Seismic amplitude tomography for crustal attenuation beneath China

Amplitude tomography reconstructs seismic attenuation directly from recorded wave amplitudes. We have applied the tomography to amplitude data reported in the 'Annual Bulletin of Chinese Earthquakes' and interpreted the regionally varying crustal attenuation in terms of tectonics. The seismic amplitudes were originally recorded for determining the M _L and M _S magnitudes. They generally correspond to the maximum amplitudes of the horizontal components of the short-period S waves and intermediate-period Rayleigh waves. Both sets of measurements are sensitive to crustal structure. The peak amplitudes from M _L amplitudes spread spherically with significant dispersion and scattering. M _S amplitudes show cylindrical spreading with little dispersion. Average crustal Q values for attenuation at 1 Hz are 737 and 505 for M _L and M _S, respectively, with substantial regional variations. Frequency dependence in the attenuation is also indicated. Regions with the lowest attenuation (high Q values) are beneath the south China Block, Sichuan Basin, Ordos Platform, the Daxinganling and the Korea Craton. These tend to be tectonically inactive regions, which are generally dominated by intrusive and cratonic rocks in the upper crust. Regions with the highest attenuation (low Q values) are beneath Bohai Basin, Yunnan, eastern Songpan-Ganzi Terrain, margins of the Ordos platform and the Qilian Shan. These are predominantly active basins, grabens and fold belts. The continental margin also highly attenuates both S and surface waves.     

Stable inversions for complete moment tensors

The seismic moment tensors for certain types of sources, such as volcanic earthquakes and nuclear explosions are expected to contain an isotropic component. Some earlier efforts to calculate the isotropic component of these sources are flawed due to an error in the method of Jost & Herrmann. We corrected the method after Herrmann & Hutchensen and found great improvement in the recovery of non-double-couple moment tensors that include an isotropic component. Tests with synthetic data demonstrate the stability of the corrected linear inversion method, and we recalculate the moment tensor solutions reported in Dreger et al. for Long Valley caldera events and Dreger & Woods for Nevada Test Site nuclear explosions. We confirm the findings of Dreger et al. that the Long Valley volcanic sources contain large statistically significant isotropic components. The nuclear explosions have strikingly anomalous source mechanisms, which contain very large isotropic components, making it evident that these events are not tectonic in origin. This indicates that moment tensor inversions could be an important tool for nuclear monitoring.     

Surface wave tomography for azimuthal anisotropy in a strongly reduced parameter space

Large scale seismic anisotropy in the Earth's mantle is likely dynamically supported by the mantle's deformation; therefore, tomographic imaging of 3-D anisotropic mantle seismic velocity structure is an important tool to understand the dynamics of the mantle. While many previous studies have focused on special cases of symmetry of the elastic properties, it would be desirable for evaluation of dynamic models to allow more general axis orientation. In this study, we derive 3-D finite-frequency surface wave sensitivity kernels based on the Born approximation using a general expression for a hexagonal medium with an arbitrarily oriented symmetry axis. This results in kernels for two isotropic elastic coefficients, three coefficients that define the strength of anisotropy, and two angles that define the symmetry axis. The particular parametrization is chosen to allow for a physically meaningful method for reducing the number of parameters considered in an inversion, while allowing for straightforward integration with existing approaches for modelling body wave splitting intensity measurements. Example kernels calculated with this method reveal physical interpretations of how surface waveforms are affected by 3-D velocity perturbations, while also demonstrating the non-linearity of the problem as a function of symmetry axis orientation. The expressions are numerically validated using the spectral element method. While challenges remain in determining the best inversion scheme to appropriately handle the non-linearity, the approach derived here has great promise in allowing large scale models with resolution of both the strength and orientation of anisotropy.     

Existence of transverse waves in anisotropic poroelastic media

Out of the four waves in an anisotropic poroelastic medium, two are termed as quasi-transverse waves. The prefix 'quasi' refers to their polarizations being nearly, but not exactly, perpendicular to direction of propagation. In this composite medium, unlike perfectly elastic medium, the propagation of a longitudinal wave along a phase direction may not be accompanied by transverse waves. The existence of a transverse wave in anisotropic poroelastic media is ensured by the two equations restricting the choice of elastic coefficients of porous aggregate as well as fluid–solid coupling. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of transverse waves along the coordinate axes and in the coordinate planes for general anisotropy are discussed. The discussion is extended to the case of orthotropic materials and existence for few specific phase directions is also explored. The conditions for the transverse waves decided on the basis of their apparent polarizations, that is, particle motion being perpendicular to ray direction, are also discussed. For a particular numerical model, the existence of these apparent transverse waves is solved numerically for phase directions in coordinate planes. For general directions of phase propagation, the existence of these transverse waves is checked graphically for the chosen numerical model.