Two-dimensional PP/PS-stereotomography: P- and S-waves velocities estimation from OBC data

We present the extension of stereotomography to P - and S -wave velocity estimation from PP - and PS -reflected/diffracted waves. In this new context, we greatly benefit from the use of locally coherent events by stereotomography. In particular, when applied to S -wave velocity estimation from PS -data, no pairing of PP - and PS -events is a priori required. In our procedure the P -wave velocity model is obtained first using stereotomography on PP -arrivals. Then the S -wave velocity model is obtained using PS -stereotomography on PS -arrivals fixing the P -wave velocity model. We present an application to an 'ideal' synthetic data set demonstrating the relevance of the approach, which allows us to recover depth consistent P - and S -waves velocity models even if no pairing of PP - and PS -events is introduced. Finally, results to a real data set from the Gulf of Mexico are presented demonstrating the potential of the method in a noisy data context.     

Underground Nuclear Explosions Recorded At Rarotonga: Estimation of MB From T-Phase Amplitude

Summary. More than seventy underground nuclear explosions detonated in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia have been detected on the short-period vertical Benioff seismograph at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Early data suggested that the duration of the T -phase provides a better estimate of the magnitude of the events than does the amplitude, but with more data now available it has been shown that amplitude is in fact the more reliable parameter. Data prior to 1980 are more scattered than those since. This appears to be related to the substantially different station network in those early years, compared with the later period, and suggests some unreliability in early data. Station corrections have been extracted and improved estimates of the magnitudes of the events obtained.