Regional coda Q in Costa Rica, Central America

Abstract

Regional seismic apparent attenuation was estimated for Costa Rica, Central America, by using a time domain single scattering model of the shear wave coda decay of local earthquakes. The sensitivity of coda Q (Qc) measurements with respect to geological differences in the crust is demonstrated in eight sub-regions with a large variety of tectonic and geologic properties. The Qc estimations were performed for 96 selected local earthquakes recorded at 13 sites during a period of three months. In order to model the scattering as a weak process and to avoid short distance nonlinear effects, we made use of the S-wave coda data only from events within a hypocentral distance of 12 to 106 km with a lapse time between 9 and 53 s. Seismograms were also divided into groups with three different focal depths d, namely d<21 km, 21 km<d<43 km and 43 km<d<94 km. As in many other investigations, the Qc values are frequency dependent in the range 1–9 Hz, and are approximated by a least-squares fit to the power law Qc(f) = Q0(f/f0)n. The estimated parameters of the power-law dependence of Qc for the whole region, including all depths and possible wave paths, are Q0 = 91 (± 8.4) and n = 0.72 (±0.071). Differences in the parameter of Qc for different depths intervals are small, ranging from Q0 = 90 (±0.7) and n = 0.70 (±0.006) for the uppermost group, with focal depths less than 21 km, to Q0 = 97 (±0.7) and n = 0.79 (±0.005) for the deepest group with focal depths larger than 43 km. The regional differences in Qc for the eight sub-regions are significantly larger when compared with the differences between the three focal depth groups. An attempt is made to interpret the variation of Qc in terms of spatial variations in the geologic and tectonic properties of the crust. Other authors have found that the frequency exponent n might be larger in active tectonic areas and smaller in more stable regions. In the northern region of the Pacific coast we obtain a value of n = 0.52 (±0.011), which might indicate a lower level of tectonic activity when compared with n = 0.85 (±0.015) and 0.83 (±0.031), respectively, for the central and southern sub-regions along the Pacific coast. The latter two sub-regions are located closer to the active area near the Cocos ridge. We obtain the frequency exponent n = 0.72 (±0.052) along a major shear zone in central Costa Rica characterized by high volcanic activity and large geologic complexity. Values of n along the Panamean border are 0.62 (±0.029) in the north and 0.86 (±0.009) and 0.83 (±0.031) in two regions adjacent to the subduction zone and the Cocos Ridge, respectively.