Studies on seismic waves

The development of seismic wave study in China in the past four years is reviewed. The discussion is divided into several aspects, including seismic wave propagation in laterally homogeneous media, laterally heterogeneous me-dia, anisotropie and porous media, surface wave and seismic wave inversion, and seismic wave study in prospect-ing and logging problems. Important projects in the current studies on seismic wave is suggested as the develop-ment of high efficient numerical methods, and applying them to the studies of excitation and propagation of seis-mic waves in complex media and strong ground motion, which will form a foundation for refined earthquake haz-ard analysis and prediction.     

Guiding MF waves from the Earth’s surface into space

The insufficiently known phenomenon of MF-wave propagation from the Earths surface through the magnetosphere (guiding) to the conjugate hemisphere and back to the transmitter has been experimentally studied. Computer modelling fulfilled on the basis of ray tracing showed that guiding was possible only from area of the main ionospheric trough. The effect of MF guiding is most useful for the diagnostics of the plasmapause, poleward edge of the trough, the diffuse precipitation boundary and so on.     

Effects of surface drag on low-level frontogenesis within baroclinic waves

Using a three-dimensional nonhydrostatic mesoscale numerical model (MM5), the evolution and structures of baroclinic waves with and without surface drag in case of dry and moist atmosphere are simulated, with special emphases on the effects of surface drag on the low-level frontal structure and frontogenesis. There are two different effects of surface drag on the low-level frontogenesis in the dry case. On one hand, the surface drag weakens the low-level frontogenesis and less inclined to develop the baroclinic wave due to the dissipation. But on the other hand, the surface drag induces a strong ageostrophic flow, which prolongs the low-level frontogenesis and finally leads to the enhancement of cold front. Compared with the no surface drag case, the surface drag increases the frontal slope espe- cially in the boundary layer, where the front is almost vertical to the surface, and then enhances the prefrontal vertical motion. All these conclusions expanded the analytical theory of Tan and Wu (1990). In the moist atmosphere, the influence of surface drag on frontal rainbands is also obvious. The surface drag weakens the convection, and reduces the energy dissipation near the surface when the initial relative humidity is relatively weak. At this time, the confluence induced post-frontal updrafts moves across the cold front and reinforces the prefrontal convection, which is beneficial to the maintenance of the rainband in cold sector. Given the enhancement of relative humidity, the moist convection domi- nates the low-level frontogenesis while the retardation of surface drag on energy dissipation is not obvious, therefore the effects of surface drag on the low-level frontogenesis and precipitation are re- duced.     

Attenuation of coda waves and Q_c value beneath the Chengdu telemetered seismic network

ＡｔｅｎｕａｔｉｏｎｏｆｃｏｄａｗａｖｅｓａｎｄＱｃｖａｌｕｅｂｅｎｅａｔｈｔｈｅＣｈｅｎｇｄｕｔｅｌｅｍｅｔｅｒｅｄｓｅｉｓｍｉｃｎｅｔｗｏｒｋＪＩＡＮＺＥＮＧ１）（曾健）ＴＩＡＮＣＨＡＮＧＣＨＥＮ１）（陈天长）ＷＥＩＢＩＮＨＡＮ１）（韩渭宾...     

Reflection and transmission of seismic waves at an interface betwen two saturated soils

ＲｅｆｌｅｃｔｉｏｎａｎｄｔｒａｎｓｍｉｓｉｏｎｏｆｓｅｉｓｍｉｃｗａｖｅｓａｔａｎｉｎｔｅｒｆａｃｅｂｅｔｗｅｎｔｗｏｓａｔｕｒａｔｅｄｓｏｉｌｓＪＵＮＹＡＮＧ（杨峻）ＳＨＩＭＩＮＧＷＵ（吴世明）ＺｈｅｊｉａｎｇＵｎｉｖｅｒｓｉｔｙ，Ｈａｎｇｚ...     

On the relation of variations in the travel times of seismic waves with the changes in the speed of the Earth’s rotation

The results of long-term sounding of the lithosphere by seismic waves from the deep-focus Hindu Kush earthquakes are presented. The travel time series of the first longitudinal wave on a fixed base are constructed for six seismic observation stations (SS) located on the Russian Platform (the Obninsk SS), on the Siberian Platform (the Eltsovka SS), on the Cis-Ural Trough (the Arti SS), in the Central-Ural Megazone (the Sverdlovsk SS), in the Transbaikalia (the Bodaibo SS), and in the Northern Tien Shan (the Przhevalsk SS). The time series duration in years for these stations ranged from 1964–1970 to 2007. The travel time series of seismic waves for the stations indicated are characterized by multi-slope negative linear trends caused by changes in the stress-strain state of rocks. From the comparison of the trend slopes at different stations it follows that the changes in the stress conditions within the lithosphere are relatively weak in the aseismic regions of the Russian and Siberian Platforms and in the Ural Megazone, whereas in the seismically active regions of Tien Shan, Transbaikalia and the Cis-Ural Trough they are more pronounced. The correlation has been observed between the time series trends of the average annual travel times of seismic waves and the time series of the Earth’s rotation speed. The strongest correlation between the series can be seen for the stations, located on the platforms with weak manifestations of both seismicity and active geodynamic processes. Within the long-term periods of deceleration and acceleration of the Earth’s rotation, travel times of seismic waves are decreased and increased, respectively.     

A real time processing system of seismic waves using personal computers — Function and characteristics

Conclusions The real-time processing system of CTSN performs following: A/D conversion; automatic event detection; event data saving; automatic measure of P and S arrivals; event location and print out the calculated results. It is corrected at ny moment by using the off-line system. Since December 1993, this system has been operating normally in the CTSN. More than 4 000 earthquakes have been recorded in the system. It has high accuracy in automatic picking P and S arrivals. The location of the earthquakes determined by on-line system are close to those given in published catalogues which are determined by manual procedure. This system can finish locate event in three minutes. It also gives satisfactory epicenter locations for distant events by inputting manually S arrivals in the off-line system. The operation of this system had brought the technical superiority of the CTSN. It not only reduces the labor intensity and simplifies the working procedure, but also makes our research facility into the superior ranks in this field of our country. In conclusion, the real-time processing system of seismic wave provides technical support for the daily requirements of monitoring seismic activity as well as a lot of digital waveform data used seismic research in Sichuan area. This subject is sponsored by the Scientific and Technical Committee of Sichuan Province.     

Features of different types of seismic events in China’s Capital Region

Seismic records produced by different seismic sources vary. In this study, we compared the waveform records and time-frequency characteristics of tectonic earthquakes, artificial explosions, and mine collapses in China’s Capital Region. The results show that tectonic earthquakes are characterized by stronger S-wave energy than P-wave energy, obvious high-frequency components, and wide frequency bands of P and S waves. Artificial explosions are characterized by greater P-wave amplitude than S-wave amplitude and near-station surface wave development. Mine collapses are characterized by lower overall frequency, more obvious surface waves, and longer duration. We extracted quantitative discriminants based on the analysis of different event records, with 31 feature values in 7 categories (P/S maximum amplitude ratio, high/low frequency energy ratio, P/S spectral ratio, corner frequency, duration, the second-order moment of spectrum, and energy strongest point). A comparison of the ability of these feature values to recognize distinct events showed that the 6–17 Hz P/S spectral ratio was able to completely distinguish artificial explosions from the other two types of events. The S-wave corner frequency performed relatively well in identifying all three types of events, with an accuracy of over 90%. Additionally, a support vector machine was used to comprehensively distinguish multiple features, with an accuracy for all three types of events reaching up to 100%.     

ulti-azimuth three-component surface seismic modeling for viscoelastic cracked monoclinic media

针对粘弹性裂隙型单斜介质,本文应用高阶交错网格差分法,对其传播快照以及多方位地面三分量记录进行模拟,结果证明了裂隙填充物的性质引起的各向异性与粘弹性性质对单斜介质波场有明显的影响,总结了不同观测方位地震记录呈现出的规律性,这为进一步了解波场在介质中的传播情况,提出更合理的理论模型,提供一种尝试.     

Site flatfile of Korea meteorological administration’s seismic stations in Korea

Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering - This study constructed a flatfile with the information useful to satisfy the site characterization requirements of Korea Meteorological Administration’s...     

Impact of different sea surface roughness on surface gravity waves using a coupled atmosphere–wave model: a case of Hurricane Isaac (2012)

Ocean Dynamics - The complicated pattern of the chaotic ocean surface depends strongly on the interaction between wind and waves. An accurate representation of momentum and energy exchange at...     

Normalization of seismic quantities and units

In the seismological field, attention paid to the problem concerning the normalization of seismic quantities and their units has not been enough all along. In different countries, different seismological organizations and different academic periodicals, seismic quantities and their units are used according to different rules and are expressed in different forms. Some of such examples include that some units unapproved by the International Conference on (CGPM) and some units that can not be u…     

Potential rupture surface model and its application on probabilistic seismic hazard analysis

Potential sources are simplified as point sources or linear sources in current probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) methods. Focus size of large earthquakes is considerable, and fault rupture attitudes may have great influ-ence upon the seismic hazard of a site which is near the source. Under this circumstance, it is unreasonable to use the simplified potential source models in the PSHA, so a potential rupture surface model is proposed in this paper. Adopting this model, we analyze the seismic hazard near the Chelungpu fault that generated the Chi-Chi (Jiji) earthquake with magnitude 7.6 and the following conclusions are reached. 1 This model is reasonable on the base of focal mechanism, especially for sites near potential earthquakes with large magnitude; 2 The attitudes of poten-tial rupture surfaces have great influence on the results of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and seismic zoning.     

Cepstrum analysis of seismic source characteristics

This paper introduces the concept of cepstrum.By investigating the difference in source characteristics between earthquakes and explosions the paper infers the manifestation of source difference in various variable domains,and seeks for effective means to express such source difference.Extending the approach of source discrimination from time and frequency domain to the cepstrum domain,the paper proposes a method of cepstrum analysis for recognizing the characteristics of seismic sources and establishes criteria for identifying the type of seismic sources.Cepstrum analysis on some recent earthquakes and explosions has been made,and the result shows that the method is quite effective in practice.     

Processes of India’s offshore summer intraseasonal sea surface temperature variability

Active and break phases of the Indian summer monsoon are associated with sea surface temperature (SST) fluctuations at 30–90 days timescale in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Mechanisms responsible for basin-scale intraseasonal SST variations have previously been discussed, but the maxima of SST variability are actually located in three specific offshore regions: the South-Eastern Arabian Sea (SEAS), the Southern Tip of India (STI) and the North-Western Bay of Bengal (NWBoB). In the present study, we use an eddy-permitting 0.25° regional ocean model to investigate mechanisms of this offshore intraseasonal SST variability. Modelled climatological mixed layer and upper thermocline depth are in very good agreement with estimates from three repeated expendable bathythermograph transects perpendicular to the Indian Coast. The model intraseasonal forcing and SST variability agree well with observed estimates, although modelled intraseasonal offshore SST amplitude is undere-stimated by 20–30 %. Our analysis reveals that surface heat flux variations drive a large part of the intraseasonal SST variations along the Indian coastline while oceanic processes have contrasted contributions depending of the region considered. In the SEAS, this contribution is very small because intraseasonal wind variations are essentially cross-shore, and thus not associated with significant upwelling intraseasonal fluctuations. In the STI, vertical advection associated with Ekman pumping contributes to ～30 % of the SST fluctuations. In the NWBoB, vertical mixing diminishes the SST variations driven by the atmospheric heat flux perturbations by 40 %. Simple slab ocean model integrations show that the amplitude of these intraseasonal SST signals is not very sensitive to the heat flux dataset used, but more sensitive to mixed layer depth.     

Velocity structure and active fault of Yanyuan-Mabian seismic zone—The result of high-resolution seismic refraction experiment

The authors processed the seismic refraction Pg-wave travel time data with finite difference tomography method and revealed velocity structure of the upper crust on active block boundaries and deep features of the active faults in western Sichuan Province. The following are the results of our investigation. The upper crust of Yanyuan basin and the Houlong Mountains consists of the superficial low-velocity layer and the deep uniform high-velocity layer, and between the two layers, there is a distinct, and gently west-dipping structural plane. Between model coordinates 180–240 km, P-wave velocity distribution features steeply inclined strip-like structure with strongly non-uniform high and low velocities alternately. Xichang Mesozoic basin between 240 and 300 km consists of a thick low-velocity upper layer and a high-velocity lower layer, where lateral and vertical velocity variations are very strong and the interface between the two layers fluctuates a lot. The Daliang Mountains to the east of the 300 km coordinate is a non-uniform high-velocity zone, with a superficial velocity of approximately 5 km/s. From 130 to 150 km and from 280 to 310 km, there are extremely distinct deep anomalous high-velocity bodies, which are supposed to be related with Permian magmatic activity. The Yanyuan nappe structure is composed of the superficial low-velocity nappe, the gently west-dipping detachment surface and the deep high-velocity basement, with Jinhe-Qinghe fault zone as the nappe front. Mopanshan fault is a west-dipping low-velocity zone, which extends to the top surface of the basement. Anninghe fault and Zemuhe fault are east-dipping, tabular-like, and low-velocity zones, which extend deep into the basement. At a great depth, Daliangshan fault separates into two segments, which are represented by drastic variation of velocity structures in a narrow strip: the west segment dips westward and the east segment dips eastward, both stretching into the basement. The east margin fault of Xichang Mesozoic basin features a strong velocity gradient zone, dipping southwestward and stretching to the top surface of the basement. The west-dipping, tabular-like, and low-velocity zone at the easternmost segment of the profile is a branch of Mabian fault, but the reliability of the supposition still needs to be confirmed by further study. Anninghe, Zemuhe and Daliangshan faults are large active faults stretching deep into the basement, which dominate strong seismic activities of the area. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2004CB428400)     

Influence of the atmospheric surface layer on the penetration of the electric field from the earth’s surface into the ionosphere

In the used model, the quasistationary electric field in the atmosphere of the Earth is obtained by solving the conductivity equation. The penetration characteristics of the electric field from the Earth’s surface into the ionosphere depend on both atmospheric and ionosphere conductivity. The ionosphere is taken into account by setting a special condition on the upper boundary of the atmosphere. The influence of the atmospheric surface layer with a reduced conductivity on the penetration of the electric field from the surface of the Earth into the ionosphere is analyzed.