ALBERT

Description: In this study, information carried by the ambient seismic field is exploited to extract impulse response functions between two seismic stations using one as a ‘virtual’ source. Interferometry by deconvolution method is used and validated by comparing the extracted ambient noise impulse response waveforms with records of moderate magnitude earthquakes (from M w 4 to 5.8) that occurred close to the virtual source station in Japan. As the information is only available at low frequencies (less than 0.25 Hz), the ambient seismic field approach is coupled to a non-stationary stochastic model to simulate time domain accelerograms up to 50 Hz. This coupling allows the predicted ground motion to have both the deterministic part at low frequencies coming from the source and the crust structure and the high-frequency random contribution from the seismic waves scattering. The resulting combined accelerograms for an M w 5.8 event show a good agreement with observed ground motions from a real earthquake.

Description: On 2012 May 19, an m b  = 4 earthquake shook the town of Montes Claros, Brazil in the middle of the São Francisco Craton. Because of the scarce seismicity in the area, an event like this could provide valuable information to characterize the governing seismotectonics and stress field for the region. Here, we present the results of more than 1 yr of local seismic monitoring after the main shock. We found that the seismicity originated at approximately 1-km depth in an NNW-oriented blind reverse fault, dipping to the E. The magnitude of the main shock was 4 m b , with aftershocks reaching up to 3.6 m b . Focal mechanisms from first motion polarities and waveform moment tensor inversions indicate a reverse faulting in agreement with the orientation of the aftershock locations. In addition, we derived a new 1-D local velocity model using a simultaneous inversion of hypocentres and velocity layers. The results indicate P -wave velocities of 4.5 km s –1 for the upper layer of carbonate rocks and 5.23 and 5.69 km s –1 for the lower fractured and compact crystalline basement layers, respectively. Higher Vp / Vs ratios were obtained for the upper two layers compared to the lowermost layer, possibly indicating presence of rock fracturing and percolated water. The calculated stress drop for the main event is 0.33 MPa, which is a relatively low value for an intraplate earthquake but still within the observed range. The inversion of the main shock focal mechanism and previously published focal mechanisms suggests a compressional stress regime in the central part of the São Francisco Craton, which is different from the strike-slip regime in the southern part, although both have an EW-oriented 1. On the other hand, focal mechanisms of events located to the west of the craton indicate an NW–SE oriented 1 for central Brazil. This variability highlights the importance of local sources of stresses (e.g. flexural stresses) in mid-plate South America, unlike other mid-plate areas of the world, such as central and east North America, where a more uniform stress field is observed.

Description: The Paradox Valley Unit (PVU), a salinity control project in southwest Colorado, disposes of brine in a single deep injection well. Since the initiation of injection at the PVU in 1991, earthquakes have been repeatedly induced. PVU closely monitors all seismicity in the Paradox Valley region with a dense surface seismic network. A key factor for understanding the seismic hazard from PVU injection is the maximum magnitude earthquake that can be induced. The estimate of maximum magnitude of induced earthquakes is difficult to constrain as, unlike naturally occurring earthquakes, the maximum magnitude of induced earthquakes changes over time and is affected by injection parameters. We investigate temporal variations in maximum magnitudes of induced earthquakes at the PVU using two methods. First, we consider the relationship between the total cumulative injected volume and the history of observed largest earthquakes at the PVU. Second, we explore the relationship between maximum magnitude and the geometry of individual seismicity clusters. Under the assumptions that: (i) elevated pore pressures must be distributed over an entire fault surface to initiate rupture and (ii) the location of induced events delineates volumes of sufficiently high pore-pressure to induce rupture, we calculate the largest allowable vertical penny-shaped faults, and investigate the potential earthquake magnitudes represented by their rupture. Results from both the injection volume and geometrical methods suggest that the PVU has the potential to induce events up to roughly M W 5 in the region directly surrounding the well; however, the largest observed earthquake to date has been about a magnitude unit smaller than this predicted maximum. In the seismicity cluster surrounding the injection well, the maximum potential earthquake size estimated by these methods and the observed maximum magnitudes have remained steady since the mid-2000s. These observations suggest that either these methods overpredict maximum magnitude for this area or that long time delays are required for sufficient pore-pressure diffusion to occur to cause rupture along an entire fault segment. We note that earthquake clusters can initiate and grow rapidly over the course of 1 or 2 yr, thus making it difficult to predict maximum earthquake magnitudes far into the future. The abrupt onset of seismicity with injection indicates that pore-pressure increases near the well have been sufficient to trigger earthquakes under pre-existing tectonic stresses. However, we do not observe remote triggering from large teleseismic earthquakes, which suggests that the stress perturbations generated from those events are too small to trigger rupture, even with the increased pore pressures.

Description: Current earthquake early warning (EEW) systems lack the ability to appropriately handle multiple concurrent earthquakes, which led to many false alarms during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake sequence in Japan. This paper uses a Bayesian probabilistic approach to handle multiple concurrent events for EEW. We implement the theory using a two-step algorithm. First, an efficient approximate Bayesian model class selection scheme is used to estimate the number of concurrent events. Then, the Rao-Blackwellized Importance Sampling method with a sequential proposal probability density function is used to estimate the earthquake parameters, that is hypocentre location, origin time, magnitude and local seismic intensity. A real data example based on 2 months data (2011 March 9–April 30) around the time of the 2011 M 9 Tohoku earthquake is studied to verify the proposed algorithm. Our algorithm results in over 90 per cent reduction in the number of incorrect warnings compared to the existing EEW system operating in Japan.

Description: The effect of network density and geometric distribution on kinematic non-linear source inversion is investigated by inverting synthetic ground motions from a buried strike-slip fault ( M w 6.5), that have been generated by dynamic spontaneous rupture modelling. For the inversion, we use a physics-based regularized Yoffe function as slip velocity function. We test three different cases of station network geometry: (i) single station, varying azimuth and epicentral distance; (ii) multistation circular configurations, that is stations at similar distances from the fault, and regularly spaced around the fault; (iii) irregular multistation configurations using different numbers of stations. Our results show: (1) single station tests suggest that it may be possible to obtain a relatively good source model even using a single station. The best source model using a single station is obtained with stations at which amplitude ratios between three components are not large. We infer that both azimuthal angle and source-to-station distance play an important role in the design of optimal seismic network for source inversion. (2) Multistation tests show that the quality of the inverted source systematically correlates neither with the number of stations, nor with waveform misfit. (3) Waveform misfit has a direct correlation with the number of stations, resulting in overfitting the observed data without any systematic improvement of the source. It suggests that the best source model is not necessarily derived from the model with minimum waveform misfit. (4) A seismic network with a small number of well-spaced stations around the fault may be sufficient to obtain acceptable source inversion.

Description: The Maule earthquake (2010 February 27, M w 8.8, Chile) broke the subduction megathrust along a previously locked segment. Based on an international aftershock deployment, catalogues of precisely located aftershocks have become available. Using 23 well-located aftershocks, we calibrate the classic teleseismic backprojection procedure to map the high-frequency seismic radiation emitted during the earthquake. The calibration corrects traveltimes in a standard earth model both with a static term specific to each station, and a ‘dynamic’ term specific to each combination of grid point and station. The second term has been interpolated over the whole slipping area by kriging, and is about an order of magnitude smaller than the static term. This procedure ensures that the teleseismic images of rupture development are properly located with respect to aftershocks recorded with local networks and does not depend on accurate hypocentre location of the main shock. We track a bilateral rupture propagation lasting ~160 s, with its dominant branch rupturing northeastwards at about 3 km s –1 . The area of maximum energy emission is offset from the maximum coseismic slip but matches the zone where most plate interface aftershocks occur. Along dip, energy is preferentially released from two disconnected interface belts, and a distinct jump from the shallower belt to the deeper one is visible after about 20 s from the onset. However, both belts keep on being active until the end of the rupture. These belts approximately match the position of the interface aftershocks, which are split into two clusters of events at different depths, thus suggesting the existence of a repeated transition from stick-slip to creeping frictional regime.

Description: Multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) method analyses high-frequency surface waves to determine shear ( S )-wave velocities of near-surface materials, which are usually unconsolidated and possess higher Poisson's ratios. One of key steps using the MASW method to obtain the near-surface S -wave velocities is to pick correct phase velocities in dispersive images. A high-frequency seismic survey conducted over near-surface materials with a higher Poisson's ratio will often result in data that contains non-geometric wave, which will raise an additional energy in the dispersion image. Failure to identify it may result in misidentification. In this paper, we have presented a description about leaky surface wave and the influence caused by the existence of leaky waves in a high-frequency seismic record. We first introduce leaky wave and non-geometric wave. Next, we use two synthetic tests to demonstrate that non-geometric wave is leaky wave and show the properties about leaky surface wave by eigenfunctions using Chen's algorithm. We show that misidentification may occur in picking the dispersion curves of normal Rayleigh wave modes because the leaky-wave energy normally connects energy of fundamental and/or higher modes. Meanwhile, we use a real-world example to demonstrate the influence of leaky wave. We also propose that muting and filtering should been applied to raw seismic records prior to generating dispersive images to prevent misidentifying leaky surface waves as modal surface waves by a real-world example. Finally, we use a three-layer model with a low-velocity half-space to illustrate that leaky surface waves appear on condition that the phase velocities are higher than maximum S -wave velocity of the earth model when solving the Rayleigh equation.

Description: The b value of the Gutenberg–Richter (GR) distribution is estimated as a function of a threshold magnitude m th and it is found to depend on m th for magnitudes larger than the completeness magnitude m c . We identify a magnitude interval [ m c , m m ] where b is a decreasing function of m th followed by a regime of increasing b for large magnitudes. This is a common feature of experimental catalogues for different geographic areas. The increase at large m th is explained in terms of an upper magnitude cut-off in experimental catalogues due to finite size effects. We develop a rigorous mathematical framework to relate the decrease of b in the intermediate regime to the functional form of the distribution of the b values. We propose two hypotheses: The first is that the spatial and temporal variability of b leads to a b distribution peaked around its average value. The second is that main shocks and aftershocks are distributed according to the GR law with different b values, leading to a bimodal distribution of b . Simulated Epidemic Type Aftershock Sequences catalogues, generated according to this hypothesis, exhibit the same magnitude distribution of experimental ones. In alternative, we cannot exclude the b dependence on m caused by magnitudes not homogeneously evaluated in a seismic catalogue. In the latter scenario our results provide the correction terms to the estimated magnitudes.

Description: In the western Pacific, high-frequency seismic energy is carried to very great distances from the source. The Po and So phases with observed seismic velocities characteristic of the mantle lithosphere have complex and elongated waveforms that are well explained by a model of stochastic heterogeneity. However, in the eastern part of the Pacific Basin equivalent paths show muted Po and weak, or missing, So . Once established, it is hard to eliminate such guided Po and So energy in the mantle lithosphere by purely structural effects. Even sharp changes in lithospheric thickness or complex transitions at fracture zones only weaken the mantle ducted wave trains, but Po and So remain distinct. In contrast, the effect of attenuation is much more severe and can lead to suppression of the So phase to below the noise level after passage of a few hundred kilometres. The differing characteristics of Po and So across the Pacific can therefore be related directly to the thermal state via the enhanced attenuation in hotter regions, such as the spreading ridges and backarc regions.

Description: We present an analysis of the M w = 5.3 earthquake that occurred in the Southeast Indian Ridge on 2010 February 11 using USArray data. The epicentre of this event is antipodal to the USArray, providing us with an opportunity to observe in details the antipodal focusing of seismic waves in space and time. We compare the observed signals with synthetic seismograms computed for a spherically symmetric earth model (PREM). A beamforming analysis is performed over the different seismic phases detected at antipodal distances. Direct spatial snapshots of the signals and the beamforming results show that the focusing is well predicted for the first P -wave phases such as PKP or PP . However, converted phases ( SKSP , PPS ) show a deviation of the energy focusing to the south, likely caused by the Earth's heterogeneity. Focusing of multiple S -wave phases strongly deteriorates and is barely observable.