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

Validating tomographic model with broad-band waveform modelling: an example from the LA RISTRA transect in the southwestern United States

Traveltime tomographic models of the LA RISTRA transect produce excellent waveform fits if we amplify the damped images. We observe systematic waveform distortions across the western edge of the Great Plains from South American events, starting about 300 km east of the centre of the Rio Grande Rift. The amplitude decreases by more than 50 per cent within array stations spanning less than 200 km while the pulse width increases by more than a factor of 2. This feature is not observed for the data arriving from the northwest. While the S-wave tomographic image shows a fast slab-like feature dipping to the southeast beneath the western edge of the Great Plains, synthetics generated from this model do not reproduce the waveform characteristics. However, once we modify the tomographic image by amplifying the velocity contrast between the slab and adjoining mantle by a factor of 2–3, the synthetics produce observed amplitude decay and pulse broadening. In addition to the traveltime delay, amplitude variation due to wave phenomena such as slab diffraction, focusing and defocusing provide much tighter constraints on the geometry of the fast anomaly and its amplitude and sharpness as demonstrated by a forward sensitivity test and snapshots of the seismic wavefield. Our preferred model locates the slab 200 km east of the Rio Grande Rift dipping 70°–75° to the southeast, extending to a depth near 600 km with a thickness of 120 km and a velocity of about 4 per cent fast. In short, adding waveform and amplitude components to regional tomographic studies can help validate and establish structural geometry, sharpness and velocity contrast

Juan de Fuca subduction zone from a mixture of tomography and waveform modeling

Seismic tomography images of the upper mantle structures beneath the Pacific Northwestern United States display a maze of high-velocity anomalies, many of which produce distorted waveforms evident in the USArray observations indicative of the Juan de Fuca (JdF) slab. The inferred location of the slab agrees quite well with existing contour lines defining the slab's upper interface. Synthetic waveforms generated from a recent tomography image fit teleseismic travel times quite well and also some of the waveform distortions. Regional earthquake data, however, require substantial changes to the tomographic velocities. By modeling regional waveforms of the 2008 Nevada earthquake, we find that the uppermost mantle of the 1D reference model AK135, the reference velocity model used for most tomographic studies, is too fast for the western United States. Here, we replace AK135 with mT7, a modification of an older Basin-and-Range model T7. We present two hybrid velocity structures satisfying the waveform data based on modified tomographic images and conventional slab wisdom. We derive P and SH velocity structures down to 660 km along two cross sections through the JdF slab. Our results indicate that the JdF slab is subducted to a depth of 250 km beneath the Seattle region, and terminates at a shallower depth beneath Portland region of Oregon to the south. The slab is about 60 km thick and has a P velocity increase of 5% with respect to mT7. In order to fit waveform complexities of teleseismic Gulf of Mexico and South American events, a slab-like high-velocity anomaly with velocity increases of 3% for P and 7% for SH is inferred just above the 660 discontinuity beneath Nevada

Upper mantle P velocity structure beneath the Midwestern United States derived from triplicated waveforms

Upper mantle seismic velocity structures in both vertical and horizontal directions are key to understanding the structure and mechanics of tectonic plates. Recent deployment of the USArray Transportable Array (TA) in the Midwestern United States provides an extraordinary regional earthquake data set to investigate such velocity structure beneath the stable North American craton. In this paper, we choose an M_w5.1 Canadian earthquake in the Quebec area, which is recorded by about 400 TA stations, to examine the P wave structures between the depths of 150 km to 800 km. Three smaller Midwestern earthquakes at closer distance to the TA are used to investigate vertical and horizontal variations in P velocity between depths of 40 km to 150 km. We use a grid-search approach to find the best 1-D model, starting with the previously developed S25 regional model. The results support the existence of an 8° discontinuity in P arrivals caused by a negative velocity gradient in the lithosphere between depths of 40 km to 120 km followed by a small (∼1%) jump and then a positive gradient down to 165 km. The P velocity then decreases by 2% from 165 km to 200 km, and we define this zone as the regional lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB). Beneath northern profiles, waves reflected from the 410 discontinuity (410) are delayed by up to 1 s relative to those turning just below the 410, which we explain by an anomaly just above the discontinuity with P velocity reduced by ∼3%. The 660 discontinuity (660) appears to be composed of two smaller velocity steps with a separation of 16 km. The inferred low-velocity anomaly above 410 may indicate high water concentrations in the transition zone, and the complexity of the 660 may be related to Farallon slab segments that have yet to sink into the deep mantle

A P wave velocity model of Earth's core

Present Earth core models derived from the retrieval of global Earth structure are based on absolute travel times, mostly from the International Seismological Centre (ISC), and/or free-oscillation eigenfrequencies. Many core phase data are left out of these constructions, e.g., PKP differential travel times, amplitude ratios, and waveforms. This study is an attempt to utilize this additional information to construct a model of core P wave velocity which is consistent with the different types of core phase data available. In conjunction with our waveform modeling we used 150 differential time measurements and 87 amplitude ratio measurements, which were the highest-quality observations chosen from a large population of Global Digital Seismograph Network (GDSN) records. As a result of fitting these various data sets, a one-dimensional P wave velocity model of the core, PREM2, is proposed. This model, modified from the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) (Dziewonski and Anderson, 1981), shows a better fit to the combined data set than any of the existing core models. Major features of the model include a sharp velocity discontinuity at the inner core boundary (ICB), with a large jump (0.78 km/s), and a low velocity gradient at the base of the fluid core. The velocity is nearly constant over the lower 100 km of the outer core. The model features a depth-dependent Qα structure in the inner core such that a constant t* for the inner core fits the amplitude ratios and waveforms of short-period waves moderately well. This means the top of the inner core is more attenuating than the deeper part of the inner core. In addition, the P velocity in the lowermost mantle is reduced from that of PREM as a baseline adjustment for the observed separations of the DF and AB branches of PKP at large distances

Ridge-like lower mantle structure beneath South Africa

Recent (ScS-S) results from probing the deep structure beneath southern Africa display strong delays of up to 10 s at distances beyond 90°. Such delays could be explained by long-period tomographic models containing smooth (weak) features with the addition of rough (strong) D″ structure (3–9% drops in shear velocities). However, these structures cannot explain the (SKS-S) differentials sampling the same region. To explain the (SKS-S) and (ScS-S) data sets simultaneously requires instead a large-scale ridge-like structure with a relatively uniform 3% reduction in shear velocity. The structure is about 1000 km wide and extends at least 1200 km above D″. It is orientated roughly NW-SE and leans toward the east at latitudes from 15° to about 30°. It proves difficult to explain such sharp features with thermal effects alone and, thus, the importance of high-resolution waveform modeling to establish their existence. To derive the above results, we developed a special algorithm by matching simulated synthetics to observed broadband waveforms. This is achieved by computing the various arrivals separately using generalized ray theory for a reference model and allowing the arrivals to shift in relative times to match the data. Tomographic models can then be constructed, or existing tomographic models can be altered, to match these data, and new 2-D synthetics can be constructed as well to better fit the waveform data. These updated synthetics can again be decomposed and reassembled, and the process can be repeated. This algorithm is applied to a combination of analog and digital data along a corridor from South America, producing the high-resolution 2-D model described above

Source Parameters of the Shallow 2012 Brawley Earthquake, Imperial Valley

Resolving earthquake parameters, especially depth, is difficult for events occurring within basins because of issues involved with separating source properties from propagational path effects. Here, we demonstrate some advantages of using a combination of teleseismic and regional waveform data to improve resolution following a bootstrapping approach. Local SS‐S differential arrivals from a foreshock are used to determine a local layered model which can then be used to model teleseismic depth phases: pP, sP, and sS. Using the cut‐and‐paste (CAP) method for which all strike (θ), dip (δ), rake (λ), and depth variations are sampled for several crustal models. We find that regional data prove the most reliable at fixing the strike, whereas the depth is better constrained by teleseismic data. Weighted solutions indicate a nearly pure strike‐slip mechanism (θ=59°±1°) with a centroid depth of about 4.0 km and an M_w of 5.4 for the mainshock of the 2012 Brawley earthquake

Approximate 3D Body-Wave Synthetics for Tomographic Models

We present a new method of generating analytical synthetics for tomographic-style models. These models are perturbations to a 1D layered model involving changes in block velocities producing 3D images. The procedure is broken into three steps: (1) construction of ray paths for the reference 1D layered model, (2) generation of perturbed paths and the construction of 2D synthetics in the plane containing the source and receiver, and (3) addition of out-of-plane contributions (2D) from virtual receivers weighted by diffraction operators. In step 1, the ray paths reflecting from the various interfaces are established with ray parameter (p_o) and travel time (t_o). Next, these values are corrected after adding the velocity perturbations where ray segments in faster blocks grow relative to slower blocks. This new set of ray parameters can be used to generate 2D Cagniard-deHoop synthetics or WKM synthetics. Contributions from virtual receivers at neighboring azimuths are added by convolving with diffraction operators that are defined by the source duration and travel time to the 3D structure. We suggest a particularly simple approximation based on four virtual receivers which produces synthetics in agreement with 3D numerical synthetics

Probing an ultra-low velocity zone at the core mantle boundary with P and S waves

Recent studies of the core-mantle boundary (CMB) have revealed some very anomalous structures interpreted in terms of ultra low velocity zones (ULVZ). However, there remains considerable uncertainties about their physical descriptions or even if they occur above or below the CMB. They have only been detected in isolated situations using rather special techniques; these includes: distortions in SKS with the development of SKPdS and SPdKS, broadband PKP precursors, distinct ScS and S beyond 100 degree, and rapid changes in differential travel times of neighboring phases. Here we report on a situation where ray paths associated with PKP precursors and SKPdS sample the same ULVZ structure. The structure lies beneath central Africa and has been detected from WWSSN analog data (SKPdS) discussed previously. This data set has been enhanced with a collection of digital records sampling an elongated North-South zone roughly 800 km long. The entire SKPdS data set can be modeled with a ridge-shaped cross section with widths of 250 to 400 km and drops in P and S velocity of 10 and 30 percent. Fortunately, a new IRIS station (MSKU) located in Western Africa provided excellent PKP data from the New Britain Region events sampling the above structure. The PKP and strong precursors can be modeled by 2D synthetics generated from the same structure (used in modeling SKP dS) which provides a strong constraint on the definition characteristics of this particular ULVZ

Site response from incident Pnl waves

We developed a new method of determining site response and amplification for use in hazard analysis and station corrections. The method employs the conversion of P to S energy beneath a soft-rock station, which results in complex receiver functions that are frequency and amplitude dependent. At low frequencies (0.5 Hz) can be normalized to these low-frequency levels to quantify the amount of high-frequency amplification. Our results agree with previous studies of the Los Angeles Basin and provide the means of calibrating station responses at high frequencies