Shear velocity from differential travel times of short-period ScS-P in New Hebrides, Fiji-Tonga, and Banda Sea regions

1975 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 1787-1796
Author(s):  
Mansur A. Choudhury ◽  
Georges Poupinet ◽  
Guy Perrier

abstract Behavior of P, S and ScS residuals as well as those of differential travel times of ScS-P from the Jeffreys-Bullen tables are analyzed. The phases have been read from short-period records of the Antarctic station, Dumont d'Urville (DRV); the earthquakes originating in New Hebrides, Fiji-Tonga, and Banda Sea regions. P residuals from all regions show a mean value of about −1 sec. On the contrary, S and ScS residuals, well correlated among themselves, show important regional as well as focal-depth dependence. ScS-P residuals from shallow and intermediate shocks are largely positive for New Hebrides and largely negative for Banda Sea; those from intermediate shocks are moderately positive for Fiji-Tonga. The anomalies disappear at depths greater than about 200 km. Upper mantle shear velocity models are presented for the three regions. The models are discussed in relation to a sinking lithosphere.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Rappisi ◽  
Brandon Paul Vanderbeek ◽  
Manuele Faccenda

<p>Teleseismic travel-time tomography remains one of the most popular methods for obtaining images of Earth's upper mantle. While teleseismic shear phases, most notably SKS, are commonly used to infer the anisotropic properties of the upper mantle, anisotropic structure is often ignored in the construction of body wave shear velocity models. Numerous researchers have demonstrated that neglecting anisotropy in P-wave tomography can introduce significant imaging artefacts that could lead to spurious interpretations. Less attention has been given to the effect of anisotropy on S-wave tomography partly because, unlike P-waves, there is not a ray-based methodology for modelling S-wave travel-times through anisotropic media. Here we evaluate the effect that the isotropic approximation has on tomographic images of the subsurface when shear waves are affected by realistic mantle anisotropy patterns. We use SPECFEM to model the teleseismic shear wavefield through a geodynamic model of subduction that includes elastic anisotropy predicted from micromechanical models of polymineralic aggregates advected through the simulated flow field. We explore how the chosen coordinates system in which S-wave arrival times are measured (e.g., radial versus transverse) affects the imaging results. In all cases, the isotropic imaging assumption leads to numerous artefacts in the recovered velocity models that could result in misguided inferences regarding mantle dynamics. We find that when S-wave travel-times are measured in the direction of polarisation, the apparent anisotropic shear velocity can be approximated using sinusoidal functions of period pi and two-pi. This observation allows us to use ray-based methods to predict S-wave travel-times through anisotropic models. We show that this parameterisation can be used to invert S-wave travel-times for the orientation and strength of anisotropy in a manner similar to anisotropic P-wave travel-time tomography. In doing so, the magnitude of imaging artefacts in the shear velocity models is greatly reduced.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore de Lorenzo ◽  
Annalisa Romeo ◽  
Luigi Falco ◽  
Maddalena Michele ◽  
Andrea Tallarico

<p>On April 2013, a local scale seismic network, named OTRIONS, composed of twelve short period (1 Hz) three component seismometers, has been located in the northern part of the Apulia (southern Italy). In the first two months of data acquisition, the network recorded about one hundred very small (M<span><sub>L</sub></span>&lt;2) magnitude earthquakes. A three-layer 1D V<span><sub>P</sub></span> velocity model was preliminarily computed, using the recordings of earthquakes occurred in the area in the period 2006-2012 and recorded by the national seismic network of INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia). This model was calibrated by means of a multi-scale approach, based on a global search of the minimum misfit between observed and theoretical travel times. At each step of the inversion, a grid-search technique was implemented to infer the elastic properties of the layers, by using HYPO71 to compute the forward models. In a further step, we used P and S travel times of both INGV and OTRIONS events to infer a minimum 1D V<span><sub>P</sub></span> velocity model, using a classical linearized inversion approach. Owing to the relatively small number of data and poor coverage of the area, in the inversion procedure, the V<span><sub>P</sub></span>/V<span><sub>S</sub></span> ratio was fixed to 1.82, as inferred from a modified Wadati diagram. The final 1D velocity model was obtained by averaging the inversion results arising from nine different initial velocity models. The inferred V<span><sub>P</sub></span> velocity model shows a gradual increase of P wave velocity with increasing the depth. The model is well constrained by data until to a depth of about 25-30 km.</p>


1974 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goetz G. R. Buchbinder

abstract Long-period energy preceding the PKPDF branch on long-period seismograms was identified as resulting from diffraction from the PKP caustic B. This conclusion is based on the measurements of the travel times, and, therefore, the slope of the travel times, on the amplitude decrease, and the very rapid dispersion of the periods of one earthquake of intermediate focal depth. Data from three deepfocus earthquakes support this interpretation. Thus, the long-period precursors are not due to the same cause as short-period precursors and are not produced by discontinuities in the transition zone between the inner and outer cores nor by structure in the inner core.


1994 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 366-376
Author(s):  
Paul S. Earle ◽  
Peter M. Shearer

Abstract An automatic phase picker is useful for quickly identifying and timing phase arrivals in large seismic data bases. We have developed an automatic phase picker that is sensitive to small changes in amplitude and applied it to over 7 yr of global data distributed by the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC). Our phase-picking algorithm is based on a short-term-average to long-term-average ratio (STA/LTA) taken along an envelope function generated from the seismogram. The algorithm returns arrival times and corresponding pick qualities. The procedure requires few input parameters and is easily adapted to various types of data. We produce global travel-time plots from both high-frequency (20- or 40-Hz sample rate) and low-frequency (1-Hz sample rate) data. These plots clearly image the predominant high- and low-frequency phases in the NEIC data base. Picks made from the long-period seismograms are less precise, but they reveal far more phase arrivals than the short-period picks. A number of phases resulting from reflections and phase conversions at upper mantle discontinuities can be identified in the low-frequency picks; however, a search of the short-period picks for upper mantle discontinuity phases, between P and PP and prior to P′P′, has so far been unsuccessful. In the long-period S and SS picks, we observe a discrepancy in SV and SH travel times, a possible result of upper mantle anisotropy. To check the accuracy and consistency of our algorithm, we present comparisons between hand-picked times and automatic-picked times for identical seismograms. Travel-time residuals from the short-period automatic picks and data reported to the International Seismological Centre (ISC) picks exhibit a comparable amount of scatter. Histograms of the ISC residuals and automatic-pick residuals are similar in shape and width for P and PcP. These observations suggest that human picking errors are not a major contributor to the scatter observed in ISC travel times, although direct comparisons between ISC reported picks and automatic picks on particular seismograms occasionally identify operator mispicks.


1977 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-42
Author(s):  
Mark E. Odegard ◽  
Gerard J. Fryer

Abstract Equations are presented which permit the calculation of distances, travel times and intensity ratios of seismic rays propagating through a spherical body with concentric layers having velocities which vary linearly with radius. In addition, a method is described which removes the infinite singularities in amplitude generated by second-order discontinuities in the velocity profile. Numerical calculations involving a reasonable upper mantle model show that the standard deviations of the errors for distance, travel time and intensity ratio are 0.0046°, 0.057 sec, and 0.04 dB, respectively. Computation time is short.


1962 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Lehmann

abstract The P travel times of the Logan and Blanca atomic explosions are found to be consistent with an upper mantile structure having a discontinuity surface at about 215 km depth at which the velocity and the velocity gradient increase abruptly while the velocity varies only slightly or is constant above this depth.


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