The attenuation mechanism of seismic waves in northwestern Himalayas

We analysed local earthquake waveforms recorded on a broad-band seismic network in northwestern Himalayas to compute the intrinsic and scattered attenuation parameters from coda waves. Similar to other tectonically active and heterogeneous regions, attenuation-frequency relation for western Himalaya is   Q ⁻¹ _c = (113 ± 7)  f ^(1.01±0.05)  where   Q_c   is the coda Q parameter. Intrinsic  ( Q ⁻¹ _i )  and scattering  ( Q ⁻¹ _s )  attenuations was separated using   Q_c   and direct S -wave Q data  ( Q_d )  . It is observed that estimated   Q ⁻¹ _c   is close to   Q ⁻¹ _i   and both of them are much larger than   Q ⁻¹ _s   suggesting that coda decay is predominantly caused by intrinsic attenuation. At higher frequencies, both the attenuation parameters   Q_c   and,   Q_d   are similar indicating that coda is predominantly composed of back-scattered S waves at these frequencies.     

Small-scale heterogeneities below the Gräfenberg array, Germany from seismic wavefield fluctuations of Hindu Kush events

Small-scale elastic heterogeneities (<5  km) are found in the upper lithosphere underneath the Gräfenberg array, southeast Germany. The results are based on the analysis of broadband recordings of 17 intermediate-depth (201–272  km) events from the Hindu Kush region. The wavefront of the first P arrival and the following 40  s coda are separated into coherent and incoherent (scattered) parts in the frequency range from 0.05 to 5  Hz. The frequency-dependent intensities of the mean and fluctuation wavefields are used to describe the scattering characteristics of the lithosphere underneath the receivers. It is possible to discriminate a weak-fluctuation regime of the wavefield in the frequency range below approximately 1.5–2.5  Hz and a strong-fluctuation regime starting at 2.0–2.5  Hz and continuing to higher frequencies. In order to explain the observed wavefield fluctuations, an approach with seismic scattering at random media-type structures is proposed. The preferred model contains heterogeneities with 3–7 per cent perturbations in seismic velocity and correlation lengths of 0.6–4.8  km in the crust. This is compatible with models from active seismic experiments. Scattering in the lithospheric mantle is not required, but cannot be excluded at weak velocity contrasts (<3 per cent).     

Crustal scattering at the KTB from a combined microearthquake and receiver analysis

In December of 1994 a fluid injection experiment which triggered several hundreds of microearthquakes was conducted at the KTB main borehole (Oberpfalz, Germany). These events were recorded with a temporal seismic network at the surface. Out of the complete data set, a cluster of five events recorded at four mini-arrays consisting of eight or nine stations was used to investigate the crustal scattering properties in the vicinity of the KTB. For this purpose, the 'Double Beam Method' (DBM; Krüger et al . 1993 , 1995 , 1996) and the 'Double Beam Imaging Method' (Scherbaum, Krüger & Weber 1997) were extended to curved wave fronts to drop the restriction of plane-wave propagation. This technique is used for imaging the crustal scattering strength using earthquake clusters recorded at close-by mini-arrays. The results of the array analysis show that the composition of the P coda is mainly affected by the site location of the arrays. Near-surface and deeper crustal scattering contribute in a very complicated pattern. Furthermore, with the present data set it was possible to identify reflections from the top of the Erbendorf Body. This is a very pronounced arrival in most of the recorded traces. In one of the arrays its amplitudes are even greater than the direct P phases. Five to eight coherent phases could be identified by the mini-arrays. Using only these phases, synthetic P -coda traces were constructed, which only contain the coherent part of the observed wavefield. By subtracting the synthetic coherent wavefield from the original traces we achieve a variance reduction in the P coda of up to 37 per cent. This leads to the conclusion that a large amount of the P coda at the KTB can be modelled by a simple deterministic single-scattering model using a small number of individual scatterers.