Determination of earthquake focal depths and source time functions in central Asia using teleseismic P waveforms

We developed a new method to determine earthquake source time functions and focal depths. It uses theoretical Green's function and a time-domain deconvolution with positivity constraint to estimate the source time function from the teleseismic P waveforms. The earthquake focal depth is also determined in the process by using the time separations of the direct P and depth phases. We applied this method to 606 earthquakes between 1990 and 2005 in Central Asia. The results show that the Centroid Moment Tensor solutions, which are routinely computed for earthquake larger than M5.0 globally using very long period body and surface waves, systematically over-estimated the source depths and durations, especially for shallow events. Away from the subduction zone, most of the 606 earthquakes occurred within the top 20 km of crust. This shallow distribution of earthquakes suggests a high geotherm and a weak ductile lower crust in the region

Qubit state tomography in superconducting circuit via weak measurements

The standard method of "measuring" quantum wavefunction is the technique of {\it indirect} quantum state tomography. Owing to conceptual novelty and possible advantages, an alternative {\it direct} scheme was proposed and demonstrated recently in quantum optics system. In this work we present a study on the direct scheme of measuring qubit state in the circuit QED system, based on weak measurement and weak value concepts. To be applied to generic parameter conditions, our formulation and analysis are carried out for finite strength weak measurement, and in particular beyond the bad-cavity and weak-response limits. The proposed study is accessible to the present state-of-the-art circuit-QED experiments.Comment: 7 pages,5figure

Moho depth variation in southern California from teleseismic receiver functions

The number of broadband three-component seismic stations in southern California has more than tripled recently. In this study we use the teleseismic receiver function technique to determine the crustal thicknesses and V_p/V_s ratios for these stations and map out the lateral variation of Moho depth under southern California. It is shown that a receiver function can provide a very good “point” measurement of crustal thickness under a broadband station and is not sensitive to crustal P velocity. However, the crustal thickness estimated only from the delay time of the Moho P-to-S converted phase trades off strongly with the crustal V_p/V_s ratio. The ambiguity can be reduced significantly by incorporating the later multiple converted phases, namely, the PpPs and PpSs+PsPs. We propose a stacking algorithm which sums the amplitudes of receiver function at the predicted arrival times of these phases by different crustal thicknesses H and Vp/Vs ratios. This transforms the time domain receiver functions directly into the H-V_p/V_s domain without need to identify these phases and to pick their arrival times. The best estimations of crustal thickness and V_p/V_s ratio are found when the three phases are stacked coherently. By stacking receiver functions from different distances and directions, effects of lateral structural variation are suppressed, and an average crustal model is obtained. Applying this technique to 84 digital broadband stations in southern California reveals that the Moho depth is 29 km on average and varies from 21 to 37 km. Deeper Mohos are found under the eastern Transverse Range, the Peninsular Range, and the Sierra Nevada Range. The central Transverse Range, however, does not have a crustal root. Thin crusts exist in the Inner California Borderland (21–22 km) and the Salton Trough (22 km). The Moho is relatively flat at the average depth in the western and central Mojave Desert and becomes shallower to the east under the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ). Southern California crust has an average V_p/V_s ratio of 1.78, with higher ratios of 1.8 to 1.85 in the mountain ranges with Mesozoic basement and lower ratios in the Mojave Block except for the ECSZ, where the ratio increases

Digital advertising effectiveness measurement

This disclosure describes techniques to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. For example, the techniques can be implemented to measure brand lift generated by an advertising campaign. Advertisements are displayed to a set of users that form a treatment group and are selectively withheld from another set of users that form a control group. Offers of discounts, coupons, complementary samples, etc. are provided to both sets of users. Uptake of offers by users in the control and treatment groups is utilized to measure brand lift from the advertisements

Advancement in Source Estimation Techniques Using Broadband Regional Seismograms

One important constraint on source retrieval from regional seismograms comes from the amplitude difference between various phases (such as Pnl/surface wave, SV/SH). Because the misfit errors used in some waveform inversions are normalized by the data and synthetics, the amplitude information in the data has not been fully utilized. In this article, we modify the "cut and paste" source estimation technique (Zhao and Helmberger, 1994) by removing this type of normalization. It is shown that the modified method increases the stability and resolution of inversion. When multiple stations at different distance ranges are used, a distance scaling factor is introduced to compensate for the amplitude decay with distance. By applying the technique to the TERRAscope data, we have determined source mechanisms and depths of 335 southern Californian events with M_L ≧ 3.5. The amplitude decays with distance are r^(1.13) for Pnl, r^(0.55) for Love waves, and r^(0.74) for Rayleigh waves. In contrast to generally shallow source depths reported by the southern California short period network, the depth distribution from waveform inversion shows a strong peak around 12 km with few earthquakes occurring above 5 km and below 20 km

Intermediate depth earthquakes beneath the India-Tibet collision zone

We report on three intermediate depth earthquakes in the India‐Tibet collision zone, two under the Himalayan Thrust Belt (HTB) and one beneath the Indus Zangbo suture. The mb magnitudes of these three events are from 4.3 to 4.9, and are too small to be well located by conventional means. However, from modeling their broadband waveforms recorded at near‐regional distances on a temporary PASSCAL array, we can confidently confine the sources to be below the crust, between 70 and 80 km deep. The existence of these intermediate depth earthquakes in this area suggests relatively low temperatures in the mantle lithosphere. The two events under the HTB display strike‐slip mechanisms with some normal faulting component; this is quite different from the shallow thrust events typical of the same area. The principal P and T axes of all 3 fault plane solutions show roughly NS compression and EW extension, consistent with a regional stress field produced by the indenting of the India continent