Global Q estimates from antipodal Rayleigh waves

Global average estimates of the group velocity and attenuation of long-period (120–300 s) Rayleigh waves were made using seismograms from the epicenter's antipode (Δ≃180°). Focusing at the antipode produced amplified arrivals with favorable signal-to-noise ratios. The high-quality data yielded very stable attenuation values, with excellent agreement between the results from successive Rayleigh arrivals for a single event and between the results for two different events. Lateral heterogeneities in earth structure can cause systematic biasing of attenuation measurements based on antipodal records. The initial, uncorrected results therefore provide a lower bound estimate of global Q. An ellipsoidal perturbation in shape was used to simulate the effects of lateral velocity heterogeneities on Rayleigh wave propagation. Using the agreement of repeated attenuation measurements as a constraint, we estimated both the bias in those measurements and the splitting widths of the Rayleigh modes. At a period of 200 s, the estimated splitting width is 0.30% this agrees closely with calculations by Luh (1974) for an earth model with different continental and oceanic velocity profiles. The estimated bias varied from 30% to zero over the 120- to 260-s band. After correcting for bias, the antipodal Q values range from 108 at 120 s to 188 at 260 s. These Q are within the range of previous measurements but are lower than the mean values from typical great circle studies, implying that the globally averaged upper mantle is slightly more attenuative than has been generally recognized

Surface Wave Simulation and Processing with MatSeis

In order to exploit the information on surface wave propagation that is stored in large seismic event datasets, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories have developed a MatSeis interface for performing phase-matched filtering of Rayleigh arrivals. MatSeis is a Matlab-based seismic processing toolkit which provides graphical tools for analyzing seismic data from a network of stations. Tools are available for spectral and polarization measurements, as well as beam forming and f-k analysis with array data, to name just a few. Additionally, one has full access to the Matlab environment and any functions available there. Previously the authors reported the development of new MatSeis tools for calculating regional discrimination measurements. The first of these performs Lg coda analysis as developed by Mayeda and coworkers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. A second tool measures regional phase amplitude ratios for an event and compares the results to ratios from known earthquakes and explosions. Release 1.5 of MatSeis includes the new interface for the analysis of surface wave arrivals. This effort involves the use of regionalized dispersion models from a repository of surface wave data and the construction of phase-matched filters to improve surface wave identification, detection, and magnitude calculation. The tool works as follows. First, a ray is traced from source to receiver through a user-defined grid containing different group velocity versus period values to determine the composite group velocity curve for the path. This curve is shown along with the upper and lower group velocity bounds for reference. Next, the curve is used to create a phase-matched filter, apply the filter, and show the resultant waveform. The application of the filter allows obscured Rayleigh arrivals to be more easily identified. Finally, after screening information outside the range of the phase-matched filter, an inverse version of the filter is applied to obtain a cleaned raw waveform which can be used for amplitude measurements. Because all the MatSeis tools have been written as Matlab functions, they can be easily modified to experiment with different processing details. The performance of the propagation models can be evaluated using any event available in the repository of surface wave events

Source mechanism of the november 29, 1978, Oaxaca, Mexico earthquake - a large simple event

El reciente temblor de Oaxaca, México (Ms = 7.8) es de especial interés pues se localiza dentro de un tramo de quietud (“gap”) sísmica determinado previamente. El evento generó ondas Rayleigh y Love múltiples de periodo largo (100-200 seg.), que fueron bien registradas por la red WWSSN. Estos datos, junto con datos del primer movimiento de las ondas P, fueron usados para restringir el mecanismo focal. Los resultados indican un mecanismo focal de tipo de falla inversa y oblicua consistente con la subducción de la placa de Cocos según una dirección noreste bajo México (buzamiento ≈14°, rumbo ≈N90°W, deslizamiento ≈+54°); por lo tanto, este evento es ciertamente del tipo anticipado por Obtake, Matumoto y Latham (1977). A pesar de su gran tamaño, con momento sísmico Mo ≈3.2 x 10²⁷dinas-cm, las ondas internas indican una fuente extremadamente simple dentro del rango de periodos de los sismógrafos de periodo largo de la red WWSSN. Esto fue verificado calculando sismogramas sintéticos para la forma de las ondas internas; se utilizó una fuente elemental y el mecanismo mencionado. Este tipo de simplicidad de las ondas internas para temblores fuertes de tipo subducción ha sido observado en otras áreas, especialmente en las Islas Salomón (Lay y Kanamori, 1978) y por lo tanto constituye una característica importante del modo de liberación de la energía elástica a lo largo de algunas zonas de subducción

A comparison of the high-frequency (\u3e1 Hz) surface and subsurface noise environment at three sites in the United States

Surface and subsurface high-frequency (\u3e1 Hz) noise data were recorded using nearly identical instrumentation at three widely separated sites in the United States (Amarillo, Texas; Datil, New Mexico; and Pinedale, Wyoming) for extended periods of time under varying wind conditions. While the sites are geologically distinct, the near-surface noise environments have many common features that we believe may be due in large part to the presence of a surficial layer of highly attenuative unconsolidated material at each site. Noise levels seen at or near the surface (5 m or less) are much higher (up to 30 dB) and much more variable (power range up to 44 dB) than those seen at depth (the smallest range was 9 dB for 1951 m at Amarillo). The greatest gains in noise level reduction are realized within the first 100 m and probably much shallower (\u3c ∼10 m). Regardless of the wind profile or local lithology, all sites show an excellent correlation between increased noise levels and higher wind speed, even at significant depths (367 m at Amarillo). Wind-generated noise is broadband (at least 15 to 60 Hz) and apparently nonlinear, increasing dramatically when a wind speed threshold is exceeded (3 to 4 m/sec within a few meters of the surface; as high as 8 m/sec at a depth of a few hundred meters). It is possible to be essentially completely shielded from the wind-generated component of seismic noise by deploying instruments at sufficient depth, but we observed this only for the two deepest deployments (1219 and 1951 m, both at Amarillo). Reducing the wind profile at the surface, however, can yield similar reductions for a much smaller cost. Cultural or workday noise, if present (depending on the remoteness of the site), is typically much weaker (10 dB or less) than wind noise but may propagate very effectively to great depths and therefore could be of concern for very deep deployments where wind is not a factor

High-frequency analysis of seismic background noise as a function of wind speed and shallow depth

We used a deep (1500 m) cased borehole near the town of Datil in west-central New Mexico to study high-frequency (\u3e1 Hz) seismic noise characteristics. The remote site had very low levels of cultural noise, but strong winds (winter and spring) made the site an excellent candidate to study the effects of wind noise on seismograms. Along with a three-component set of surface sensors (Teledyne Geotech GS-13), a vertical borehole seismometer (GS-28) was deployed at a variety of depths (5, 43, and 85 m) to investigate signal and noise variations. Wind speed was measured with an anemometer. Event-triggered and time-triggered data streams were recorded on a RefTek 72-02 data acquisition system located at the site. Our data show little cultural noise and a strong correlation between wind speed and seismic background noise. The minimum wind speed at which the seismic background noise appears to be influenced varies with depth: 3 m/sec at the surface, 3.5 m/sec at 43 m in depth, and 4 m/sec at 85 m in depth. For wind speed below 3 to 4 m/sec, we observe omni-directional background noise that is coherent at frequencies below 15 Hz. This coherence is destroyed when wind speeds exceed 3 to 4 m/sec. We use a test event (Md ∼ 1.6) and superimposed noise to investigate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement with sensor depth. For the low Q valley fill of the Datil borehole (DBH) site, we have found that SNR can be improved by as much as 20 to 40 dB between 23 and 55 Hz and 10 to 20 dB between 10 and 20 Hz, by deploying at a 43-m depth rather than at the surface. At the surface, there is little signal above noise in the 23- to 55-Hz frequency band for wind speeds greater than 8 m/sec. Thus, high-frequency signal information that is lost at the surface can be recorded by deploying at the relatively shallow depth of 40 m. Because we observe only minor further reductions in seismic background noise (SBN) at deeper depths, 40 m is likely to be a reasonable deployment depth for other high-frequency-monitoring sites in similar environmental and geologic conditions

3C 279 Event Horizon Telescope imaging

VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics with title 'Event Horizon Telescope imaging of the archetypal blazar 3C 279 at an extreme 20 microarcsecond resolution.' (bibcode: 2020A&A...640A..69K