scholarly journals Moment tensor inversion of early instrumental data: application to the 1917 High Tiber Valley, Monterchi earthquake

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Bernardi ◽  
Maria Grazia Ciaccio ◽  
Barbara Palombo ◽  
Graziano Ferrari

<p>In this paper we present a new study on the High Tiber Valley earthquake occurred on April 26, 1917. Using the digitized data from mechanical seismograph records, we computed the source parameters like focal mechanism and moment magnitude from moment tensor (MT). The study of historical earthquakes from an instrumental perspective is crucial because of the complexity of problems associated with the study of seismograms of moderate to large earthquakes occurred from the late 19th century until the early 1960s. Since historical earthquake records show significant uncertainties in phase arrival times and have been recorded by seismograph generally with short natural period, we developed a code to compute the MT based on a forward modeling technique, which uses the amplitude spectra of the full waveform length and the first P-arrival polarities to constrain the P- and T-axes. The best solution is determined by the best fit between the observed and synthetic amplitude spectra and from the coherency between the observed and the theoretical first P-arrival polarities. The 1917 High Tiber Valley earthquake is one of the most important 20th century earthquake occurred in the Italian Peninsula for which the focal mechanism and moment magnitude from seismic records are not available. Additionally, we apply a multidisciplinary approach to characterize the source of this earthquake, combining instrumental, macroseismic, geological and tectonic data and investigations. The computed MT results in a north-south normal fault mechanism (strike: 147°, dip: 29°, slip: −94°), which is consistent with the strike estimated from the macroseismic data (157°). The moment magnitude calculated from the MT and that derived from the macroseismic data are M<span><sub>w</sub></span>=5.5±0.2 and M<span><sub>w</sub></span>=5.9±0.1, respectively.</p>

By recording several components of tilt, strain and acceleration at one location, one can determine the focal mechanism, or moment tensor, of an earthquake. Alternatively, recordings made at several locations can be used. The moment tensor can be decomposed into its isotropic part and its deviatoric part. When the eigerrvalues of the deviator are in the sequence (— 1, 0, 1) the equivalent double couple can be found.


Author(s):  
B. Pustovitenko ◽  
E. Eredzhepov

The spectral and dynamic source parameters (М0, r0, , , ησ, , u, Eu and Mw) of 16 Crimean earthquakes with КП=6.5–10.8, restored by amplitude spectra of compression and shear seismic waves recorded by digital regional seismic stations are analyzed. Approximation of the spectra and source parameters calculation is performed in the framework of the Brune dislocation model. The highest values of dynamic parameters (М0, r0, , , ησ, u, EU и Mw) are obtained for the earthquakes on June 13 and August 16 with h=11 km, h=7 km respectively and КП=10.8, which occurred in the Azov-Kuban and Kerch-Anapa areas. The radiation friction r for all earthquakes had a negative value, pointing to a complex slide of the rupture in the source. Within the whole energy range, the average value of the released stress did not exceed Δσ=8∙105 PA (8 bar) and apparent stress ησ <11∙105 PA (11 bar). For most 2015 earthquakes, the average M0 и r0 values were within the confidence intervals of long-term dependencies M0(КП), r0(КП). The values of r0 were evenly distributed concerning the regression r0(КП) and М0 is mostly located below the average according to М0 (КП). The maximum deviations of M0 from the long-term М0(КП) dependence were obtained for the most strong earthquakes on June 13 and August 16 with КП=10.8. These deviations can be associated with participation in average M0 of the "Sevastopol" station data which give low values of М0 and possible errors in determining the focal depths influencing the choice of environment velocity models to calculate М0. For the most strong earthquake of August 16 with Мw=3.8, which occurred in the Kerch-Anapa region, a solution of focal mechanism was obtained. The earthquake occurred under the action of horizontal latitudinal tensile forces. The type of movement in the source is an oblique normal fault. Both nodal planes have near-meridional (STKNP1=167°) and near-diagonal (STKNP2=336°) strike.


Author(s):  
Ya. Radziminovich ◽  
V. Melnikova ◽  
N. Gileva ◽  
A. Filippova

The paper considers three relatively strong earthquakes that occurred in 2015 in the northern Lake Baikal region: July 7 Upper Akuli earthquake (Mw=4.6) with the epicenter at the headwaters of the Akuli River, and September 25 Gulonga-I (Mw=4.7) and December 13 Gulonga-II earthquakes (Mw=4.6) with the epicenters near the mountain lakes Gulonga. Instrumental and macroseismic data on these seismic events are reported. A seismic moment tensor, calculated from surface wave records, shows normal fault focal mechanisms for Upper Akuli and Gulonga-II earthquakes and strike-slip movements in the source of the Gulonga-I seismic event. The results obtained could be used in further studies of seismic zoning and seismic hazard assessment in the northern Lake Baikal region.


Author(s):  
V. Melnikova ◽  
N. Gileva ◽  
Ya. Radziminovich ◽  
A. Filippova

We consider September 2, 2015, Mw=5.1 Tallay earthquake occurred in the previously aseismic area of the North-Muya Ridge adjoining to the Muya-Kuanda basin from the north. Instrumental and macroseismic data on this seismic event are presented. Its seismic moment tensor is calculated from surface wave amplitude spectra. New data on strong ground motions are obtained within the north-eastern flank of the Baikal rift. The Tallay earthquake is found to be connected with seismogenic renewal of the second-order multidirectional faults activated in the rift stress field.


Author(s):  
A. Seredkina ◽  
V. Melnikova ◽  
N. Gileva ◽  
Ya Radziminovich

We consider the Boguchan January 17, 2014 earthquake(Mw=4.3) occurred on the Siberian Platform in the area of the sublongitudinal part of the Angara River. Instrumental and macroseismic data on this seismic event, tectonic features and deep structure of the crust within its source area are analyzed. Seismic moment tensor and hypocentral depth of the earthquake are calculated from its surface wave amplitude spectra. It has been shown that the concentration and relaxation of the tectonic stress in the source area are likely to be conditioned by velocity heterogeneities in the upper and middle crust. The obtained facts evidence that the study earthquake, most probably, is not connected with filling of the Angara cascade of water reservoirs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (6) ◽  
pp. 3021-3036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Suárez ◽  
Daniel Ruiz-Barón ◽  
Carlos Chico-Hernández ◽  
F. Ramón Zúñiga

ABSTRACT We present the first parametric catalog of historical earthquakes in Mexico from 1469 to 1912 composed of 323 historical earthquakes. The historical earthquakes were assigned to specific seismotectonic provinces, and attenuation relations of seismic intensity versus distance were calculated using instrumental earthquakes. The intensity data were inverted using a linear regression for the best-fitting magnitude and source location. From the 323 events identified in the historical record, magnitude and source location were determined for 40 earthquakes from 1568 to 1912. The historical subduction earthquakes are distributed uniformly along the coast. There is, however, a conspicuous absence of subduction earthquakes where the great 1985 Michoacán earthquakes took place. The data also show a large number of earthquakes Mw&gt;7 in the presumed Guerrero gap in the past 320 yr. The source parameters of in-slab earthquakes were obtained for 10 earthquakes that took place in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The analysis of completeness of the historical and instrumental International Seismological Centre-Global Earthquake Model catalogs of subduction earthquakes Mw&gt;7.0 show similar values of the slope of the Gutenberg–Richter relation between 1.62 and 1.95. The large b-values appear to reflect the apparently anomalous large number of earthquakes in the magnitude range Mw 7.4–7.7 and an absence of events Mw∼7. This magnitude distribution suggests that the seismicity in the Mexican subduction zone is dominated by characteristic earthquakes in the magnitude range Mw 7.4–7.7, with larger earthquakes Mw&gt;8 showing longer recurrence times. The catalog of historical subduction earthquakes appears to be complete for Mw&gt;7.5. The catalog of crustal earthquakes in the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt is complete since 1568 for events Mw&gt;6.4. Completeness of the catalog of in-slab earthquakes was not estimated due to the short record for this type of event.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
R.M. Pak ◽  
O.D. Hrytsai

Modeling of earthquake source parameters, such as the orientation of the fault plane and the direction of the fault slip, is important for understanding the physics of earthquake source processes, determining the stress-strain state of the geological medium and seismic hazard estimation. For modeling source parameters of the earthquake on December 12, 2018 at 08:49:56,16 (UTC) in Japan (36,4478° N, 140,5788° E, Northern Ibaraki Pref region) at a depth of 62 km with a magnitude of Mw = 4.3, the waveforms inversion was used to determine seismic moment tensor and representation it through a focal mechanism. The earthquake source is considered as a point source of seismic waves which propagate in a medium represented by a set of horizontally homogeneous elastic layers. An algorithm for determining seismic tensor components based on the forward problem solved by the matrix method, and using the generalized inverse solution, selecting only direct waves is applied. The input data for determining seismic moment components are data of only direct P waves selected from the observed records at six seismic stations of the Japanese local network NIED F-net: TSK, YMZ, ASI, ONS, SBT, KSK. The seismic moment tensor components were determined through waveform inversion using the matrix method. The obtained results, presented through a focal mechanism, are compared to the results obtained by the National Research Institute of Earth Sciences and Resistance to Natural Disasters (NIED CMT solutions). As a result of focal mechanisms comparison, it is concluded that the proposed algorithm for determining seismic moment tensor components can be used if it is impossible to use another method, or requires some refinement for another method. This approach is especially relevant for regions with low seismicity and insufficient number of stations. In addition, this method reduces the effects of an inaccurate medium model, because direct waves are much less distorted than reflected and converted, and that increases the accuracy and reliability of the method.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hijrah Saputra ◽  
Wahyudi Wahyudi ◽  
Iman Suardi ◽  
Ade Anggraini ◽  
Wiwit Suryanto

AbstractThis study comprehensively investigates the source mechanisms associated with the mainshock and aftershocks of the Mw = 6.3 Yogyakarta earthquake which occurred on May 27, 2006. The process involved using moment tensor inversion to determine the fault plane parameters and joint inversion which were further applied to understand the spatial and temporal slip distributions during the earthquake. Moreover, coseismal slip distribution was overlaid with the relocated aftershock distribution to determine the stress field variations around the tectonic area. Meanwhile, the moment tensor inversion made use of near-field data and its Green’s function was calculated using the extended reflectivity method while the joint inversion used near-field and teleseismic body wave data which were computed using the Kikuchi and Kanamori methods. These data were filtered through a trial-and-error method using a bandpass filter with frequency pairs and velocity models from several previous studies. Furthermore, the Akaike Bayesian Information Criterion (ABIC) method was applied to obtain more stable inversion results and different fault types were discovered. Strike–slip and dip-normal were recorded for the mainshock and similar types were recorded for the 8th aftershock while the 9th and 16th June were strike slips. However, the fault slip distribution from the joint inversion showed two asperities. The maximum slip was 0.78 m with the first asperity observed at 10 km south/north of the mainshock hypocenter. The source parameters discovered include total seismic moment M0 = 0.4311E + 19 (Nm) or Mw = 6.4 with a depth of 12 km and a duration of 28 s. The slip distribution overlaid with the aftershock distribution showed the tendency of the aftershock to occur around the asperities zone while a normal oblique focus mechanism was found using the joint inversion.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1125-1162 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. Stähler ◽  
K. Sigloch

Abstract. Seismic source inversion is a non-linear problem in seismology where not just the earthquake parameters themselves, but also estimates of their uncertainties are of great practical importance. Probabilistic source inversion (Bayesian inference) is very adapted to this challenge, provided that the parameter space can be chosen small enough to make Bayesian sampling computationally feasible. We propose a framework for PRobabilistic Inference of Source Mechanisms (PRISM) that parameterises and samples earthquake depth, moment tensor, and source time function efficiently by using information from previous non-Bayesian inversions. The source time function is expressed as a weighted sum of a small number of empirical orthogonal functions, which were derived from a catalogue of >1000 STFs by a principal component analysis. We use a likelihood model based on the cross-correlation misfit between observed and predicted waveforms. The resulting ensemble of solutions provides full uncertainty and covariance information for the source parameters, and permits to propagate these source uncertainties into travel time estimates used for seismic tomography. The computational effort is such that routine, global estimation of earthquake mechanisms and source time functions from teleseismic broadband waveforms is feasible.


1995 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 705-715
Author(s):  
Mark Andrew Tinker ◽  
Susan L. Beck

Abstract Regional distance surface waves are used to study the source parameters for moderate-size aftershocks of the 25 April 1992 Petrolia earthquake sequence. The Cascadia subduction zone had been relatively seismically inactive until the onset of the mainshock (Ms = 7.1). This underthrusting event establishes that the southern end of the North America-Gorda plate boundary is seismogenic. It was followed by two separate and distinct large aftershocks (Ms = 6.6 for both) occurring at 07:41 and 11:41 on 26 April, as well as thousands of other small aftershocks. Many of the aftershocks following the second large aftershock had magnitudes in the range of 4.0 to 5.5. Using intermediate-period surface-wave spectra, we estimate focal mechanisms and depths for one foreshock and six of the larger aftershocks (Md = 4.0 to 5.5). These seven events can be separated into two groups based on temporal, spatial, and principal stress orientation characteristics. Within two days of the mainshock, four aftershocks (Md = 4 to 5) occurred within 4 hr of each other that were located offshore and along the Mendocino fault. These four aftershocks comprise one group. They are shallow, thrust events with northeast-trending P axes. We interpret these aftershocks to represent internal compression within the North American accretionary prism as a result of Gorda plate subduction. The other three events compose the second group. The shallow, strike-slip mechanism determined for the 8 March foreshock (Md = 5.3) may reflect the right-lateral strike-slip motion associated with the interaction between the northern terminus of the San Andreas fault system and the eastern terminus of the Mendocino fault. The 10 May aftershock (Md = 4.1), located on the coast and north of the Mendocino triple junction, has a thrust fault focal mechanism. This event is shallow and probably occurred within the accretionary wedge on an imbricate thrust. A normal fault focal mechanism is obtained for the 5 June aftershock (Md = 4.8), located offshore and just north of the Mendocino fault. This event exhibits a large component of normal motion, representing internal failure within a rebounding accretionary wedge. These two aftershocks and the foreshock have dissimilar locations in space and time, but they do share a north-northwest oriented P axis.


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