The scattering of seismic waves through a crust and upper mantle with random lateral and vertical inhomogeneities

The propagation of seismic waves through Earth models with slightly random lateral and vertical inhomogeneities superimposed on one composed of layers with vertical velocity gradients was investigated. The maximum deviation of velocity from a mean value at a given depth and a correlation distance derived from a two-dimensional smoothing filter were two parameters used to vary the amplitude and size of the velocity anomalies. The resulting models show short discontinuous reflectors scattered about at various depths throughout the model, and are thus in agreement with many deep seismic reflection experiments. On the other hand numerical experiments using ray-tracing techniques showed that the effect of the lateral and vertical velocity anomalies is to scatter the energy, and break up the continuous travel-time lines from vertical gradient models into travel-time segments with different slopes similar to those observed in many long range seismic refraction experiments, and to those resulting from layering effects in the media. Many of the numerical experiments which modelled the random crust produced a Pg segment and a P* segment with an apparent Conrad discontinuity at a depth of 10–20 km, this apparent depth being related to the correlation distance.When a seismic wave propagates through a heterogeneous Earth the amount of its energy which is converted into scattered energy will be a function of the inhomogeneous characteristics of the medium through which it has passed. If a ray passes through a homogeneous Earth the energy arriving at an array station should be relatively coherent whereas if the ray encounters lateral and vertical inhomogeneities its energy will be incoherent and much more complex. A series of coherency measurements done on array recordings of earthquakes at various distances showed that large lateral and vertical variations in complexity exist for different ray paths through the Earth with the region below the 650 km discontinuity in the mantle tending to be much simpler than the region just below the lithosphere.