ISSN:
1365-246X
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Geosciences
Notes:
Seismic arrival times from microearthquakes (ML 〈 4) on the San Jacinto fault near Anza, California, are used to find spatial variations in the seismic velocity that are related to the crustal structure of the fault zone. Preliminary modelling of the 1-D P-wave velocity structure of the upper 25 km of crust reveals that most of the variation in velocity is lateral rather than depth dependent. The traveltime anomalies due to lateral structure can be partially compensated for by applying station corrections, however the variance of the traveltime residuals is still 2.25 times larger than the variance of the picking error. The spatially correlated residuals show that this variance is due to localized velocity anomalies and that the data require further modelling using a 3-D velocity structure.Because the 3-D inverse problem is non-unique, smoothness constraints are applied to find the model that has the minimum structure required to fit the data to the picking error, where a smooth model is defined such that the gradient of the velocity perturbation from the original 1-D model is small. With small non-zero station corrections, a 3-D velocity model can be found that fits the data well. The structure is well resolved from 3 to 9 km depth where lateral perturbations of up to 7 per cent are determined independently of the trade-off between station corrections and poorly resolved near surface structure. The model shows a horizontal gradient with overall faster velocities in the north-east side of the fault zone. At 3–6 km depth, the signature of the fault zone is evident in the lower velocities beneath the surface trace of the fault. However, at 9 km depth. higher seismic velocities are found extending into the fault zone from the north-east block. This higher velocity region occurs where there is a distinct lack of seismicity on the fault. There is also a localized feature in the south-west of the modelled region that is more than 10 km from the main trace of the fault with velocities 3 per cent slower than average.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1994.tb00145.x
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