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 553-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fehler ◽  
W. Scott Phillips

Abstract An inversion that fits spectra of earthquake waveforms and gives robust estimates of corner frequency and low-frequency spectral amplitude has been used to determine source parameters of 223 microearthquakes induced by hydraulic fracturing in granodiorite. Assuming a ω−2 source model, the inversion fits the P-wave spectra of microearthquake waveforms to determine individual values of corner frequency and low-frequency spectral amplitude for each event and one average frequency-independent Q for all source-receiver paths. We also implemented a constraint that stress drops of all microearthquakes be similar but not equal and found that this constraint did not significantly degrade the quality of the fits to the spectra. The waveforms analyzed were recorded by a borehole seismometer. The P-wave Q was found to be 1070. For Q values as low as 600 and as high as 3000, the misfit between model and spectra increased by less than 5 per cent and the average corner frequency changed by less than 15 per cent from those obtained with a Q of 1070. Average stress drop was 3.7 bars. Seismic moments obtained from spectra ranged from 1013 to 1018 dyne-cm. The low stress drops are interpreted to result from underestimation of the actual stress drops because of a nonuniform distribution of stress drop and slip along the fault planes. Spatially varying stress drops and slips result from the strong rock heterogeneity due to the injection of fluid into the rock. Stress drops were found to be larger near the edges of the seismic zone, in regions that had not been seismically active during previous injections. The seismic moments determined from spectra were used to obtain a coda length-to-moment relation. Then, moments were estimated for 1149 events from measurements of coda lengths from events whose moments could not be measured from spectra because of saturation or a low signal-to-noise ratio. The constant of proportionality between cumulative number of events and seismic moment is higher than that found for tectonic regions. The slope is so high that the seismic energy release is dominated by the large number of small events. In the absence of information about the number of events smaller than we studied, we cannot estimate the total seismic energy released by the hydraulic injection.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bálint Süle

AbstractDynamic source parameters are estimated from P-wave displacement spectra for 18 local earthquakes (1.2 < ML < 3.7) that occurred in two seismically active regions of Hungary between 1995 and 2004. Although the geological setting of the two areas is quite different, their source parameters cannot be distinguished. The source dimensions range from 200 to 900 m, the seismic moment from 6.3x1011 to 3.48×1014 Nm, the stress drop from 0.13 to 6.86 bar, and the average displacement is less than 1 cm for all events. The scaling relationship between seismic moment and stress drop indicates a decrease in stress drop with decreasing seismic moment. A linear relationship of M w = 0.71 M L + 0.92 is obtained between local magnitude and moment magnitude.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itzhak Lior ◽  
Anthony Sladen ◽  
Diego Mercerat ◽  
Jean-Paul Ampuero ◽  
Diane Rivet ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;The use of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) presents unique advantages for earthquake monitoring compared with standard seismic networks: spatially dense measurements adapted for harsh environments and designed for remote operation. However, the ability to determine earthquake source parameters using DAS is yet to be fully established. In particular, resolving the magnitude and stress drop, is a fundamental objective for seismic monitoring and earthquake early warning. To apply existing methods for source parameter estimation to DAS signals, they must first be converted from strain to ground motions. This conversion can be achieved using the waves&amp;#8217; apparent phase velocity, which varies for different seismic phases ranging from fast body-waves to slow surface- and scattered-waves. To facilitate this conversion and improve its reliability, an algorithm for slowness determination is presented, based on the local slant-stack transform. This approach yields a unique slowness value at each time instance of a DAS time-series. The ability to convert strain-rate signals to ground accelerations is validated using simulated data and applied to several earthquakes recorded by dark fibers of three ocean-bottom telecommunication cables in the Mediterranean Sea. The conversion emphasizes fast body-waves compared to slow scattered-waves and ambient noise, and is robust even in the presence of correlated noise and varying wave propagation directions. Good agreement is found between source parameters determined using converted DAS waveforms and on-land seismometers for both P- and S-wave records. The demonstrated ability to resolve source parameters using P-waves on horizontal ocean-bottom fibers is key for the implementation of DAS based earthquake early warning, which will significantly improve hazard mitigation capabilities for offshore and tsunami earthquakes.&lt;/p&gt;


Solid Earth ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. Stähler ◽  
K. Sigloch ◽  
T. Nissen-Meyer

Abstract. Triplicated body waves sample the mantle transition zone more extensively than any other wave type, and interact strongly with the discontinuities at 410 km and 660 km. Since the seismograms bear a strong imprint of these geodynamically interesting features, it is highly desirable to invert them for structure of the transition zone. This has rarely been attempted, due to a mismatch between the complex and band-limited data and the (ray-theoretical) modelling methods. Here we present a data processing and modelling strategy to harness such broadband seismograms for finite-frequency tomography. We include triplicated P-waves (epicentral distance range between 14 and 30°) across their entire broadband frequency range, for both deep and shallow sources. We show that is it possible to predict the complex sequence of arrivals in these seismograms, but only after a careful effort to estimate source time functions and other source parameters from data, variables that strongly influence the waveforms. Modelled and observed waveforms then yield decent cross-correlation fits, from which we measure finite-frequency traveltime anomalies. We discuss two such data sets, for North America and Europe, and conclude that their signal quality and azimuthal coverage should be adequate for tomographic inversion. In order to compute sensitivity kernels at the pertinent high body wave frequencies, we use fully numerical forward modelling of the seismic wavefield through a spherically symmetric Earth.


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.


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.


Author(s):  
Seong Ju Jeong ◽  
Brian W. Stump ◽  
Heather R. DeShon ◽  
Louis Quinones

ABSTRACT Earthquakes in the Fort Worth basin (FWB) have been induced by the disposal of recovered wastewater associated with extraction of unconventional gas since 2008. Four of the larger felt earthquakes, each on different faults, prompted deployment of local distance seismic stations and recordings from these four sequences are used to estimate the kinematic source characteristics. Source spectra and the associated source parameters, including corner frequency, seismic moment, and stress drop, are estimated using a modified generalized inversion technique (GIT). As an assessment of the validity of the modified GIT approach, corner frequencies and stress drops from the GIT are compared to estimates using the traditional empirical Green’s function (EGF) method for 14 target events. For these events, corner-frequency residuals (GIT−EGF) have a mean of −0.31 Hz, with a standard deviation of 1.30 Hz. We find consistent mean stress drops using the GIT and EGF methods, 9.56 and 11.50 MPa, respectively, for the common set of target events. The GIT mean stress drop for all 79 earthquakes is 5.33 MPa, similar to estimates for global intraplate earthquakes (1–10 MPa) as well as other estimates for induced earthquakes near the study area (1.7–9.5 MPa). Stress drops exhibit no spatial or temporal correlations or depth dependency. In addition, there are no time or space correlations between estimated FWB stress drops and modeled pore-pressure perturbations. We conclude that induced earthquakes in the FWB occurring on normal faults in the crystalline basement release pre-existing tectonic stresses and that stress drops on the four sequences targeted in this study do not directly reflect perturbations in pore-fluid pressure on the fault.


1983 ◽  
Vol 73 (6A) ◽  
pp. 1735-1751
Author(s):  
J. B. Fletcher ◽  
J. Boatwright ◽  
W. B. Joyner

Abstract Three estimates of stress differences, which include Brune stress drop, stress drop from rms of acceleration (arms), and the apparent stress, have been determined for 13 earthquakes at Monticello, South Carolina, a site of reservoir-induced seismicity. Data for nine of the events come from digitally recorded three-component seismograms at four or five stations that were deployed around the Monticello Reservoir in May and early June 1979. The data from the other four events come from a strong-motion accelerograph located on the dam abutment at the southwest end of the reservoir. Estimates of the seismic moment (Mo) range from 4.6 × 1017 to 3.4 × 1020 dyne-cm (S waves) and radiated energy from about 1011 to 3 × 1016 dyne-cm (S waves). Brune stress drops ranged from 0.5 bars to about 90 bars and show a strong dependence on depth (focal depths range from 0.07 to 1.4 km) and a moderate dependence on Mo. Arms stress drops from the direct S-wave span a similar range of values and also exhibit a strong dependence on depth. Apparent stresses are usually lower than the other estimates of stress differences by a factor of 2 to 4. Seismic stress differences are highest in the topmost 0.2 to 0.3 km, a depth range for which the in situ measurements of stress and pore pressure suggest that the rock is in a state of incipient failure. In this depth range, where the four largest events occurred, the stress drops are of the same order as the ambient shear stress. These data suggest that at Monticello, where pore fluids have a strong influence on the failure process, the largest stresses released seismically are in regions most conducive to failure and that the seismic efficiencies for events at Monticello are larger than have been reported for other tremors in different tectonic settings.


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