A statistical model of the earth's crust: Method and results

A model of the earth's crust has been adopted for interpretation of seismic reflection profiles in Kazakhstan. Within it, the smooth variation of seismic velocities with depth becomes complicated by small random fluctuations of various scales. These velocity fluctuations are manifested in oscillations of amplitudes and arrival times of the recorded signals.

The inhomogeneity of the medium is characterized by its coefficient of intrinsic attenuation. Investigation of this coefficient shows that for the crust, its mean value (at a frequency of 7 Hz) is equal to 10⁻³ km ⁻¹ and that over the depth interval of 10–25 km its value is very small, almost zero. It is therefore most surprising that this same depth interval (10–25 km) contains nothing unusual within the cross-section of its determined component wave velocity.