Fast and accurate earthquake location within complex medium using a hybrid global-local inversion approach

A novel hybrid approach for earthquake location is proposed which uses a combined coarse global search and fine local inversion with a minimum search routine, plus an examination of the root mean squares （RMS） error distribution. The method exploits the advantages of network ray tracing and robust formulation of the Frrchet derivatives to simultaneously update all possible initial source parameters around most local minima （including the global minimum） in the solution space, and finally to determine the likely global solution. Several synthetic examples involving a 3-D complex velocity model and a challenging source-receiver layout are used to demonstrate the capability of the newly-developed method. This new global-local hybrid solution technique not only incorporates the significant benefits of our recently published hypocenter determination procedure for multiple earthquake parameters, but also offers the attractive features of global optimal searching in the RMS travel time error distribution. Unlike the traditional global search method, for example, the Monte Carlo approach, where millions of tests have to be done to fmd the final global solution, the new method only conducts a matrix inversion type local search but does it multiple times simultaneously throughout the model volume to seek a global solution. The search is aided by inspection of the RMS error distribution. Benchmark tests against two popular approaches, the direct grid search method and the oct-tree important sampling method, indicate that the hybrid global-local inversion yields comparable location accuracy and is not sensitive to modest level of noise data, but more importantly it offers two-order of magnitude speed-up in computational effort. Such an improvement, combined with high accuracy, make it a promising hypocenter determination scheme in earthquake early warning, tsunami early warning, rapid hazard assessment and emergency response after strong earthquake occurrence.

Seismic wave propagation in Kelvin visco-elastic VTI media

In this article,under the assumption of weak anisotropy and weak attenuation, we present approximate solutions of anisotropic complex velocities and quality-factors for Kelvin visco-elastic transverse isotropy（KEL-VTI） media,based on the complex physical parameter matrix.Also,combined with the KEL-VTI media model,the propagation characteristics of the qP-,qS V-,and qSH-wave phases and energies are discussed.Further, we build a typical KEL-VTI media model of the Huainan coal mine to model the wave propagation.The numerical simulation results show that the PP- and PSV-wave theoretical wave-fields are close to the wave-fields of three-component P- and converted-waves acquired in the work area.This result proves that the KEL-VTI media model gives a good approximation to this typical coalfield seismic-geologic conditions and is helpful to the study of attenuation compensation of multi-component seismic data.

Numerical Simulation for Water Entry of a Wedge at Varying Speed by a High Order Boundary Element Method

A high order boundary element method was developed for the complex velocity potential problem. The method ensures not only the continuity of the potential at the nodes of each element but also the velocity. It can be applied to a variety of velocity potential problems. The present paper, however, focused on its application to the problem of water entry of a wedge with varying speed. The continuity of the velocity achieved herein is particularly important for this kind of nonlinear free surface flow problem, because when the time stepping method is used, the free surface is updated through the velocity obtained at each node and the accuracy of the velocity is therefore crucial. Calculation was made for a case when the distance S that the wedge has travelled and time t follow the relationship s=Dtα, where D and α are constants, which is found to lead to a self similar flow field when the effect due to gravity is ignored.

Complex eigenvalues and group velocities of normal modes in shallow water with a lossy bottom

For the stratified shallow water with a lossy bottom, the distribution and asymptotic behavior of mode eigenvalues in the complex plane are discussed on the basis of the Pekeris cut. The analysis shows that even in the shallow water with a low-speed lossy bottom there may be the proper modes which satisfy the radiation condition at infinite depth. It is also shown that when the ratio between the densities of the seawater and seabottom is close to one, there exist only a finite number of improper modes . An iterative method for evaluating the complex eigenvalues and group velocities of normal modes is presented and some numerical results are given.