Continuous Monitoring of Seismic Energy Release Associated with the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and the 1992 Landers Earthquake

We have developed a method to detect long-period precursors for large earthquakes observed in southern California, if they occur. The method allows us to continuously monitor seismic energy radiation over a wide frequency band to investigate slow deformation in the crust (e.g., slow earthquakes), especially before large earthquakes. We used the long-period records (1 sample/sec) from TERRAscope, a broadband seismic network in southern California. The method consists of dividing the record into a series of overlapping 30-min-long windows, computing the spectra over a frequency band of 0.00055 to 0.1 Hz, and plotting them in the form of a time-frequency diagram called spectrogram. This procedure is repeated daily over a day-long record. We have analyzed the 17 January 1994 Northridge earthquake (M_w = 6.7), and the 28 June 1992 Landers earthquake (M_w = 7.3). No slow precursor with spectral amplitude measured over a duration of 30 min larger than that of a magnitude 3.7 was detected prior to either event. In other words, there was no precursor whose moment was larger than ∼0.003% of the mainshock

Bubble collapse as the source of tremor at Old Faithful Geyser

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone, was used as a natural laboratory for fluid-flow-induced seismic activity. Pressure measurements within the geyser's water column, obtained simultaneously with seismic measurements on the surface, demonstrated that the tremor observed at Old Faithful results from impulsive events in the geyser. Tremor intensity is controlled by the rate of occurrence of these impulsive events. There is no resonance observed within the water column. The impulsive events are modeled by a collapse of a spherical bubble, including the effects of residual non-condensible gas and damping. The pressure data can be explained by a collapse of a ∼5 cm radius bubble driven by a pressure difference of ΔP = 0.3×10^5 Pa and effective viscosity ν_E = 0.04 m^2/s. Using a quasi-static geyser model, we treat the individual bubble collapses as cooling events that occur when the water column reaches a critical temperature. Their rate of occurrence is controlled by the heating rate dT/dt of the water column. As a result, the intensity of the hydrothermal and seismic activities is determined by the heat and mass input rate into the geyser. It is demonstrated that a sharp widening of the conduit can cause the number of events per unit time to drop (as observed) while the water level is still rising and heat is being input, and thus the tremor intensity can be modulated by variations in the conduit shape

The origin of deep ocean microseisms in the North Atlantic Ocean

Oceanic microseisms are small oscillations of the ground, in the frequency range of 0.05–0.3 Hz, associated with the occurrence of energetic ocean waves of half the corresponding frequency. In 1950, Longuet-Higgins suggested in a landmark theoretical paper that (i) microseisms originate from surface pressure oscillations caused by the interaction between oppositely travelling components with the same frequency in the ocean wave spectrum, (ii) these pressure oscillations generate seismic Stoneley waves on the ocean bottom, and (iii) when the ocean depth is comparable with the acoustic wavelength in water, compressibility must be considered. The efficiency of microseism generation thus depends on both the wave frequency and the depth of water. While the theory provided an estimate of the magnitude of the corresponding microseisms in a compressible ocean, its predictions of microseism amplitude heretofore have never been tested quantitatively. In this paper, we show a strong agreement between observed microseism and calculated amplitudes obtained by applying Longuet-Higgins' theory to hindcast ocean wave spectra from the North Atlantic Ocean. The calculated vertical displacements are compared with seismic data collected at stations in North America, Greenland, Iceland and Europe. This modelling identifies a particularly energetic source area stretching from the Labrador Sea to south of Iceland, where wind patterns are especially conducive to generating oppositely travelling waves of same period, and the ocean depth is favourable for efficient microseism generation through the ‘organ pipe’ resonance of the compression waves, as predicted by the theory. This correspondence between observations and the model predictions demonstrates that deep ocean nonlinear wave–wave interactions are sufficiently energetic to account for much of the observed seismic amplitudes in North America, Greenland and Iceland

Seismometer Detection of Dust Devil Vortices by Ground Tilt

We report seismic signals on a desert playa caused by convective vortices and dust devils. The long-period (10-100s) signatures, with tilts of ~10$^{-7}$ radians, are correlated with the presence of vortices, detected with nearby sensors as sharp temporary pressure drops (0.2-1 mbar) and solar obscuration by dust. We show that the shape and amplitude of the signals, manifesting primarily as horizontal accelerations, can be modeled approximately with a simple quasi-static point-load model of the negative pressure field associated with the vortices acting on the ground as an elastic half space. We suggest the load imposed by a dust devil of diameter D and core pressure {\Delta}Po is ~({\pi}/2){\Delta}PoD$^2$, or for a typical terrestrial devil of 5 m diameter and 2 mbar, about the weight of a small car. The tilt depends on the inverse square of distance, and on the elastic properties of the ground, and the large signals we observe are in part due to the relatively soft playa sediment and the shallow installation of the instrument. Ground tilt may be a particularly sensitive means of detecting dust devils. The simple point-load model fails for large dust devils at short ranges, but more elaborate models incorporating the work of Sorrells (1971) may explain some of the more complex features in such cases, taking the vortex winds and ground velocity into account. We discuss some implications for the InSight mission to Mars.Comment: Contributed Article for Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Accepted 29th August 201

Expected seismicity and the seismic noise environment of Europa

Seismic data will be a vital geophysical constraint on internal structure of Europa if we land instruments on the surface. Quantifying expected seismic activity on Europa both in terms of large, recognizable signals and ambient background noise is important for understanding dynamics of the moon, as well as interpretation of potential future data. Seismic energy sources will likely include cracking in the ice shell and turbulent motion in the oceans. We define a range of models of seismic activity in Europa's ice shell by assuming each model follows a Gutenberg-Richter relationship with varying parameters. A range of cumulative seismic moment release between $10^{16}$ and $10^{18}$ Nm/yr is defined by scaling tidal dissipation energy to tectonic events on the Earth's moon. Random catalogs are generated and used to create synthetic continuous noise records through numerical wave propagation in thermodynamically self-consistent models of the interior structure of Europa. Spectral characteristics of the noise are calculated by determining probabilistic power spectral densities of the synthetic records. While the range of seismicity models predicts noise levels that vary by 80 dB, we show that most noise estimates are below the self-noise floor of high-frequency geophones, but may be recorded by more sensitive instruments. The largest expected signals exceed background noise by $\sim$50 dB. Noise records may allow for constraints on interior structure through autocorrelation. Models of seismic noise generated by pressure variations at the base of the ice shell due to turbulent motions in the subsurface ocean may also generate observable seismic noise.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, Added in supplementary information from revision submission, including 3 audio files with sonification of Europa noise records. To view attachments, please download and extract the gzipped tar source file listed under "Other formats

M_L:M_0 as a regional seismic discriminant

The m_b:M_S ratio determined by teleseismic observations has proven to be an effective discriminant, for explosive sources tend to be significantly richer in short-period energy than are earthquakes. Unfortunately, this method is limited by the detection threshold of teleseismic surface waves. However, recent advances in instrumentation allowing low amplitude surface wave measurements coupled with new analytical techniques make it feasible to use regional waveform data to determine the long-period source excitation level of low magnitude events. We propose using the ratio of M_L (local magnitude) to M_0 (scalar seismic moment) as an analogous regional discriminant. We applied this criterion to a data set of 299 earthquakes and 178 explosions and found that this ratio seems to be diagnostic of source type. For a given M_0, the M_L of an explosion is more than 0.5 magnitude units larger than that of an earthquake. This separation of populations with respect to source type can be attributed to the fact that M_L is a short-period (1 Hz) energy measurement, whereas seismic moment is determined from long-period body wave phases (period > 4 s) and surface waves (10 to 40 sec). Using regional stations with sources 200 to 600 km away, the effective threshold for magnitude measurements for this discriminant is found to be M_L = 3.1 for earthquakes and M_L = 3.6 for explosions. This method does require the determination of regional crustal models and path calibrations from master events or by other means