A note on the surface motion of a semi-cylindrical canyon for incident cylindrical SH waves radiated by a finite fault

Abstract

The plane-wave assumption for incident SH waves can be a good approximation for cylindrical and spherical waves radiated from finite sources, even when the source is as close as twice the size of the inhomogeneity, and when the source and the inhomogeneity are described within the same coordinate system. However, in a more general setting, and when the fault’s radiation pattern must be considered, the plane-wave approximation may not yield satisfactory answers for arbitrary orientation of the fault. Jalali et al. (2015) demonstrated this for a semi-cylindrical, sedimentary valley, and in this study we extend their results to a case in which the semi-circular, sedimentary valley is replaced by a canyon. We describe the effects of incident cylindrical waves on the amplitudes of surface motion in and near the semi-cylindrical canyon when the causative faults are at different distances and have different curvatures and orientations.