Centroid moment tensor catalogue using a 3‐D continental scale Earth model: Application to earthquakes in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands

Abstract

AbstractAlthough both earthquake mechanism and 3‐D Earth structure contribute to the seismic wavefield, the latter is usually assumed to be layered in source studies, which may limit the quality of the source estimate. To overcome this limitation, we implement a method that takes advantage of a 3‐D heterogeneous Earth model, recently developed for the Australasian region. We calculate centroid moment tensors (CMTs) for earthquakes in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands. Our method is based on a library of Green's functions for each source‐station pair for selected Geoscience Australia and Global Seismic Network stations in the region, and distributed on a 3‐D grid covering the seismicity down to 50 km depth. For the calculation of Green's functions, we utilize a spectral‐element method for the solution of the seismic wave equation. Seismic moment tensors were calculated using least squares inversion, and the 3‐D location of the centroid is found by grid search. Through several synthetic tests, we confirm a trade‐off between the location and the correct input moment tensor components when using a 1‐D Earth model to invert synthetics produced in a 3‐D heterogeneous Earth. Our CMT catalogue for PNG in comparison to the global CMT shows a meaningful increase in the double‐couple percentage (up to 70%). Another significant difference that we observe is in the mechanism of events with depth shallower then 15 km and Mw < 6, which contributes to accurate tectonic interpretation of the region.