DECONVOLUTION OF REFRACTION SEISMOGRAMS FROM LARGE UNDERWATER EXPLOSIONS

Geophysics ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. White ◽  
R. F. Mereu

The P-wave spectra of seismograms from large underwater explosions are frequently dominated by reverberations. When this is so, a simple reverberation model similar to that of Backus (1959) gives a good approximation to the source spectrum. The basic wavelet determined by this method is not necessarily minimum‐delay. A few promising deconvolutions have been carried out, revealing a sequence of arrivals of comparable amplitudes separated by short time intervals. Synthetic seismograms which have been constructed from these spike sequences differ very little from the field records. However, the technique often yields output seismograms which are not easily interpreted. A study using synthetic seismograms suggests five reasons for this: 1) low signal‐to‐noise ratios, which result in too narrow a frequency band in which signal is predominant; 2) pulses arriving at the recorder having undergone phase changes during transmission, especially in combination with 3) very close spacing of the sequence of arrivals, causing overlap of the deconvolved output pulses; 4) the presence of arrivals which are not propagated along simple ray‐theory paths, and 5) poor estimation of the source parameters. Nonlinear effects and complex geology at the source are other possible causes of complications in the deconvolved records.

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 579-597
Author(s):  
Cristi D. Guevara ◽  
Stephen P. Shipman
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Xiaohui He ◽  
Hao Liang ◽  
Peizhen Zhang ◽  
Yue Wang

Abstract The South China block has been one of the most seismically quiescent regions in China, and the geometries and activities of the Quaternary faults have remained less studied due to the limited outcrops. Thus, source parameters of small-to-moderate earthquakes are important to help reveal the location, geometry distribution, and mechanical properties of the subsurface faults and thus improve the seismic risk assessment. On 12 October 2019, two earthquakes (the Ms 4.2 foreshock and the Ms 5.2 mainshock) occurred within 2 s and are located in southern South China block, near the junction region of the large-scale northeast-trending fault zones and the less continuous northwest-trending fault zones. We determined the point-source parameters of the two events via P-wave polarity analysis and regional waveform modeling, and the resolved focal mechanisms are significantly different with the minimum 3D rotation angle of 52°. We then resolved the rupture directivity of the two events by analyzing the azimuth variation of the source time duration and found the Ms 4.2 foreshock ruptured toward north-northwest for ∼1.0 km, and the Ms 5.2 mainshock ruptured toward east-southeast (ESE) for ∼1.5 km, implying conjugate strike-slip faulting. The conjugate causative faults have not been mapped on the regional geological map, and we infer that the two faults may be associated with the northwest-trending Bama-Bobai fault zone (the Shiwo section). These active faults are optimally oriented in the present-day stress field (northwest-southeast) and thus may now be potentially accumulating elastic strain to be released in a future large earthquake.


1976 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 803-825
Author(s):  
William A. Peppin

abstract Some 140 P-wave spectra of explosions, earthquakes, and explosion-induced aftershocks, all within the Nevada Test Site, have been computed from wide-band seismic data at close-in (< 30 km) and near-regional (200 to 300 km) distances. Observed near-regional corner frequencies indicate that source corner frequencies of explosions differ little from those of earthquakes of similar magnitude for 3 < ML < 5. Plots of 0.8 to 1.0 Hz Pg spectral amplitude versus 12-sec Rayleigh-wave amplitude show a linear trend with unit slope over three orders of magnitude for explosions; earthquakes fail to be distinguished from explosions on such a plot. These spectra also indicate similar source spectra for explosions in different media (tuff, alluvium, rhyolite) which corroborates Cherry et al. (1973). Close-in spectra of three large explosions indicate that: (1) source corner frequencies of explosions scale with yield in a way significantly different from previously published scaling laws; (2) explosion source spectra in tuff are flat from 0.2 to 1.0 Hz (no overshoot); (3) the far-field source spectrum decays at least as fast as frequency cubed. Taken together, these data indicate that the following factors are not responsible for Peppin and McEvilly's (1974) near-regional discriminant: (a) source dimension, (b) source rise time, or (c) shape of the source spectrum.


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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. G. Krishna

<p>Vertical component record sections of local earthquake seismograms from a state-of-the-art Koyna-Warna digital seismograph network are assembled in the reduced time versus epicentral distance frame, similar to those obtained in seismic refraction profiling. The record sections obtained for an average source depth display the processed seismograms from nearly equal source depths with similar source mechanisms and recorded in a narrow azimuth range, illuminating the upper crustal P and S velocity structure in the region. Further, the seismogram characteristics of the local earthquake sources are found to vary significantly for different source mechanisms and the amplitude variations exceed those due to velocity model stratification. In the present study a large number of reflectivity synthetic seismograms are obtained in near offset ranges for a stratified upper crustal model having sharp discontinuities with 7%-10% velocity contrasts. The synthetics are obtained for different source regimes (e.g., strike-slip, normal, reverse) and different sets of source parameters (strike, dip, and rake) within each regime. Seismogram sections with dominantly strike-slip mechanism are found to be clearly favorable in revealing the velocity stratification for both P and S waves. In contrast the seismogram sections for earthquakes of other source mechanisms seem to display the upper crustal P phases poorly with low amplitudes even in presence of sharp discontinuities of high velocity contrasts. The observed seismogram sections illustrated here for the earthquake sources with strike-slip and normal mechanisms from the Koyna-Warna seismic region substantiate these findings. Travel times and reflectivity synthetic seismograms are used for 1-D modeling of the observed virtual source local earthquake seismogram sections and inferring the upper crustal velocity structure in the Koyna-Warna region. Significantly, the inferred upper crustal velocity model in the region reproduces the synthetic seismograms comparable to the observed sections for earthquake sources with differing mechanisms in the Koyna and Warna regions.</p>


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.


1976 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 1609-1622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltan A. Der ◽  
Thomas W. McElfresh

abstract Average Q values were determined for ray paths to various LRSM stations from the SALMON nuclear explosion by taking ratios of observed P-wave spectra to the estimated source spectrum. Most Q values for P-wave paths throughout eastern North America are in the range 1600 to 2000 while those crossing over into the western United States are typically around 400 to 500. These differences in Q for intermediate distances can sufficiently explain the differences in the teleseismic event magnitudes observed, 0.3 to 0.4 magnitude units, in the western versus the eastern United States, if one assumes that the low Q layer under the western United States is located at depths less than 200 km.


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.


1989 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E. Hough ◽  
K. Jacob ◽  
R. Busby ◽  
P.A. Friberg

Abstract We present analysis of a magnitude 3.5 event which occurred at 9 km epicentral distance from a digital strong motion instrument operated by the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research. Although the size of this isolated event is such that it can scarcely be considered to be a significant earthquake, a careful analysis of this high quality recording does yield several interesting results: 1) the S-wave spectra can be interpreted in terms of a simple omega-squared source spectrum and frequency-independent attenuation, 2) there is the suggestion of a poorly-resolved resonance in the P-wave spectrum, and perhaps most importantly, 3) the apparently simple S-wave spectra can be fit almost equally well with a surprisingly wide range of seismic corner frequencies, from roughly 5 to 25 Hz. This uncertainty in corner frequency translates into uncertainties in inferred Q values of almost an order of magnitude, and into uncertainties in stress drop of two orders of magnitude. Given the high quality of the data and the short epicentral distance to the station, we consider it likely that resolution of spectral decay and corner frequency will be at least as poor for any other recording of earthquakes with comparable or smaller magnitudes.


1990 ◽  
Vol 189 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Eastman ◽  
K. E. Sickafus ◽  
J. D. Katz ◽  
S. G. Boeke ◽  
R. D. Blake ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTNanocrystalline TiO2 compacts having initial approximate mean grain sizes of 14 nm and approximate green densities of 70% of theoretical were sintered by short-time exposure in a 2.45 GHz microwave cavity to maximum temperatures of 800, 1000 or 1200 ºC. Sample densities were measured before and after exposure to microwaves using Archimede's method. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction were utilized to monitor grain growth and phase changes. Rutherford backscattering was used to monitor any changes in oxygen stoichiometry. The results of this study indicate that enhanced densification behavior is obtained for microwavesintered samples relative to samples sintered using conventional pressureless-sintering techniques.


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