Computing the Sensitivity Kernels for 2.5-D Seismic Waveform Inversion in Heterogeneous,Anisotropic Media

2.5-D modeling and inversion techniques are much closer to reality than the simple and traditional 2-D seismic wave modeling and inversion. The sensitivity kernels required in full waveform seismic tomographic inversion are the Fréchet derivatives of the displacement vector with respect to the independent anisotropic model parameters of the subsurface. They give the sensitivity of the seismograms to changes in the model parameters. This paper applies two methods, called ‘the perturbation method’ and ‘the matrix method’, to derive the sensitivity kernels for 2.5-D seismic waveform inversion. We show that the two methods yield the same explicit expressions for the Fréchet derivatives using a constant-block model parameterization, and are available for both the line-source (2-D) and the point-source (2.5-D) cases. The method involves two Green’s function vectors and their gradients, as well as the derivatives of the elastic modulus tensor with respect to the independent model parameters. The two Green’s function vectors are the responses of the displacement vector to the two directed unit vectors located at the source and geophone positions, respectively; they can be generally obtained by numerical methods. The gradients of the Green’s function vectors may be approximated in the same manner as the differential computations in the forward modeling. The derivatives of the elastic modulus tensor with respect to the independent model parameters can be obtained analytically, dependent on the class of medium anisotropy. Explicit expressions are given for two special cases—isotropic and tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media. Numerical examples are given for the latter case, which involves five independent elastic moduli (or Thomsen parameters) plus one angle defining the symmetry axis.     

Analysis of a group of seismic events using rotational components

Analysis of a group of seismic events which took place in central Italy and have been recorded at the l’Aquila Observatory reveals proportionality between the maximum seismic signal (the displacement velocity) and the maximum amplitudes of rotational components. To compare the seismic events in the aspect of energy emitted as rotational motions, the rotation indices are used; these indices help us also to differentiate between the results obtained for different frequency spectra. In the adopted higher frequency range, 2.6–43 Hz, the relation between maximum displacement velocities and the rotation indices is roughly reciprocal, while for the lower frequencies, 0.3–3 Hz, there is no clear relationship. The share of rotation motions in the whole seismic energy emitted from the source varies during the seismic event. Research on the rotational components hidden in the seismic field gives a new insight into the processes in the source.     

Lateral density anomaly distribution in the lower mantle obtained from satellite low order geopotential coefficients

In this paper, we attempt to use satellite gravity data and a new inversion method to study the lateral density anomaly distribution in the mantle. First, density difference Δρ(τ,θ,φ) is expanded in terms of a three—dimensional orthogonal function system, the coefficients of the expansion are to be determined. Then, a set of observation equations is established from the relationship between density anomaly and disturbing geopotential. In the equations the unknown vector contains the coefficients of density anomaly expansion, the observational vector is obtained by computing geopotential perturbations using the potential coefficients of GEM10B, and a filtering process is done for the observational values by properly selecting the harmonic degrees of geopotentical. Finally, the lateral density variations in the lower mantle (670 km toCM boundary) are investigated. In this case, the degrees of disturbing geopotential are selected as 2–11, the truncated degrees of density anomaly expansion are taken asL=6 andK=4, and the damping least squares method is used to solve the observation equations. The resulting model shows the high level of density perturbations at 670 km discontinuity and core — mantle boundary, a high — density zone circumscribing the Pacific and a lower—density region under the center of Pacific. These features are in agreement with the three—dimensional seismic velocity variation features by Dziewonski (1984). In the Antarctic region and some parts of Atlantic and Indian Ocean, however, the resulting density anomalies are negatively correlated with the seismic velocity anomalies, the cause resulting in these phenomena is preliminarily analysed in this paper. The Chinese version of this paper appeared in the Chinese edition ofActa Seismologica Sinica,13, 53–65, 1991. The principle and method represented in this paper can also be suitable to study the lateral density anomaly distribution in the earth’s crust and the upper mantle.     

Study on evaluation of cities’ ability reducing earthquake disasters

Cities’ ability reducing earthquake disasters is a complex system involving numerous factors, moreover the research on evaluating cities’ ability reducing earthquake disasters relates to multi-subject, such as earthquake science, social science, economical science and so on. In this paper, firstly, the conception of cities’ ability reducing earthquake disasters is presented, and the ability could be evaluated with three basic elements — the possible seismic casualty and economic loss during the future earthquakes that are likely to occur in the city and its surroundings and time required for recovery after earthquake; based upon these three basic elements, a framework, which consists of six main components, for evaluating city’s ability reducing earthquake disasters is proposed; then the statistical relations between the index system and the ratio of seismic casualty, the ratio of economic loss and recovery time are gained utilizing the cities’ prediction results of earthquake disasters which were made during the ninth five-year plan; at last, the method defining the comprehensive index of cities’ ability reducing earthquake disasters is presented. Thus the relatively comprehensive theory frame is set up. The frame can evaluate cities’ ability reducing earthquake disasters absolutely and quantitatively and consequently instruct the decision-making on reducing cities’ earthquake disasters loss. Foundation item: State Important Research Project of China (95130603).     

Exploring nonlinear characteristics in seismogenic process

Power spectral characteristics of the seismic activities before and after the seven large earthquake — Haicheng, Tangshan, Lancang, Longling, Mabian, Puer and Songpan are studied by spectrum analysis method. The results show that they all have continuous power spectrum and aperiodic behaviour. When the time away from the large earthquake occurrence, the characteristics of the seismic activities are obviously accompanied by stochastic components. About one year before main shock, the moving orbits constructed by spectrum amplitudes showed the contracting tendency. And the properties during that time may display as flicker noise. One’s another time almost mixed whole phase space. But the essence of seismic activities after main shocks is a chaotic state accompanied with much noises. The Chinese version of this paper appeared in the Chinese edition ofActa Seismologica Sinica,15, 276–281, 1993. This subject is supported by the Chinese Joint Seismological Foundation.     

Dynamic variation of ambient shear stress field before and after three strong earthquakes in Yunnan

IntroductionThecrustaltectonicmovementisacomplicatedevolutionprocesswithtimeandspace.Spatially,themovementofcrustaltectoniciscloselyrelatedtotheinter-movementandinteractionofmulti-leveledcrustalblocksinacertainregionandtheirborderfaults.Temporally,themovementiscloselyrelatedtothatofmulti-leveledcrustalblocksandtimesequencedevelopmentofinteraction.Anearthquakeoccurrenceistheresultofsuddenruptureofcrustmediaundertheactionoftectonicstressfield,isalsoacomplicatedprocessinnercrust.Duetotheobviousi…     

Recent developments in seismically isolated buildings in Japan

The Building Standard Law of Japan and related Enforcement Order and Notifications have been substantially revised since the year 2000 to introduce a performance-based regulatory and deregulation system for building control systems. Up to then, time-history analyses were mandatory for isolated buildings and had to be specially approved by the Minster of the Ministry of Construction (MOC). Simplified design procedures based on the equivalent linear method for seismically isolated buildings have been issued as “Notification 2009 — Structural calculation procedure for buildings with seismic isolation” from MOC, and are now integrated into the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation (MLIT). Along with Notification 2009, “Notification 1446 of year 2000 — Standard for specifications and test methods for seismic isolation devices” was also issued. Buildings with heights equal to or less than 60m and that are designed according to these Notifications, including base isolated buildings, only need approval from local building officials, and no longer require the special approval of the Minister of MLIT. This paper summarizes: 1) some statistics related to buildings with seismic isolation completed up to the end of 2001; 2) simplified design procedures required by Notification 2009 of year 2000; and 3) performance of seismic isolation devices required by Notification 1446 of year 2000.     

Anisotropy Effects on Microseismic Event Location

Seismic anisotropy in sedimentary environments is significant—microseismic waveforms often show strong shear-wave splitting, with differences reaching 40% between horizontally and vertically-polarized shear-wave velocities. Failure to account for this anisotropy is shown to result in large microseismic event location errors. A method is presented here for determining the five elastic parameters of a homogeneous, vertical transverse-isotropic (VTI) model from calibration shot data. The method can also use data from mining-induced seismic events, which are then simultaneously located. This simple model provides a good fit to arrival times from coal-environment data, and results in dramatic shifts in interpreted event locations.     

Shallow degassing events as a trigger for very-long-period seismicity at Kīlauea Volcano,Hawai‘i

The first eruptive activity at Kīlauea Volcano’s summit in 25 years began in March 2008 with the opening of a 35-m-wide vent in Halema‘uma‘u crater. The new activity has produced prominent very-long-period (VLP) signals corresponding with two new behaviors: episodic tremor bursts and small explosive events, both of which represent degassing events from the top of the lava column. Previous work has shown that VLP seismicity has long been present at Kīlauea’s summit, and is sourced approximately 1 km below Halema‘uma‘u. By integrating video observations, infrasound and seismic data, we show that the onset of the large VLP signals occurs within several seconds of the onset of the degassing events. This timing indicates that the VLP is caused by forces—sourced at or very near the lava free surface due to degassing—transmitted down the magma column and coupling to the surrounding rock at 1 km depth.     

Spin and twist motions in the earthquake preparation processes: Analysis of records

Three seismic events in L’Aquila region and one in western Greece have been chosen for comparative analysis of two kinds of seismic motions, spin and twist. These torque components of the seismic field were detected in horizontal plane with the rotational seismometers. Homologous parts were sought in the signals of spin and twist components — curve of one component was compared to the other directly and after transformations: phase-shifting and sign reversal. To achieve better clarity, these operations were done on the data divided into several descendant signals with the use of band-pass filtration. Conformities of spin and twist, revealed in this way, are assumed to be results of distant processes in the source, where relations between rotational and shear motions include retardations.     

Modeling of Wave Dispersion Using Continuous Wavelet Transforms II: Wavelet-based Frequency-velocity Analysis

In this paper, we show how to estimate the phase velocities of multi-mode signals as present in 2-D shallow seismic surveys along a seismic line with the help of a method that is based on the deformation of the wavelet spectra of the seismic traces. In analogy with frequency-wavenumber (f–k) analysis, we perform “frequency-velocity” analysis using the correlations between phases of the wavelet spectra. Our method has two tuning parameters — the parameter of an analyzing wavelet and the parameter of a threshold operation. Numerical and experimental examples are presented to illustrate how the method accurately extracts the phase velocity from single- and multi-mode signals.     

Application of the method of dynamic calibration for IMS stations in regions with lower seismic activity

The Method of Dynamic Calibration (MDC) of stations of the International Monitoring System (IMS) was developed for calibrating regions where no underground nuclear explosions were carried out, with the purpose of providing conditions for implementation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in nontrivial cases. Initially, the MDC had been presented in [Kedrov, 2001; Kedrov et al., 2001; Kedrov O.K. and Kedrov E.O., 2003] and then considered in detail in [Kedrov et al., 2008]. The core of MDC relates to adapting diagnostic parameters for the identification of underground nuclear explosions (UNE) and earthquakes elaborated for the region of Eurasia, taken as a basic region (BR), for other researched regions that differ from BR in the character of the attenuation of seismic waves. The unique characteristic of this method lies in the fact that calibration of diagnostic parameters with the help of attenuation coefficients b _Δ at varied source-station traces is implemented using only natural seismicity data within the limits of an explored region and does not require special underground chemical explosions. The MDC algorithm is implemented in the research program ”Kalibr”, which was tested by using the experimental data from Eurasia region. It is shown in this work that MDC can be used for calibration of regions where a very low level of natural seismicity is observed. According to the results of the calibration of diagnostic parameters at IMS stations in several regions of North America, Africa, and Asia, the approximate classification of propagation conditions for seismic signals at source-station traces in platform and tectonically active regions is made. The results for the development of two research programs, “Spektr” and “Signal”, are presented; this software is intended for automation of calculation procedures for spectral diagnostic parameters of UNEs’ and earthquakes’ identification by amplitude spectra of P waves and by the maximal amplitudes of P, S, and LR signals. The application of these programs allowed us to accelerate the whole calibration procedure for a particular source-station trace using the ”Kalibr” program.     

Bathing water quality monitoring of Varna Black Sea coastal zone,Bulgaria

Physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of the bathing waters in Varna’s Black Sea coastal area were investigated during year 2007 at 23 monitoring stations. Most of the determined physicochemical parameters—pH, mineral oils, surface active substances, phenols, dissolved oxygen, nutrients and microbiological parameters—“Total coliforms”, “Faecal coliforms”, “Faecal streptococci” were in compliance with the guidline’ limits and exhibited good water quality. Ammonium and phosphate’s pollution above the limits was determined at the South beach, Officers beach and Central beach situated in Varna’s central bathing zone. For the period of 13.08 to 24.10.2007—70% of the South beach samples analyzed for NH₄⁺ exceeded the limits 60 times and the concentrations of PO₄³⁻ exceeded the limits 17.5 times. Some deviations from the guidline’ limits regarding the microbiology were exhibited at the same beaches. A conclusion is made that the area of study is not yet seriously threatened, in spite of the rapid recreation during the last years.     

Weak velocity anomaly in the Earth’s outer core from seismic data

Experimental data on the differential travel time t _BC–t _DF of seismic waves PKP_DF and PKP_BC in the Earth’s core under Africa and Australia are analyzed. The differential travel-time residuals beneath Africa in a narrow range of angles from 21° to 25° between the direction of the seismic ray in the core and the Earth’s rotation axis exhibit a scoop-shaped peculiarity not accounted for by cylindrical anisotropy in the inner core. A model with a 0.2–0.8% P-wave velocity anomaly with a radius of 1375 km in the cylindrical region in the outer core is proposed, which closely fits the experimental data. We suggest that the velocity anomaly is generated by the dynamical processes occurring in the outer core, namely, the growth of the inner core and the convection in the outer core, both leading to the formation of a low-density anomaly in the outer core.     

Tropical cyclones as a possible factor affecting seismic activity in the cyclonic zone of the northwestern Pacific

A possible influence of tropical cyclones on seismic activity in the cyclonic zone of the northwestern Pacific is considered. There is no direct and sufficiently reliable method for calculating the degree of impact of tropical cyclones on the Earth’s crust. Therefore, a sort of inverse problem is solved in the investigation: a possible qualitative influence of tropical cyclones on seismic activity is estimated from its intra-annual dynamics. It is established that for territories of the cyclonic zone, the intra-annual dynamics of cyclonic and seismic activities are similar. Low monthly mean values of the cyclonic and seismic energies are attained in July–October, whereas in the continental territories under consideration (Central Asia), the seismic activity is higher in January–March. The results obtained suggest that cyclones can affect the seismic regime in the cyclonic zone of the northwestern Pacific.     

The 1708 Manosque earthquake (France): A reading of its archaeological traces as a contribution to estimate the effects on buildings

Archaeological techniques and methodology are used to identify seismic traces and disorders in ancient buildings. Clear evidence could be identified as direct seismic consequences or as communities’ technical answers for repair or reinforcement of buildings in order to reduce their vulnerability. This methodology is called “archaeological reading of buildings.” It is based on the identification of different construction phases, modifications and past events (human actions or natural phenomena) suffered by buildings during their life. The data read from the buildings are successively observed, identified, described, and recorded, following the principal of archaeological stratigraphy, in order to explain the buildings history. The seismic pathologies are identified according to detailed engineering knowledge of the behaviour of buildings during seismic motion. In this case study, our approach is applied to the historical city of Manosque, located in a seismic area along the “Moyenne–Durance” active fault. As a result of historical researches (Quenet G, Baumont D, Scotti O, Levret A, Ann Geophys, 47(2/3):583–595, 2004), many historical documents gave evidence about this earthquake’s effects. Among these documents, was an exceptional one: the record of a survey made in Manosque by bricklayers a few days after the 14th August 1708 shock. This gave us specific information concerning the seismic damage caused in the town of Manosque and was the starting point to validate the method. In the present paper, the archaeological reading of buildings method is illustrated by two specific cases: the Charité building in Manosque and the Sainte-Agathe chapel in Saint-Maime village. The buildings suffered various modifications during many centuries. This complicates the application of the method, however the observations made from the buildings correlate well with the indications deduced from written sources, validating our approach. The study highlights the necessity to cross correlate different field data in the frame of a multidisciplinary approach in order to obtain valuable results concerning details of seismic damage, its approximate dating by architectural chronology and the communities’ reaction in terms of repairs and reinforcement techniques.     

The rotational and gravitational signature of the December 26, 2004 Sumatran earthquake

Besides generating seismic waves, which eventually dissipate, an earthquake also generates a static displacement field everywhere within the Earth. This global displacement field rearranges the Earth’s mass thereby causing the Earth’s rotation and gravitational field to change. The size of this change depends upon the magnitude, focal mechanism, and location of the earthquake. The Sumatran earthquake of December 26, 2004 is the largest earthquake to have occurred since the 1960 Chilean earthquake. Using a spherical, layered Earth model, the coseismic effect of the Sumatran earthquake upon the Earth’s length-of-day, polar motion, and low-degree harmonic coefficients of the gravitational field are computed. Using a model of the earthquake source that is composed of five subevents having a total moment-magnitude M _w of 9.3, it is found that this earthquake should have caused the length-of-day to decrease by 6.8 microseconds, the position of the Earth’s generalized figure axis to shift 2.32 milliarcseconds towards 127° E longitude, the Earth’s oblateness J ₂ to decrease by 2.37 × 10⁻¹¹ and the Earth’s pear-shapedness J ₃ to decrease by 0.63 × 10⁻¹¹. The predicted change in the length-of-day, position of the generalized figure axis, and J ₃ are probably not detectable by current measurement systems. But the predicted change in oblateness is perhaps detectable if other effects, such as those of the atmosphere, oceans, and continental water storage, can be adequately removed from the observations.     

Site effects “on the rock”: the case of Castelvecchio Subequo (L’Aquila, central Italy)

The April 6, 2009 L’Aquila earthquake was responsible for an “anomalous”, relatively high degree of damage (i.e. Is 7 MCS scale) at Castelvecchio Subequo (CS). Indeed, the village is located at source-to-site distance of about 40 km, and it is surrounded by other inhabited centres to which considerably lower intensities, i.e. Is 5–6, have been attributed. Moreover, the damage was irregularly distributed within CS, being mainly concentrated in the uppermost portion of the old village. Geophysical investigations (ambient seismic noise and weak ground motions analyses) revealed that site effects occurred at CS. Amplifications of the ground motion, mainly striking NE–SW, have been detected at the uppermost portion of the carbonate ridge on which the village is built. Geological/structural and geomechanical field surveys defined that the CS ridge is affected by sets of fractures, joints and shear planes—mainly roughly NW–SE and N–S trending—that are related to the deformation zone of the Subequana valley fault system and to transfer faults linking northward the mentioned tectonic feature with the Middle Aterno Valley fault system. In particular, our investigations highlight that seismic amplifications occur where joints set NW–SE trending are open. On the other hand, no amplification is seen in portions of the ridge where the bedrock is densely fractured but no open joints occur. The fracture opening seems related to the toppling tendency of the bedrock slabs, owing to the local geomorphic setting. These investigations suggest that the detected amplification of the ground motion is probably related to the polarization of the seismic waves along the Castelvecchio Subequo ridge, with the consequent oscillation of the rock slabs perpendicularly to the fractures azimuth.