Studies on seismic source

During the period of 1999-2002, the Chinese seismologists made a serious of developments in the study on seis-mic sources including observations, experiments and theory. In the field of observation, the methods of the accu-racy location of earthquake sources, the inversion of seismic moment tensor and the mechanism of earthquake source are improved and developed. A lot of important earthquake events are studied by using these methods. The rupture processes of these events are inverted and investigated combined with the local stress fields and the tec-tonic moment by using the measurements of surface deformation. In the fields of experiments and theory, many developments are obtained in cause of seismic formation, condition of stress and tectonics, dynamics of earthquake rupture, rock fracture and nucleation of strong earthquakes.     

Centroid Depth Versus Hypocentral Depth： Their Distribution and Depth／Mechanism Dependence

The Harvard Global CMT catalogue from 1977 to 1998 is analyzed to investigate the relation between the centroid depth and the hypocentral depth. It is observed that for shallow earthquakes, the hypocentral depth is systematically larger than the centroid depth, while for deep-focus earthquakes there is no statistically significant difference between the distributions of centroid and hypocentral depth. A detailed look at the result reveals that such a systematic difference is mainly from the contribution of thrust and normal earthquakes, while strike-slip earthquakes have no such regularity. It turns out that for shallow thrust and normal earthquakes, seismic rupture tends to initiate from the deeper part.     

Détermination du tenseur des contraintes par inversion de mécanismes au foyer de séismes sans choix de plans nodauxStress tensor determination through inversion of double couple focal mechanisms of earthquakes without choice between nodal planes

The seismotectonic state of stress is determined using double couple focal mechanisms of earthquakes, without any need to choose among the nodal planes. As the inversion criterion, a function that does not depend on this choice is adopted: the slip shear stress component, or SSSC. A new method is built, based on this criterion. Because the inversion is carried out by analytic means, the runtime is negligible and does not depend on the number of data. To cite this article: J. Angelier, C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 73–80     

New anisotropic covariance models and estimation of anisotropic parameters based on the covariance tensor identity

 Many heterogeneous media and environmental processes are statistically anisotropic. In this paper we focus on range anisotropy, that is, stochastic processes with variograms that have direction dependent correlation lengths and direction independent sill. We distinguish between two classes of anisotropic covariance models: Class (A) models are reducible to isotropic after rotation and rescaling operations. Class (B) models can be separated into a product of one-dimensional functions oriented along the principal axes. We propose a new Class (A) model with multiscale properties that has applications in subsurface hydrology. We also present a family of Class (B) models based on non-Euclidean distance metrics that are generated by superellipsoidal functions. Next, we propose a new method for determining the orientation of the principal axes and the degree of anisotropy, i.e., the ratio(s) of the correlation lengths. This information reduces the degrees of freedom of anisotropic variograms and thus simplifies the estimation procedure. In particular, Class (A) models are reduced to isotropic and Class (B) models to one-dimensional functions. Our method is based on an explicit relation between the second-rank slope tensor (SRST), which can be estimated from the data, and the covariance tensor. The procedure is conceptually simple and numerically efficient. It is more accurate for regular (on-grid) data distributions, but it can also be used for sparse (off-grid) spatial distributions. In the case of non-differentiable random fields the method can be extended using generalized derivatives. We illustrate its implementation with numerical simulations.     

岩石波速温度和压力系数的测量方法及其应用

概述了高温高压实验技术在研究地球深部物质组成和结构等方面所起的作用，认为它是把地球物理模型同地球深部物质组成结合起来必不可少的一个中间环节，通过分析典型的试验结果，介绍了在实验室测定岩石波速温度系数（ρ↓V/ρ↓T）P、压力系数（ρ↓T／ρ↓P）T和岩石本征波速（VO）的方法，以及运用它们进行波速外推的原理，结合前人工作实例，阐明了将此技术与地质及地球物理研究结合，为地球物理测深资料的解释提供实验约束的研究思路，针对在前人工作中实验参数及实验结果存在差异的现象，着重探讨了实验条件和流程对实验结果的影响，认为，在用回归方法计算（ρ↓V／ρ↓P）T时，通常应在大于300MPa的压力段上采集实验数据，以消除岩石内部先存微裂隙的影响；在计算（ρ↓V／ρ↓P）T时，为抑制热裂隙的产生，还应满足不小于1MPa/℃的压力增量；另外，测定（ρ↓V／ρ↓T）P时，实验温度不宜太高，以避免引起岩石内部的矿物相变和物态变化。     

深层地震勘探的地震波传传播理论研究前景

深层地震勘探为地震波传播理论研究提出了新的挑战和机遇。深层地震勘探的主要难点是上覆层的影响甚大，使后续的处理有隔靴挠痒之感，必须应用波场延拓消除上覆层影响。深层波速的高速性和横向不均匀性决定了大角散射和弹性波处理方法的重要性。本文具体评述了深层地震勘探的主要方法对策，深入探讨了波场延拓的李群方法和弹性反演的某些问题，目的在于为深化深层地震提供新的研究手段和方法。     

2002年3月31日台湾M 7.5地震概述

2002年3月31日在台湾以东沿海附近发生里氏7.5级地震，造成生命和财产的较严重损失。文章概述了这次地震的情况，包括震源参数、震源机制解、破坏、伤亡和发震背景。     

Seismic moment tensor for intermediate depth earthquakes at regional distances in Southern Spain

A method has been developed to obtain the seismic moment tensor components by linear inversion of P waves recorded at regional distance for intermediate depth earthquakes. The seismic moment tensor is separated into double couple (DC) and compensated linear vector dipole (CLVD) parts. The method has been applied to four earthquakes (64<h<95 km) which occurred in the Malaga region (southern Spain). Solutions for the 1987 event show a percentage of CLVD of 20% with a short source time function and DC part corresponding to vertical motion. For the 1989, 1990 and 1992 earthquakes, percentages of CLVD between 0% and 6% have been found. Comparison with the results obtained in a previous study [Buforn et al., J. Seismol. 1 (1997) 113] by modelling of P waves using a DC model, shows that the use of a more general representation of the source (seismic moment tensor) gives a fit of data for the 1987 event.     

The use of uniaxial recordings in moment tensor inversions for induced seismic sources

This study shows that the use of uniaxial recordings maintains the linear dependence of the low frequency displacements, with first polarities included, on the moment tensor components, and thus can be easily incorporated in the evaluation of failure mechanism using a moment tensor approach. Synthetic data analysis demonstrates that the errors in the orientation of the principal strain axes of the mechanism solution can be reliably evaluated using a linear error propagation approximation for up to 30% variance in the amplitude data. Case studies at the Kidd Mine indicate that the general characteristics of the mechanism solution are well retrieved, regardless of the type of data used, as relatively small disorientation angles of 15–20° are found between the solutions derived from rotated triaxial data and those from unrotated triaxial data used as uniaxial data, and of 25–30° between the solutions based on rotated triaxial data and those on independent uniaxial data.