Dense Seismic Network Research Articles

Extending the formulation of the spatial autocorrelation (SPAC) method to strain, rotation and tilt

SUMMARYThe spatial autocorrelation (SPAC) method has been applied to ambient seismic noise measured by arrays of translational seismometers for inverting phase-velocity dispersion curves of Rayleigh or Love waves for shallow S-wave velocity structure. Recently, it is becoming possible to observe wave spatial gradients such as strain, rotation and tilt owing to the development of dense seismic networks and improving measurement technologies. Therefore, it is desirable to extend the formulation of the SPAC method to strain, rotation and tilt. This study presents analytical expressions of cross-spectra and coherence of the strain, rotation and tilt components that are measured on the free surface. According to the results, both Rayleigh and Love waves contribute to most components of strains. The exceptions are the areal strain and the vertical axial strain (ezz) on the free surface that are affected by only Rayleigh waves. Only Rayleigh waves contribute to the tilts and rotations around the horizontal axes on the free surface, too. On the other hand, only Love waves contribute to the rotation around the vertical axis. Therefore, different kinds of wave spatial gradients are helpful to separate Rayleigh and Love waves correctly. For practical applications, the analytical expression for the radial axial strain (err) component will be applied directly to distributed acoustic sensing data measured with straight sections of a fibre-optic cable. On the other hand, dense observations of rotation and tilt may still be difficult to carry out at present. However, an application of analytical formulations in this study to arrays of at least several three-component rotational seismometers is attractive because it enables us to separately estimate the phase velocities of Rayleigh and Love waves.

Dynamic Earthquake Triggering in Southern California in High Resolution: Intensity, Time Decay, and Regional Variability

AbstractEarthquake triggering by seismic waves has been recognized as a phenomenon for nearly 30 years. However, our ability to study dynamic triggering has been limited by our ability to capture the triggering stresses accurately and record the resultant earthquakes. Here we use full waveforms from a dense seismic network and a modern, high‐resolution seismic catalog to measure triggering in Southern California from 2008 to 2017 based on interevent time ratios. We find that the fractional seismicity rate change, which we term triggering intensity or triggerability, as a function of peak strain change for the period of ∼20 s due to distant earthquakes is monotonically increasing and compatible with earlier measurements made with a disjoint data set from 1984 to 2008. A triggering strain of 1 microstrain is equivalent to the local productivity generated by an M1.8 earthquakes. This result implies that a prediction of seismicity rate changes can be made based on recorded ground shaking using the same formalism as currently used for aftershock prediction. For a teleseismic event, this small level of triggering occurs throughout the region and thus aggregates to a regional effect. We find that the triggering rate decays after the triggerer follows an Omori‐Utsu law, but at a much slower rate than a typical aftershock sequence. The slow decay rate suggests that an ancillary process such as creep or fluid flow must be part of dynamic triggering. The prevalence of triggering in areas of creep or fluid involvement reinforces this inference. A triggering cascade of secondary earthquakes is insufficient to explain the data.

Nucleation process of the 2011 northern Nagano earthquake from nearby seismic observations

The 2011 magnitude (M) 9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake was followed by seismicity activation in inland areas throughout Japan. An outstanding case is the M6.2 Northern Nagano earthquake, central Japan, occurred 13-h after the megathrust event, approximately 400 km away from its epicenter. The physical processes relating the occurrence of megathrust earthquakes and subsequent activation of relatively large inland earthquakes are not well understood. Here we use waveform data of a dense local seismic network to reveal with an unprecedented resolution the complex mechanisms leading to the occurrence of the M6.2 earthquake. We show that previously undetected small earthquakes initiated along the Nagano earthquake source fault at relatively short times after the Tohoku-oki megathrust earthquake, and the local seismicity continued intermittently until the occurrence of the M6.2 event, being likely ‘modulated’ by the arrival of surface waves from large, remote aftershocks off-shore Tohoku. About 1-h before the Nagano earthquake, there was an acceleration of micro-seismicity migrating towards its hypocenter. Migration speeds indicate potential localized slow-slip, culminating with the occurrence of the large inland earthquake, with fluids playing a seismicity-activation role at a regional scale.

Near-Surface Geothermal Reservoir Imaging based on the Customized Dense Seismic Network

Exploration of geothermal resources has become one of the major drivers for urbanization and economic transformation in southeast China, and it calls for temporal and spatial resolution improvements on conventional geophysical techniques under complex near-surface conditions. A dense seismic network including 192 sensors, with its aperture around 4.8 km, was deployed to record ambient noise for local-scale geothermal reservoir imaging in central Zhejiang Province, southeast China. With the ultrashort (less than 5 days) observation, a subset of the total station pairs was extracted to conduct seismic interferometry and dispersion measurements. This customized subnet was qualified to be an overdetermined system to achieve similar performance of entire network for the eikonal tomography with higher efficiency. The recorded high-frequency noise sources turned out to be rather homogeneous distributions, except for the dominant direction of northern Jinhua urban area. Azimuthal effects and wavelength restriction of dispersion measurements were quantified by simulating source–receiver responses under non-equipartitions of energy. The azimuth–velocity variations of field dataset verified that phase velocity measurements using the tested wavelength restriction were robust under different source–receiver orientations. The obtained phase velocity maps were comparable with the geological map. Furthermore, the inverted body wave velocities coincide well with the borehole data. Shear wave velocity profiles revealed corresponding fracture and depression structures of the reservoir. Finally, multiple geophysical properties delineate the shallow geothermy to be karst fissure water heated at certain earth temperature gradient.

Using ambient noise tomography and MAPS for high resolution stratigraphic identification in Hangzhou urban area

Near-surface (<200 m) stratigraphic identification is of scientific and engineering significance to urban sustainable development and expansion. Complex urbanized environments, however, limit the application of traditional active-source seismic surveys. Passive seismic surveys provide an alternative for investigating near-surface structures by utilizing abundant traffic noise. We presented a case study of fine-scale shear-wave velocity (Vs) structure imaging in the Hangzhou urban area (eastern China) and compared inversion results of ambient noise tomography and multichannel analysis of passive surface wave (MAPS). Noise data were recorded within one day by a dense seismic network (130 m × 120 m). The average adjacent station interval is about 10 m. Our goal is to investigate the top 100 m of the subsurface at the survey area. The two inverted Vs models by tomography and MAPS are similar and they both tally with the logging data. The subsurface geology structures are analyzed based on tomography inversion results and borehole data. The bedrock surface is determined at about 60 m depth and a high-velocity layer is found at around 45– 50 m depth. The sedimentary formation and bedrock in the survey area are further stratified under the control of borehole data.

Magma Reservoir and Magmatic Feeding System Beneath Hakone Volcano, Central Japan, Revealed by Highly Resolved Velocity Structure

AbstractDelineation of the characteristics of magmatic fluid such as melt and water beneath volcanoes has been challenging. In this study, we obtained a detailed picture of the magma reservoir beneath the felsic caldera of Hakone volcano, central Japan using a velocity model obtained from a dense seismic observation network. In the shallow region of the caldera, a high‐velocity region associated with a solidified magma where many earthquake swarms occur was estimated, and a significantly low‐velocity region exists beneath the lower depth limit of seismicity, deeper than 6 km. The upper part of this low‐velocity region is interpreted as a water‐rich region established by the dehydration from the magma reservoir located beneath it. The temperature in this water‐rich zone was estimated to be above 350°C based on its location below the seismogenic depth. The upper depth of the magma reservoir was determined to be 9 km deep, where the high‐ratio of P‐ to S‐wave velocity was estimated. The volume fraction of melt was estimated as less than 10%, suggesting a highly crystallized mush structure. The low‐velocity zone was estimated beneath the shallow magma reservoir at a depth of 15 km and deep extension of the source region of deep low‐frequency earthquakes. The results could suggest the pathway of magma transport from the deep part of the volcano to this shallow reservoir.

Seismic monitoring of urban activity in Barcelona during the COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the city of Barcelona was covered by a dense seismic network consisting of up to 19 seismic sensors. This network has provided an excellent tool to investigate in detail the background seismic-noise variations associated with the lockdown measures. Permanent stations facilitate comparing the seismic noise recorded during the lockdown quieting with long-term variations due to holiday periods. On the other hand, the data acquired by the dense network show the differences between sites located near industrial areas, transportation hubs or residential areas. The results confirm that the quieting of human activity during lockdown has resulted in a reduction in seismic vibrations in the 2–20 Hz band that is clearly higher than during holiday seasons. This effect is observed throughout the city, but only those stations not affected by very proximal sources of vibration (construction sites, industries) are clearly correlated with the level of activity denoted by other indicators. Our contribution demonstrates that seismic amplitude variations can be used as a proxy for human activity in urban environments, providing details similar to those offered by other mobility indicators.

Evolution of aseismic slip rate along plate boundary faults before and after megathrust earthquakes

Similar earthquakes that occur in approximately the same location have the potential to reveal the spatio-temporal changes in aseismic slip along plate boundaries. Here we identify similar earthquakes with moderate magnitudes that occurred worldwide between 1989 and 2016 by using seismograms recorded by the Japanese dense seismic network. The slip rate along the plate boundaries estimated from similar earthquakes increased rapidly following M > 8 megathrust ruptures and then gradually decayed over periods of ~10 years, which correlates with after-slip progressing around the source areas. More than 30 years after large megathrust earthquakes, the slip rate begins to show a gradual increase. This gradual increase in slip rate after the decay may be due to an increase in stress levels that accumulate during tectonic loading. The spatio-temporal characteristics of inter-plate aseismic slip can be used to provide a valuable framework for understanding the long-term evolution of slip-rate during megathrust earthquake cycles.

Discerning Structure and Seismic Hazards in the Sikkim Himalayas

A dense seismic network in operation since 2019 will provide new insights into the tectonics of seismically active Himalayan regions.

Improved 3‐D P Wave Azimuthal Anisotropy Structure Beneath the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Japan: New Interpretations of the Dual Subduction System Revealed by Seismic Anisotropy

AbstractThe Tokyo metropolitan area, in the Kanto region of Japan, lies on the Okhotsk plate. Historically, the city has suffered severe damage as a result of megathrust ruptures and intra‐plate earthquakes (M ≥ 7) caused by the dual subduction of the Philippine Sea (PHS) slab and the Pacific slab. To understand the unique seismotectonics of the region, we constrain the three‐dimensional (3‐D) P wave isotropic and azimuthal anisotropic velocity structure beneath the Kanto district, by applying a high‐resolution anisotropic tomography method to travel time data from a dense seismic network consisting of ∼500 stations (including the Metropolitan Seismic Observation network, MeSO‐net). The seismic structure, derived from 1,877 local earthquakes, suggests that the basement of the Okhotsk plate consists of an old accretionary zone formed when the NE Japan arc was part of the Asian continent. The anisotropy observed in the oceanic crust of the subducting PHS slab suggests the presence of a well‐developed system of bending‐related faults, oriented parallel to the axis of the Sagami Trough. We identify a low‐velocity anomaly within the PHS slab mantle, located beneath the Boso Peninsula, which has previously been interpreted as representing the overlying continental plate or the oceanic crust of the PHS slab. Lateral variations in the anisotropy structure suggest that the NE limit of the PHS slab lies farther south than previously thought. Anisotropy directions can be used to identify heterogeneities embedded in low‐velocity anomalies within the PHS slab, which have not been identified in previous studies using only isotropic velocity models.

Crustal attenuation beneath western North America: Implications for slab subduction, terrane accretion and arc magmatism of the Cascades

The western margin of the North American continent is a composite of diverse crustal domains featuring ancestral cratons, the Cordilleran terranes and the subducting Cascadia slab. Their existence and spatial extent have been largely inferred from seismic imaging, which is highly sensitive to variations in both crustal seismic velocity and attenuation structures. In this study, we improve upon existing, yet relatively limited, knowledge of crustal attenuation by developing a new Lg-wave attenuation (Q0) model. Benefiting from a comprehensive data set from dense seismic networks in Canada and the United States, our model reveals a clear transition from the low-attenuation (Q0>450) Canadian Shield to the highly-attenuated (Q0<150) crust near the Cascade arc. In the former region, the low-attenuation structures agree well with the distribution of thick, high-velocity crust in the Cordilleran foreland, suggesting dominant effects of elastic properties such as scattering and geometry of the crustal waveguide on the attenuation characteristics of stable cratons. On the other hand, we observe strong crustal attenuations in magmatically active areas including the Cascade arc and the Yellowstone-Snake River Plain volcanic province. The excellent spatial correlation between the high-attenuation Cascades and the surface projection of the subducting slabs further suggests a possible role of slab dehydration in increasing the fluid content of the overlying continental crust and modifying seismic attenuation. The sharp termination of the highly-attenuated crust forms a structural boundary in the Cascade back-arc that likely marks the eastern subsurface limit of the Siletzia terrane. The close spatial affinity of this boundary to the isotopic ratio lineament of 87Sr/86Sr = 0.706, which is the suggested ancestral continental margin, highlights the distinctive crustal types and/or heterogeneous structures between young accreted terranes and ancient cratons.

An Optimum 2D Seismic-Wavefield Reconstruction in Densely and Nonuniformly Distributed Stations: The Metropolitan Seismic Observation Network in Japan

Abstract We propose an optimization method for applying the seismic-wave gradiometry (SWG) method to a dense seismic station network consisting of nonuniformly distributed seismographs. As a nonuniformly distributed station array, we consider the station layout of the Metropolitan Seismic Observation Network (MeSO-net) operated in and around the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan. In this study, thereby, we numerically investigate optimum shapes of weighting functions, which control the spatial weights of individual stations when estimating waveforms at any grid points in the SWG method, to reconstruct seismic wavefields propagating in the MeSO-net. The functions with isotropic spatial weights are found to be appropriate for wavefield reconstructions with seismic waves incoming from practically all directions, even for nonuniformly distributed stations. The reproducibility of the wavefields is greatly improved by changing the shapes of the spatial weights reflecting density of the stations. Further plausible wavefield reconstructions are made by considering the propagation directions of the seismic waves. In these cases, if the weight of a contribution for a wavefield reconstruction is larger at far stations with a direction perpendicular to the wave propagation direction, then the reproducibility of the waveforms is significantly increased. In addition, the spatial gradients of the amplitudes are well reproduced by the optimized SWG method even though the optimization only focused on the amplitudes. Therefore, our proposed optimization scheme can be used to accurately estimate seismic wavefields in a nonuniformly distributed station array. Actually, the weighting functions optimized in this study succeeded to reconstruct the seismic wavefield of a shallow crustal earthquake that occurred around the Tokyo metropolitan area, based on the observed seismograms obtained by the MeSO-net.

Urban near-surface imaging from ambient noise tomography using dense seismic networks

It is of scientific and engineering significance to extract surface wave signals from urban ambient noise for fine-scale three-dimensional velocity structure imaging of underground medium. A series of issues such as ambient noise characteristics in urban environment, observation system design and resolution of small-scale imaging, have put forward a lot of new requirements and challenges to traditional methods and technologies. We utilized the dense array with its aperture extend below hundred meters in Hangzhou urban area, to carry out the ambient noise data acquisition experiments within one day. Based on the time-frequency analysis of noise cross-correlations, we conducted surface wave travel time tomography. Finally, the phase velocity slices were inverted to build a three-dimensional S-wave velocity structure, and the profiles were compared with the drilling data for validations. We concluded that these geometry and processing parameters adopted in the urban environment are feasible for near-surface tomography and can meet the demands of three-dimensional geological survey in cities efficiently.

Near Real-Time Earthquake Line-Source Models Derived from Felt Reports

Abstract Rapid information on fault rupture geometry is critically important to assess damage and fatalities in large earthquakes and is strongly needed to coordinate rapid rescue efforts if and where necessary. Many countries around the world, however, cannot afford to operate dense seismic networks required to rapidly determine rupture geometry. In this feasibility study, we investigate if crowd-sourced felt intensity reports can be used to close this information gap and enable determination of the orientation and spatial extent of fault ruptures. We apply the Finite-Fault Rupture Detector (FinDer) algorithm to felt intensity reports collected by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). We develop an empirical relationship between the azimuthal gap between felt reports and FinDer performance for automated event selection. This gives us a dataset of 36 global earthquakes (6.0≤M≤7.3) between 2014 and 2020. We find that the resulting FinDer line-source models are generally consistent with the spatially dependent intensity patterns described by the felt reports, and in many earthquakes achieve a good agreement with the finite-source models published in the literature: for 50% of events the difference in strike is less than 30°, and for 75% less than 55°. FinDer line-source models could be calculated automatically for global earthquakes (M≥6) within 10–30 min after their occurrence, provided a sufficient number of felt reports were available. However, our proposed method not only provides faster results, but also helps to fill a general information gap for many earthquakes around the world, for which rupture geometry information is currently unavailable.

Forecasting the Preparatory Phase of Induced Earthquakes by Recurrent Neural Network

Earthquakes prediction is considered the holy grail of seismology. After almost a century of efforts without convincing results, the recent raise of machine learning (ML) methods in conjunction with the deployment of dense seismic networks has boosted new hope in this field. Even if large earthquakes still occur unanticipated, recent laboratory, field, and theoretical studies support the existence of a preparatory phase preceding earthquakes, where small and stable ruptures progressively develop into an unstable and confined zone around the future hypocenter. The problem of recognizing the preparatory phase of earthquakes is of critical importance for mitigating seismic risk for both natural and induced events. Here, we focus on the induced seismicity at The Geysers geothermal field in California. We address the preparatory phase of M~4 earthquakes identification problem by developing a ML approach based on features computed from catalogues, which are used to train a recurrent neural network (RNN). We show that RNN successfully reveal the preparation of M~4 earthquakes. These results confirm the potential of monitoring induced microseismicity and should encourage new research also in predictability of natural earthquakes.

The Geometry of the Subducted Slab Beneath Sumatra Revealed by Regional and Teleseismic Traveltime Tomography

AbstractThe geometry of the subducted Indo‐Australian plate beneath Sumatra is still controversial because of the historical lack of a dense seismic network. Since 2005, Indonesia has been establishing a relatively dense seismic network for real time earthquake monitoring and tsunami warning. The seismic data accumulated by this network make it possible to achieve high‐resolution tomographic images of the velocity structure beneath Sumatra by using eikonal equation‐based seismic tomography method. Our P‐wave tomographic images derived from regional seismic and teleseismic traveltime data demonstrate that the slab in the upper mantle generally follows the strike of the trench and the orientation of the volcanic arc. Additionally, the slab exhibits a sinusoidal shape with a low degree of curvature. Our tomographic results also reveal that the maximum penetration depth of the subducted slab increases from the north to south. The subducted slab beneath the northern tip of Sumatra barely arrives at the 410‐km discontinuity, while the slab in the south penetrates to a depth of at least 660 km. Our inversion further indicates that the subducted slab is characterized by a tear at a depth of 120 km between 0° N and 2° N, which may be closely related to the supervolcanic eruption of the Toba caldera in northern Sumatra during the Pleistocene. Moreover, we report that the dip of the subducted slab varies significantly (i.e., dramatically decreases) across the Sunda Strait; therefore, we infer that another subvertical slab tear exists beneath the Sunda Strait.

Machine-learning-facilitated earthquake and anthropogenic source detections near the Weiyuan Shale Gas Blocks, Sichuan, China

Seismic hazard assessment and risk mitigation depend critically on rapid analysis and characterization of earthquake sequences. Increasing seismicity in shale gas blocks of the Sichuan Basin, China, has presented a serious challenge to monitoring and managing the seismicity itself. In this study, to detect events we apply a machine-learning-based phase picker (PhaseNet) to continuous seismic data collected between November 2015 and November 2016 from a temporary network covering the Weiyuan Shale Gas Blocks (SGB). Both P- and S-phases are picked and associated for location. We refine the velocity model by using detected explosions and earthquakes and then relocate the detected events using our new velocity model. Our detections and absolute relocations provide the basis for building a high-precision earthquake catalog. Our primary catalog contains about 60 times as many earthquakes as those in the catalog of the Chinese Earthquake Network Center (CENC), which used only the sparsely distributed permanent stations. We also measure the local magnitude and achieve magnitude completeness of ML0. We relocate clusters of events, showing sequential migration patterns overlapping with horizontal well branches around several well pads in the Wei202 and Wei204 blocks. Our results demonstrate the applicability of a machine-learning phase picker to a dense seismic network. The algorithms can facilitate rapid characterization of earthquake sequences.

Depth variation of the Conrad discontinuity in the Qaidam Basin, northwestern China, and its crustal dynamic implications

We use broadband records from a dense seismic network deployed in and around the Qaidam Basin in northwestern China to analyze the crustal phases and investigate the depth of the Conrad and Moho discontinuities as well as the P-wave velocity. Waveform cross-correlation is used to assist in the identification of the crustal phases and in determining their arrival times. Depth of the Conrad discontinuity is determined by fitting the travel times of Conrad-diffracted P-waves using a two-layer model. The depth of the Conrad discontinuity under the eastern part of the basin is shallower than the western part, which can be attributed to different crustal shortening mechanisms. The upper crust shortening in the western part of the basin leads to thickening of the upper crust, while multiple thrust faults result in the rise of the Conrad discontinuity in the east. These two different mechanisms determine the depth change of the Conrad discontinuity in the basin from the west to the east, which is supported by the results in this study.

Relative earthquake location procedure for clustered seismicity with a single station

SUMMARYEarthquake location is one of the oldest problems in seismology, yet remains an active research topic. With dense seismic monitoring networks, it is possible to obtain reliable locations for microearthquakes; however, in many cases dense networks are lacking, limiting the location accuracy, or preventing location when there are too few observations. For small events in all settings, recording may be sparse and location may be difficult due to low signal-to-noise ratio. In this work, we introduce a new, distance-geometry-based method to locate seismicity clusters using only one or two seismic stations. A distance geometry problem consists in determining the location of sets of points based only on the distances between member pairs. Applied to seismology, our approach allows earthquake location using the interevent distance between earthquake pairs, which can be estimated using only one or two seismic stations. We first validate the method with synthetic data that resemble common cluster shapes, and then test the method with two seismic sequences in California: the August 2014 Mw 6.0 Napa earthquake and the July 2019 Mw 6.4 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. We demonstrate that our approach provides robust and reliable results even for a single station. When using two seismic stations, the results capture the same structures recovered with high-resolution double-difference locations based on multiple stations. The proposed method is particularly useful for poorly monitored areas, where only a limited number of stations are available.

Wildfires Threaten West Coast’s Seismic Network

A dense seismic network keeps vigil over the western United States, sensing quakes soon after they begin so people nearby can brace themselves. How do wildfires affect these guardians of the West Coast?