Determination of focal mechanism from SV/P amplitude ratios at small distances

Abstract

A computational scheme for determining focal mechanisms of small earthquakes recorded at short distances by high-gain, short-period seismographs has been developed and tested. The steps in the procedure are explained. The most serious difficulty is the inherent nonlinearity of the problem and the attendant question of determining when a convergent solution is a well-constrained representation of the real focal mechanism.