Excitation of the acoustic and leaky waves in the atmosphere by a sub-surface seismic source

Abstract

We study excitation of acoustic, leaky, and surface waves by a time-harmonic force source located in a homogeneous isotropic elastic half-space contacting a homogeneous gas. The force acts in the normal direction to the interface between the media. We consider the case where the sound velocity in the gas is less than the velocity of the Rayleigh wave propagating along the surface of the solid. An expression is derived for the period-averaged radiation power of the surface Stoneley wave. The total radiation power is calculated for the acoustic wave in the gas and for the leaky pseudo-Rayleigh wave. Variations in the radiation powers of the surface and leaky waves are analyzed as functions of the source depth. If the velocities of compressional and shear waves in the elastic medium significantly exceed the sound velocity in the gas, then the radiation power of the Stoneley wave turns out to be a factor of 106–108 smaller than the radiation powers of other waves. The radiation power of the Stoneley wave decreases monotonically with increasing source depth, and the decrease becomes more pronounced with the increase in the difference between the acoustic impedances of the contacting media. If the shear-wave velocity in the solid is close to the sound velocity in the gas, then the radiation power of the Stoneley wave is comparable with the radiation powers of other waves and exhibits maximum at a certain source depth. For some parameters of the gas and the solid, and for certain source depths, the Stoneley wave carries away more than a half of the total radiation power. It is shown that, for certain relations between the parameters of the media, the radiation power of the Stoneley wave increases due to redistribution of the radiated power from the pseudo-Rayleigh leaky wave. The total power of these waves remains approximatly constant and, with accuracy of the order of 10−3, is equal to the radiation power of the Rayleigh wave at the vacuum-solid interface. It is shown that the acoustic-wave power which can be transmitted to the upper layers of the atmosphere during an earthquake does not exceed 0.01% of the total power radiated at a given frequency.