Attenuation in Southeastern Sicily (Italy) by applying different coda methods

Abstract

The attenuation in Southeastern Sicily has been investigated using 40aftershocks of the December 13 1990, earthquake. The quality factor ofcoda waves (Qc) was estimated in the frequency range 1.5–24 Hz,applying three different methods in time and frequency domains. On thewhole, a clear dependence of Qc on frequency was observed,according to the general law Q = Q0(f/f0)n . Thefrequency dependence relationships obtained from the analysis of codawaves at three lapse time windows (10, 20 and 30 seconds) show that, forall methods, Q0 (Qc at 1 Hz) significantly increases with lapsetime. In particular, Q0 is approximately 20 at short lapse time (10s) and increases to about 70 at longer lapse time (30 s). This is attributedto the fact that larger lapse times involve deeper parts of the crust andupper lithosphere which may be characterized by larger quality factors.Moreover, the value of the exponent n decreases with increasing codalengths from about 1.3 to 0.9, suggesting a decrease in heterogeneity ofthe medium with depth.Finally, Qc-values here found are of the same order as thosereported from other tectonic regions like the Anatolian Highlands orSouthern Spain, while significantly higher than in the neighboring volcanicarea of Mt. Etna.