Ping Tong

We present a novel earthquake location method using acoustic wave-equation-based traveltime inversion. The linear relationship between the location perturbation (δt₀, δx_s) and the resulting traveltime residual δt of a particular seismic phase, represented by the traveltime sensitivity kernel K(t₀, x_s) with respect to the earthquake location (t₀, x_s), is theoretically derived based on the adjoint method. Traveltime sensitivity kernel K(t₀, x_s) is formulated as a convolution between the forward and adjoint wavefields, which are calculated by numerically solving two acoustic wave equations. The advantage of this newly derived traveltime kernel is that it not only takes into account the earthquake–receiver geometry but also accurately honours the complexity of the velocity model. The earthquake location is obtained by solving a regularized least-squares problem. In 3-D realistic applications, it is computationally expensive to conduct full wave simulations. Therefore, we propose a 2.5-D approach which assumes the forward and adjoint wave simulations within a 2-D vertical plane passing through the earthquake and receiver. Various synthetic examples show the accuracy of this acoustic wave-equation-based earthquake location method. The accuracy and efficiency of the 2.5-D approach for 3-D earthquake location are further verified by its application to the 2004 Big Bear earthquake in Southern California.

High-resolution 3-D P and S wave crustal velocity and Poisson's ratio models of the 1992 Landers earthquake (M_w 7.3) area are determined iteratively by a wave-equation-based travel-time seismic tomography (WETST) technique. The details of data selection, synthetic arrival-time determination, and trade-off analysis of damping and smoothing parameters are presented to show the performance of this new tomographic inversion method. A total of 78 523 P wave and 46 999 S wave high-quality arrival-time data from 2041 local earthquakes recorded by 275 stations during the period of 1992–2013 are used to obtain the final tomographic models, which cost around 10 000 CPU hours. Checkerboard resolution tests are conducted to verify the reliability of inversion results for the chosen seismic data and the wave-equation-based travel-time seismic tomography method. Significant structural heterogeneities are revealed in the crust of the 1992 Landers earthquake area which may be closely related to the local seismic activities. Strong variations of velocity and Poisson's ratio exist in the source regions of the Landers and three other nearby strong earthquakes. Most seismicity occurs in areas with high-velocity and low Poisson's ratio, which may be associated with the seismogenic layer. Pronounced low-velocity anomalies revealed in the lower crust along the Elsinore, the San Jacinto, and the San Andreas faults may reflect the existence of fluids in the lower crust. The recovery of these strong heterogeneous structures is facilitated by the use of full wave equation solvers and WETST and verifies their ability in generating high-resolution tomographic models.

In this paper, we propose a wave-equation-based travel-time seismic tomography method with a detailed description of its step-by-step process. First, a linear relationship between the travel-time residual Δt = T^obs–T^syn and the relative velocity perturbation δ c(x)/c(x) connected by a finite-frequency travel-time sensitivity kernel K(x) is theoretically derived using the adjoint method. To accurately calculate the travel-time residual Δt, two automatic arrival-time picking techniques including the envelop energy ratio method and the combined ray and cross-correlation method are then developed to compute the arrival times T^syn for synthetic seismograms. The arrival times T^obs of observed seismograms are usually determined by manual hand picking in real applications. Travel-time sensitivity kernel K(x) is constructed by convolving a~forward wavefield u(t,x) with an adjoint wavefield q(t,x). The calculations of synthetic seismograms and sensitivity kernels rely on forward modeling. To make it computationally feasible for tomographic problems involving a large number of seismic records, the forward problem is solved in the two-dimensional (2-D) vertical plane passing through the source and the receiver by a high-order central difference method. The final model is parameterized on 3-D regular grid (inversion) nodes with variable spacings, while model values on each 2-D forward modeling node are linearly interpolated by the values at its eight surrounding 3-D inversion grid nodes. Finally, the tomographic inverse problem is formulated as a regularized optimization problem, which can be iteratively solved by either the LSQR solver or a~nonlinear conjugate-gradient method. To provide some insights into future 3-D tomographic inversions, Fréchet kernels for different seismic phases are also demonstrated in this study.

We present a three‐dimensional (3‐D) hybrid method that interfaces the spectral‐element method (SEM) with the frequency‐wave number (FK) technique to model the propagation of teleseismic plane waves beneath seismic arrays. The accuracy of the resulting 3‐D SEM‐FK hybrid method is benchmarked against semianalytical FK solutions for 1‐D models. The accuracy of 2.5‐D modeling based on 2‐D SEM‐FK hybrid method is also investigated through comparisons to this 3‐D hybrid method. Synthetic examples for structural models of the Alaska subduction zone and the central Tibet crust show that this method is capable of accurately capturing interactions between incident plane waves and local heterogeneities. This hybrid method presents an essential tool for the receiver function and scattering imaging community to verify and further improve their techniques. These numerical examples also show the promising future of the 3‐D SEM‐FK hybrid method in high‐resolution regional seismic imaging based on waveform inversions of converted/scattered waves recorded by seismic array.

High-resolution 3-D P and S wave crustal velocity and Poisson's ratio models of the 1992 Landers earthquake (Mw 7.3) area are determined iteratively by a wave-equation based traveltime seismic tomography (WETST) technique as developed in the first paper. The details of data selection, synthetic arrival-time determination, and trade-off analysis of damping and smoothing parameters are presented to show the performance of this new tomographic inversion method. A total of 78 523 P wave and 46 999 S wave high-quality arrival-time data from 2041 local earthquakes recorded by 275 stations during the period of 1992–2013 is used to obtain the final tomographic models which costs around 10 000 CPU h. Checkerboard resolution tests are conducted to verify the reliability of inversion results for the chosen seismic data and the wave-equation based traveltime seismic tomography method. Significant structural heterogeneities are revealed in the crust of the 1992 Lander earthquake area which may be closely related to the local seismic activities. Strong variations of velocity and Poisson's ratio exist in the source regions of the Landers and three other strong earthquakes in this area. Most seismicity occurs in areas with high-velocity and low Poisson's ratio, which may be associated with the seismogenic layer. Pronounced low-velocity anomalies revealed in the lower crust along the Elsinore, the San Jacinto and the San Andreas faults may reflect the existence of fluids in the lower crust. The recovery of these strong heterogeneous structures are facilitated by the use of full wave equation solvers and WETST and verifies their ability in generating high-resolution tomographic models.

In this paper, we propose a wave-equation based traveltime seismic tomography method with a detailed description of its step-by-step process. First, a linear relationship between the traveltime residual Δt = Tobs – Tsyn and the relative velocity perturbation δc(x) / c(x) connected by a finite-frequency traveltime sensitivity kernel K(x) is theoretically derived using the adjoint method. To accurately calculate the traveltime residual Δt, two automatic arrival-time picking techniques including the envelop energy ratio method and the combined ray and cross-correlation method are then developed to compute the arrival times Tsyn for synthetic seismograms. The arrival times Tobs of observed seismograms are usually determined by manual hand picking in real applications. Traveltime sensitivity kernel K(x) is constructed by convolving a forward wavefield u(t,x) with an adjoint wavefield q(t,x). The calculations of synthetic seismograms and sensitivity kernels rely on forward modelling. To make it computationally feasible for tomographic problems involving a large number of seismic records, the forward problem is solved in the two-dimensional (2-D) vertical plane passing through the source and the receiver by a high-order central difference method. The final model is parameterized on 3-D regular grid (inversion) nodes with variable spacings, while model values on each 2-D forward modelling node are linearly interpolated by the values at its eight surrounding 3-D inversion grid nodes. Finally, the tomographic inverse problem is formulated as a regularized optimization problem, which can be iteratively solved by either the LSQR solver or a non-linear conjugate-gradient method. To provide some insights into future 3-D tomographic inversions, Fréchet kernels for different seismic phases are also demonstrated in this study.

We demonstrate the feasibility of high-resolution seismic array imaging based on teleseismic recordings using full numerical wave simulations. We develop a hybrid method that interfaces a frequency–wavenumber (FK) calculation, which provides analytical solutions to 1-D layered background models with a spectral-element (SEM) numerical solver to calculate synthetic responses of local media to plane-wave incidence.This hybrid method accurately deals with local heterogeneities and discontinuity undulations, and represents an efficient tool for the forward modelling of teleseismic coda (including converted and scattered) waves. We benchmark the accuracy of the SEM-FK hybrid method against FK solutions for 1-D media. We then compute sensitivity kernels for teleseismic coda waves by interacting the forward teleseismic waves with an adjoint wavefield, produced by injecting coda waves as adjoint sources, based on adjoint techniques. These sensitivity kernels provide the basis for mapping variations in subsurface discontinuities, density and velocity structures through non-linear conjugate-gradient methods. We illustrate various synthetic imaging experiments, including discontinuity characterization, volumetric structural inversion for the crust or subduction zones. These tests show that using pre-conditioners based upon the scaled product of sensitivity kernels for different phases, combining finite-frequency traveltime and waveform inversion, and/or adopting hierarchical inversions from long- to short-period waveforms could reduce the non-linearity of the seismic inverse problem and speed up its convergence. The encouraging results of these synthetic examples suggest that inversion of teleseismic coda phases based on the SEM-FK hybrid method and adjoint techniques is a promising tool for structural imaging beneath dense seismic arrays.

High-resolution tomographic images of the crust and upper mantle in and around the area of the 2011 Iwaki earthquake (M 7.0) and the Fukushima nuclear power plant are determined by inverting a large number of high-quality arrival times with both the finite-frequency and ray tomography methods. The Iwaki earthquake and its aftershocks mainly occurred in a boundary zone with strong variations in seismic velocity and Poisson's ratio. Prominent low-velocity and high Poisson's ratio zones are revealed under the Iwaki source area and the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which may reflect fluids released from the dehydration of the subducting Pacific slab under Northeast Japan. The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw 9.0) caused static stress transfer in the overriding Okhotsk plate, resulting in the seismicity in the Iwaki source area that significantly increased immediately following the Tohoku-oki mainshock. Our results suggest that the Iwaki earthquake was triggered by the ascending fluids from the Pacific slab dehydration and the stress variation induced by the Tohoku-oki mainshock. The similar structures under the Iwaki source area and the Fukushima nuclear power plant suggest that the security of the nuclear power plant site should be strengthened to withstand potential large earthquakes in the future.

High resolution tomographic images of the crust and upper mantle in and around the area of the 2011 Iwaki earthquake (M 7.0) and the Fukushima nuclear power plant are determined by inverting a large number of high-quality arrival times with both the finite-frequency and ray tomography methods. The Iwaki earthquake and its aftershocks mainly occurred in a boundary zone with strong variations in seismic velocity and Poisson's ratio. Prominent low-velocity and high Poisson's ratio zones are revealed under the Iwaki source area and the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which may reflect fluids released from the dehydration of the subducting Pacific slab under Northeast Japan. The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw 9.0) caused static stress transfer in the overriding Okhotsk plate, resulting in the seismicity in the Iwaki source area that significantly increased immediately following the Tohoku-oki mainshock. Our results suggest that the Iwaki earthquake was triggered by the ascending fluids from the Pacific slab dehydration and the stress variation induced by the Tohoku-oki mainshock. The similar structures under the Iwaki source area and the Fukushima nuclear power plant suggest that the security of the nuclear power plant site should be strengthened to withstand potential large earthquakes in the future.