Phase Statistics of Seismic Coda Waves

Scattered seismic coda waves are frequently used to characterize small scale medium heterogeneities, intrinsic attenuation or temporal changes of wave velocity. Spatial variability of these properties raises questions about the spatial sensitivity of seismic coda waves. Especially the continuous monitoring of medium perturbations using ambient seismic noise led to a demand for approaches to image perturbations observed with coda waves. An efficient approach to localize the property variations in the medium is to invert the observations from different source-receiver combinations and different lapse times in the coda for the location of the perturbations. The key of such an inversion is calculating the coda-wave sensitivity kernels which describe the connection between observations and the perturbation. Most discussions of sensitivity kernels use the acoustic approximation and assume wave propagation in the diffusion regime.We model 2-D &#160;elastic multiple nonisotropic scattering in a random medium with spatially variable heterogeneity and attenuation. The Monte Carlo method is used to numerically solve the radiative transfer equation that describes the wave scattering process here. Recording of the specific intensity of the wavefield I(r,n,t) which contains the complete information about the energy at position r at time t with the propagation direction n allows us to calculate sensitivity kernels according to rigorous theoretical derivations. We investigate sensitivity kernels that describe the relationships between changes of the model parameters P- and S-wave velocity, P- and S-wave attenuation, and the strength of fluctuation on the one hand and the observables envelope amplitude, travel time changes and decorrelation on the other hand. These sensitivity kernels reflect the effect of the spatial variations of medium properties on wavefield. Our work offers a direct approach to compute these new expressions and adapt them to spatially variable heterogeneities. The sensitivity kernels we derived are the first step in the development of an inversion approach based on coda waves.

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Dynamical evolution of the seismic coda wave increments during the 2011-2012 Santorini's caldera unrest. A Non-Extensive Statistical Physics approach.

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8190 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Theodoros Aspiotis ◽

Ioannis Koutalonis ◽

Georgios Michas ◽

Filippos Valianatos

Keyword(s):

Statistical Physics ◽

Distribution Functions ◽

Coda Waves ◽

Coda Wave ◽

Tectonic Activity ◽

Volcanic Complex ◽

Dynamical Structure ◽

Gaussian Shape ◽

Caldera Unrest ◽

Seismic Coda

Santorini's caldera being unrest during 2011-2012, led several studies to raise the important question of whether seismicity is associated with an impending and potential volcanic eruption or it solely relieves the accumulated tectonic energy. In the present work we study seismic coda waves generated by local earthquake events prior, during and after the seismic crisis that occurred within the caldera area. Coda waves are interpreted as scattered seismic waves generated by heterogeneities within the Earth, i.e. by faults, fractures, velocity and/or density boundaries and anomalies, etc. In particular, we utilize the three components of the seismograms recorded by three seismological stations on the island of Santorini and estimate the duration of the coda waves by implementing a three step procedure that includes the signal-to-noise ratio, the STA/LTA method and the short time Fourier transform. The final estimation was verified or reestimated manually due to the existent ambient seismic noise. Due to the nature and the path complexity of the coda waves and towards achieving a unified framework for the study of the immerse geo-structural seismotectonic complexity of the Santorini volcanic complex, we use Non-Extensive Statistical Physics (NESP) to study the probability distribution functions (pdfs) of the increments of seismic coda waves. NESP forms a generalization of the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics, that has been extensively used for the analysis of semi-chaotic systems that exhibit long-range interactions, memory effects and multi-fractality. The analysis and results demonstrate that the seismic coda waves increments deviate from the Gaussian shape and their respective pdfs could adequately be described and processed by the q-Gaussian distribution. Furthermore and in order to investigate the dynamical structure of the volcanic-tectonic activity, we estimate the q-indices derived from the pdfs of the coda wave time series increments during the period 2009 - 2014 and present their variations as a function of time and as a function of the local magnitude (ML) of the events prior, during and after the caldera unrest. &#160; &#160;Acknowledgments.&#160;We acknowledge support by the project &#8220;HELPOS &#8211; Hellenic System for Lithosphere Monitoring&#8221; (MIS 5002697) which is implemented under the Action &#8220;Reinforcement of the Research and Innovation Infrastructure&#8221;, funded by the Operational Programme "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation" (NSRF 2014-2020) and co-financed by Greece & European Union (ERDF)

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