Crustal density structure of the southern segment of the Liaocheng-Lankao fault, China

The 1:200,000 middle-large scale Bouguer gravity anomaly data covering the southern segment of the Liaocheng-Lankao fault(SLLF)and its vicinity are analyzed with two methods.First,the Bouguer gravity anomaly data are decomposed by two-dimensional(2 D)wavelet to make the family of multi-scale modes correspond with density structure at different depths.Second,a two and half dimension(2.5 D)human-computer interaction inversion of the Bouguer gravity anomaly data are conducted with the constraints provided by two deep seismic sounding profiles(DSS1 and DSS2)crossing the study area to get the crustal density profiles.Based on the integrated study,we can draw the following conclusions:1)SLLF appears to be a deep fault with almost vertical dipping and rooted into the uppermost mantle;2)In the middle to upper crust SLLF shows an clear turning patterns and segmentation features;3)In the study area the epicentral distributions of the precisely re-located small earthquakes and the historical large earthquakes have a good correspondence with the turning patterns and segmentation features of SLLF;and 4)The results of the horizontal slices from 2 D wavelet decomposition show that there are significant differences in the density structure on the two sides of the fault.A well-defined concave structure with low density exists in the upper crust of the Dongming Depression on the west side of the fault,with the concave center being estimated at a depth of about 8 km.In contrast,the upper crust on the east side presents a relative thinner pattern in depth with a bit higher density.Meanwhile,the low-density structure in the middle crust underneath the fault is presumably caused by the uplift of the upper mantle materials and their intrusion along the deep rupture system.This paper clarified the inconsistency of fault system and epicenters of small earthquakes from upper to lower crust.The results indicated that the fault system plays an important governing role to the seismicity in this area.

Assessment of the effect of three-dimensional mantle density heterogeneity on Earth rotation in tidal frequencies

In this paper, we report the assessment of the effect of the three-dimensional （3D） density heterogeneity in the mantle on Earth orientation parameters （EOP） （i.e., the polar motion, or PM, and the length of day, or LOD） in the tidal frequencies. The 3D mantle density model is estimated based upon a global S-wave velocity tomography model （S16U6LS） and the mineralogical knowledge derived from laboratory experiment. The lateral density variation is referenced against the preliminary reference earth model （PREM）. Using this approach the effects of the heterogeneous manHe density variation in all three tidal frequencies （zonal long periods, tesseral diurnal, and sectorial semidiurnal） are estimated in both PM and LOD. When compared with mass or density perturbations originated on the Earth＇s surface such as the oceanic and barometric changes, the het- erogeneous mantle contributes less than 10% of the total variation in PM and LOD in tidal frequencies. However, this is the gap that has not been explained to close the gap of the observation and modeling in PM and LOD. By computing the PM and LOD caused by 3D heterogeneity of the mantle during the period of continuous space geodetic measure- ment campaigns （e.g., CONT94） and the contribution from ocean tides as predicted by tide models derived from satellite altimetry observations （e.g., TOPEX/Poseidon} in the same period, we got the lump-sum values of PM and LOD. The computed total effects and the observed PM and LOD are generally agree with each other. In another word, the difference of the observed PM and LOD and the model only considering ocean tides, at all tidal frequencies （long periods, diurnals, and semidiurnals） contains the contributions of the lateral density heterogeneity of the mantle. Study of the effect of mantle densityheterogeneity effect on torque-free Earth rotation may provide useful constraints to construct the reference earth model （REM）, which is the next major objective in global geophysics research beyond PREM.

Applications of the Hilbert-Huang Transform for Microtremor Data Analysis Enhancement

In this paper we discuss the use of the Hilbert-Huang transform（HHT） to enhance the time-frequency analysis of microtremor measurements. HHT is a powerful algorithm that combines the process of empirical mode decomposition（EMD） and the Hilbert transform to compose the HilbertHuang spectrum that contains the time-frequency-energy information of the recorded signals. HHT is an adaptive algorithm and does not require the signals to be linear or stationary. HHT is advantageous for analyzing microtremor data, since observed microtremors are commonly contaminated by nonstationary transient noises close to the recording instruments. This is especially true when microtremors are measured in an urban environment. In our data processing HHT was used to（1） eliminate the unwanted short-duration transient constituents from microtremor data and use only the coherent portion of the data to carry out the widely used horizontal to vertical spectral ratio（H/V） method;（2） identify and eliminate the continuous industrial noise in certain frequency band; and（3） enhance the H/V analysis by using the Hilbert-Huang spectrum（HHS）. The efficacy of this proposed approach is demonstrated by the examples of applying it to microtremor data acquired in the metropolitan Beijing area.

Near-Surface Anisotropic Structure Characterization by Love Wave Inversion for Assessing Ground Conditions in Urban Areas

In many geophysical applications, neglecting of anisotropy is somehow an oversimplification. The mismatch between prediction based on isotropic theory and near-surface seismic observations indicates the need for the inclusion of medium anisotropy. In this paper, surface wave（Love wave） dispersion properties are used to estimate the anisotropic structure of the near-surface layered earth, which is modeled as media possess vertical transverse isotropy（VTI）, a reasonable assumption for near-surface sedimentary layers. Our approach utilizes multi-mode surface waves to estimate both the velocity structure and the anisotropy structure. This approach consists of three parts. First, the dispersion analysis is used to extract dispersion curves from real data. Second, the forward modeling is carried out based on the dispersion equation of Love wave in a multi-layered VTI medium. Dispersion curves of multi-modes, which are the numerical solutions of the dispersion equation, are obtained by a graphic-based method. Finally, the very fast simulated annealing（VFSA） algorithm is used to invert velocity structure and anisotropy structure simultaneously. Our approach is verified by the synthetic dispersion curve generated by a VTI medium model. The estimation of shear wave velocity and anisotropy structure of surface wave data acquired at Rentschler Field, an urban center site on sediments in the Connecticut River valley reveals a simple structure of the sediment layer over a bedrock half space. The results are verified by other inversion results based on different data set obtained on the same site. The consistency of inversion results shows the feasibility and efficiency of the approach.

Earth's Solid Inner Core: Seismic Implications of Freezing and Melting

Seismic P velocity structure is determined for the upper 500 km of the inner core and lowermost 200 km of the outer core from differential travel times and amplitude ratios. Results confirm the existence of a globally uniform F region of reduced P velocity gradient in the lowermost outer core, consistent with iron enrichment near the boundary of a solidifying inner core. P velocity of the inner core between the longitudes 45~E and 180~E （quasi-Eastern Hemisphere） is greater than or equal to that of an AK135-F reference model whereas that between 180~W and 45~E （quasi-Western Hemisphere） is less than that of the reference model Observation of this heterogeneity to a depth of 550 km below the inner core and the existence of transitions rather than sharp boundaries between quasi-hemispheres favor either no or very slow inner core super rotation or oscillations with respect to the mantle. Degree- one seismic heterogeneity may be best explained by active inner core freezing beneath the equatorial Indian Ocean dominating structure in the quasi-Eastern Hemisphere and inner core melting beneath equatorial Pacific dominating structure in the quasi-Western Hemisphere. Variations in waveforms also suRgest the existence of smaller-scale （1 to 100 km） heterogeneity.