An approach of refraction seismology for processing and modeling of local earthquake seismogram sections of virtual sources at multiple depths in seismogenic regions—application to Koyna-Warna region,India, for upper crustal P and S velocity structure

We present an approach based on controlled source seismology (CSS) methods, especially developed for processing and modeling of the local earthquake seismograms. Record sections of the local earthquake seismograms generated for multiple source depths illuminate the upper crustal velocity structure in the region. Extensive travel times and synthetic seismograms modeling of the observed record sections reveal the P and S velocity structure in the region. The strength of this approach essentially lies with the possibility of validating the upper crustal velocity models inferred in various subregions of the seismogenic region. A redundant and significantly large number of virtual source local earthquake seismogram sections, gathered for multiple source depths and varying source mechanisms in each of the subregions, validate the same set of P and S velocity models in that region. Further, those models are found to generate the synthetic seismograms consistent with the observed sections. The proposed approach effectively utilizes a reliable dataset from a great volume of well-located local earthquake recordings of a state-of-the-art digital seismograph network. Such a dataset of local earthquake seismograms in the Koyna-Warna active earthquake zone is used here to demonstrate this approach and obtained subregion-specific models of upper crustal P and S velocity structure in the epicentral region. The results indicate that the technique presented here is efficient for processing and modeling the local earthquake seismograms and deriving upper crustal velocity models in the seismogenic regions.