Long-period seismic source inversions using global tomographic models

We investigate the effect of laterally varying earth structure on centroid moment tensor inversions using fundamental mode mantle waves. Theoretical seismograms are calculated using a full formulation of surface wave ray theory. Calculations are made using a variety of global tomographic earth model...

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Main Authors: Ferreira, A, Woodhouse, J
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2006
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author Ferreira, A
Woodhouse, J
author_facet Ferreira, A
Woodhouse, J
author_sort Ferreira, A
collection OXFORD
description We investigate the effect of laterally varying earth structure on centroid moment tensor inversions using fundamental mode mantle waves. Theoretical seismograms are calculated using a full formulation of surface wave ray theory. Calculations are made using a variety of global tomographic earth models. Results are compared with those obtained using the so-called great-circle approximation, which assumes that phase corrections are given in terms of mean phase slowness along the great circle, and which neglects amplitude effects of heterogeneity. Synthetic tests suggest that even source parameters which fit the data very well may have large errors due to incomplete knowledge of lateral heterogeneity. The method is applied to 31 shallow, large earthquakes. For a given earthquake, the focal mechanisms calculated using different earth models and different forward modelling techniques can significantly vary. We provide a range of selected solutions based on the fit to the data, rather than one single solution. Difficulties in constraining the dip-slip components of the seismic moment tensor often produce overestimates of seismic moment, leading to near vertical dip-slip mechanisms. This happens more commonly for earth models not fitting the data well, confirming that more accurate modelling of lateral heterogeneity can help to constrain the dip-slip components of the seismic moment tensor. © 2006 The Authors Journal compilation © 2006 RAS.
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spelling oxford-uuid:1f440e4f-f384-41c3-b878-4d4886c602662022-03-26T11:20:52ZLong-period seismic source inversions using global tomographic modelsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1f440e4f-f384-41c3-b878-4d4886c60266EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2006Ferreira, AWoodhouse, JWe investigate the effect of laterally varying earth structure on centroid moment tensor inversions using fundamental mode mantle waves. Theoretical seismograms are calculated using a full formulation of surface wave ray theory. Calculations are made using a variety of global tomographic earth models. Results are compared with those obtained using the so-called great-circle approximation, which assumes that phase corrections are given in terms of mean phase slowness along the great circle, and which neglects amplitude effects of heterogeneity. Synthetic tests suggest that even source parameters which fit the data very well may have large errors due to incomplete knowledge of lateral heterogeneity. The method is applied to 31 shallow, large earthquakes. For a given earthquake, the focal mechanisms calculated using different earth models and different forward modelling techniques can significantly vary. We provide a range of selected solutions based on the fit to the data, rather than one single solution. Difficulties in constraining the dip-slip components of the seismic moment tensor often produce overestimates of seismic moment, leading to near vertical dip-slip mechanisms. This happens more commonly for earth models not fitting the data well, confirming that more accurate modelling of lateral heterogeneity can help to constrain the dip-slip components of the seismic moment tensor. © 2006 The Authors Journal compilation © 2006 RAS.
spellingShingle Ferreira, A
Woodhouse, J
Long-period seismic source inversions using global tomographic models
title Long-period seismic source inversions using global tomographic models
title_full Long-period seismic source inversions using global tomographic models
title_fullStr Long-period seismic source inversions using global tomographic models
title_full_unstemmed Long-period seismic source inversions using global tomographic models
title_short Long-period seismic source inversions using global tomographic models
title_sort long period seismic source inversions using global tomographic models
work_keys_str_mv AT ferreiraa longperiodseismicsourceinversionsusingglobaltomographicmodels
AT woodhousej longperiodseismicsourceinversionsusingglobaltomographicmodels