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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Improve earthquake hypocenter using adaptive simulated annealing inversion in regional tectonic, volcano tectonic, and geothermal observation

Observation of earthquakes is routinely used widely in tectonic activity observation, and also in local scale such as volcano tectonic and geothermal activity observation. It is necessary for determining the location of precise hypocenter which the process involves finding a hypocenter location that has minimum error between the observed and the calculated travel times. When solving this nonlinear inverse problem, simulated annealing inversion method can be applied to such global optimization problems, which the convergence of its solution is independent of the initial model. In this study, we developed own program codeby applying adaptive simulated annealing inversion in Matlab environment. We applied this method to determine earthquake hypocenter using several data cases which are regional tectonic, volcano tectonic, and geothermal field. The travel times were calculated using ray tracing shooting method. We then compared its results with the results using Geiger’s method to analyze its reliability. Our results show hypocenter location has smaller RMS error compared to the Geiger’s result that can be statistically associated with better solution. The hypocenter of earthquakes also well correlated with geological structure in the study area. Werecommend using adaptive simulated annealing inversion to relocate hypocenter location in purpose to get precise and accurate earthquake location.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

1-D seismic velocity model and hypocenter relocation using double difference method around West Papua region

West Papua region has fairly high of seismicity activities due to tectonic setting and many inland faults. In addition, the region has a unique and complex tectonic conditions and this situation lead to high potency of seismic hazard in the region. The precise earthquake hypocenter location is very important, which could provide high quality of earthquake parameter information and the subsurface structure in this region to the society. We conducted 1-D P-wave velocity using earthquake data catalog from BMKG for April, 2009 up to March, 2014 around West Papua region. The obtained 1-D seismic velocity then was used as input for improving hypocenter location using double-difference method. The relocated hypocenter location shows fairly clearly the pattern of intraslab earthquake beneath New Guinea Trench (NGT). The relocated hypocenters related to the inland fault are also observed more focus in location around the fault.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Seismicity studies at Moluccas area based on the result of hypocenter relocation using HypoDD

The precise hypocenter was determined location using double difference method around subduction zone in Moluccas area eastern part of Indonesia. The initial hypocenter location from MCGA data catalogue of 1,945 earthquake events. Basically the principle of double-difference algorithm assumes if the distance between two earthquake hypocenter distribution is very small compared to the distance between the station to the earthquake source, the ray path can be considered close to both earthquakes. The results show the initial earthquakes with a certain depth (fix depth 10 km) relocated and can be interpreted more reliable in term of seismicity and geological setting. The relocation of the intra slab earthquakes beneath Banda Arc are also clearly observed down to depth of about 400 km. The precise relocated hypocenter will give invaluable seismicity information for other seismological and tectonic studies especially for seismic hazard analysis in this region.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Relocation of the 2010-2013 near the north coast of Papua earthquake sequence using Modified Joint Hypocenter Determination (MJHD) method

The accuracy of earthquake hypocenter position is necessary to analyze the tectonic conditions. This study aims to: (1) relocate the mainshock and aftershocks of the large earthquakes in Papua region i.e. June 16, 2010, April 21, 2012 and April 06, 2013 earthquake (2) determine the true fault plane, (3) estimate the area of the fracture, and (4) analyze the advantages and disadvantages of relocation with MJHD method in benefits for tectonic studies. This study used Modified Joint Hypocenter Determination (MJHD) method. Using P arrival phase data reported by the BMKG and openly available from website repogempa.bmkg.go.id, we relocated the mainshock of this large significant earthquake and its aftershocks. Then we identified the prefered fault planes from the candidate fault planes provided by the global CMT catalogue. The position of earthquakes was successfully relocated. The earthquakes mostly were clustered around the mainshock. Earthquakes that not clustered around mainshock are considered to be different mechanism from the mainshock. Relocation results indicate that the mainshock fault plane of June 16, 2010 earthquake is a field with strike 332o, dip 80o and −172o slip, the mainshock fault plane of April 21, 2012 earthquake is a field with strike 82o, dip 84o and 2o slip, the mainshock fault plane of April 06, 2013 earthquake is a field with strike 339o, dip 56o and −137o slip. Fault plane area estimated by cross section graphical method is an area of 2816.0 km2 (June 16, 2010), 906.2 km2 (April 21, 2012) and 1984.3 km2 (April 06, 2013). MJHD method has the advantage that it can calculate a lot of earthquakes simultaneously and has a station correction to account for lateral heterogeneity of the earth. This method successfully provides significant changes to improve the position of the depth of earthquakes that most of the hypocenter depth manually specified as a fixed depth (± 10 km). But this method cannot be sure that the hypocenters derived from the same earthquake mechanism.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Study of seismicity around Toba area based on relocation hypocenter result from BMKG catalogue

Toba area has complex tectonic setting attracting many earth scientists to study and understand tectonic and geological process or setting. The area is affected by oblique subduction zone, Renun Sumatran fault sub segment and some volcanoes that are near it. The earthquake catalogue provided by BMKG from April, 2009 to December, 2011 must be relocated firstly to get the precise hypocenter. We used catalogue data of P and S phase or P phase only and double-difference method to relocate the earthquakes. The results show hypocenter position enhancement that can be interpreted tectonically. The earthquakes after relocation relating to the Sumatran fault, subduction zone, volcanoes and seismic activities beneath Toba caldera can be mapped clearly. The relocated hypocenters in this study are very important to provide information for seismic hazard assessment and disaster mitigation study.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Hypocenter relocation using a fast grid search method and a 3-D seismic velocity model for the Sumatra region

Determination of earthquake hypocenter in Indonesia conducted by the Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency (MCGA) has still used a 1-D seismic velocity model. In this research, we have applied a Fast Grid Search (FGM) method and a 3-D velocity model resulting from tomographic imaging to relocate earthquakes in the Sumatran region. The data were taken from the MCGA data catalog from 2009 to 2011 comprising of subduction zone and on land fault earthquakes with magnitude greater than 4 Mw. Our preliminary results show some significant changes in the depths of the relocated earthquakes which are in general deeper than the depths of hypocenters from the MCGA data catalog. The residual times resulting from the relocation process are smaller than those prior to the relocation. Encouraged by these results, we will continue to conduct hypocenter relocation for all events from the MCGA data catalog periodically in order to produce a new data catalog with good quality. We hope that the new data catalog will be useful for further studies.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Earthquake hypocenter relocation using double difference method in East Java and surrounding areas

Determination of precise hypocenter location is very important in order to provide information about subsurface fault plane and for seismic hazard analysis. In this study, we have relocated hypocenter earthquakes in Eastern part of Java and surrounding areas from local earthquake data catalog compiled by Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia (MCGA) in time period 2009-2012 by using the double-difference method. The results show that after relocation processes, there are significantly changes in position and orientation of earthquake hypocenter which is correlated with the geological setting in this region. We observed indication of double seismic zone at depths of 70-120 km within the subducting slab in south of eastern part of Java region. Our results will provide useful information for advance seismological studies and seismic hazard analysis in this study.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Micro-earthquake signal analysis and hypocenter determination around Lokon volcano complex

Mount Lokon is one of five active volcanoes which is located in the North Sulawesi region. Since June 26{sup th}, 2011, standby alert set by the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM) for this mountain. The Mount Lokon volcano erupted on July 4{sup th}, 2011 and still continuously erupted until August 28{sup th}, 2011. Due to its high seismic activity, this study is focused to analysis of micro-earthquake signal and determine the micro-earthquake hypocenter location around the complex area of Lokon-Empung Volcano before eruption phase in 2011 (time periods of January, 2009 up to March, 2010). Determination of the hypocenter location was conducted with Geiger Adaptive Damping (GAD) method. We used initial model from previous study in Volcan de Colima, Mexico. The reason behind the model selection was based on the same characteristics that shared between Mount Lokon and Colima including andesitic stratovolcano and small-plinian explosions volcanian types. In this study, a picking events was limited to the volcano-tectonics of A and B types, hybrid, long-period that has a clear signal onset, and local tectonic with different maximum S – P time are not more than three seconds. As a result, we observed the micro-earthquakes occurred in the area north-west of Mount Lokon region.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Periodicity Analysis of Earthquake Occurrence and Hypocenter Depth Near Parkfield, California, 1994–2002 Versus 2006–2014

In central California, periodic earthquake occurrence suggests a relationship with annual hydrological, atmospheric, thermal, and tidal loadings. Here, in catalogs of declustered earthquakes within 100 km from Parkfield, CA, we study a semiannual periodicity for the monthly number of ≤7.2-km-deep earthquakes and the monthly median hypocenter depth over 1994–2002 and 2006–2014. Peak-trough months in fitted periodic components differ between time spans and event populations. Deeper earthquakes present no semiannual and a weak annual periodicity. Although modeled pore pressure shows a Spring peak, when added to the elastic Coulomb stress from surface hydrospheric loads, it fails to predict a 6-month periodicity for 2006–2014. In 1994–2002, the pore-pressure amplitude appears to be of same order as the elastic stress and may have had a stronger effect. In 2006–2014, we did not find load model parameters explaining the observed pattern or apparent changes following the 2003 San Simeon and 2004 Parkfield earthquakes.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Three-dimensional paganica fault morphology obtained from hypocenter clustering (L'Aquila 2009 seismic sequence, Central Italy)

In seismic modelling, fault planes are normally assumed to be flat due to the lack of data which can constrain fault morphology. However, incorporating 3D fault morphology is important for modelling several phenomena, for example calculating mainshock induced stress changes. Here we utilize a data-analytical method to unveil the 3D rupture morphology of faults using unsupervised clustering techniques applied to earthquake hypocenters in seismic sequences. We apply this method to the 2009 L'Aquila seismic sequence which involved a M W 6.1 mainshock on April 6th. We use a dataset of about 50,000 relocated events, mostly microearthquakes, reaching magnitude of completeness equal to 0.7. Clustering distinguishes the earthquakes as occurring in three main clusters along with other minor fault segments. We then represent the morphology of the main Paganica fault system (responsible for the largest mainshock) using splines. This method shows promise as a step toward robustly and quickly obtaining 3D rupture morphologies where earthquake sequences have been monitored. The 3D model is presented interactively online, and the processing is presented in an interactive Jupyter Notebook (https://bit.ly/2MnCFdj).

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Optimal design of 3D borehole seismic arrays for microearthquake monitoring in anisotropic media during stimulations in the EGS collab project

Multiple U.S. national laboratories, universities and industrial collaborators are conducting collaborative research under the EGS Collab project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, to understand the fracture creation and imaging during fracturing in enhanced geothermal systems. Microearthquake hypocenter locations and focal mechanisms are used to monitor hydraulic fracturing growth and characterization at the EGS Collab experimental site at the Sanford Underground Research Facility using seismic receivers in multiple monitoring wells. In this study, we develop a methodology for optimal design a 3D borehole seismic array for cost-effective seismic monitoring in anisotropic media using not only the relationship between receiver distributions and standard deviation errors of microearthquake hypocenter locations, but also that between receiver distributions and focal-mechanism inversion errors. Our results indicate that microearthquake hypocenter locations and focal mechanisms can be reasonably well reconstructed for the EGS Collab Experiment I using six monitoring wells, including four fracture-parallel monitoring wells and two orthogonal wells. Lastly, eight seismic receivers evenly distributed in four parallel monitoring wells or twelve receivers in all six monitoring wells are required for hypocenter location, and twelve receivers evenly distributed in six wells or sixteen receivers in four wells are needed for focal-mechanism inversion.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Effects of Fault Roughness on Coseismic Slip and Earthquake Locations

We report that fault zone structure is well known to exert strong controls on earthquake properties including coseismic slip distribution, rupture propagation direction, and hypocenter location. It has also been well established that the principal slip surface, which accommodates the majority of earthquake displacement, exhibits roughness at all scales following self-affine fractal distributions. Here we explore the relationship between fault roughness and specific earthquake properties including coseismic slip distribution and hypocenter location based on long-term simulations of earthquake catalogs on fractally rough faults. We begin by using the von Kármán autocorrelation function to procedurally generate single faults with different fractal roughness properties, which we place in a homogeneous elastic solid and apply pure right-lateral shear at a constant back slip rate with the earthquake simulator RSQSim. Running the simulations for 10,000 years each, we generate millions of earthquakes including thousands of events with Mw > 6.0, which rupture the surface. We show that the patterns of surface rupture in these large events follow self-affine fractal distributions with consistent fractal dimension related distinctly to the fractal dimension of the fault. In addition, the hypocenters of these large events occur in very specific predictable locations where the longest wavelength structure produces a stress asperity (i.e., restraining bend). The resulting patterns can explain many features observed on real fault systems, including clustered hypocenter locations, spatially variable coseismic slip distributions, and characteristic slip recurrence behavior. Lastly, these results demonstrate a quantitative link between a directly measurable fault property—roughness—and the properties of future earthquakes.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Preliminary results of teleseismic double-difference relocation of earthquakes around Indonesian archipelago region

Indonesian archipelago region is located in active tectonic setting and high seismicity zone. During the last decade, Indonesian was experienced with destructive major earthquakes causing damage and victims. The information of precise earthquake location parameters are very important in partular for earthquake early warning to the society and for advance seismic studies. In this study, we attempted to improve hypocenter location compiled by BMKG for time periods of April, 2009 up to June, 2014 for about 22,000 earthquake events around Indonesian region. For the firts time, we applied teleseismic double-difference relocation algorithm (teletomoDD) to improve hypocenter region in Indonesia region combining regional and teleseismic stations. Hypocenter relocation was performed utilizing local, regional, and teleseismic P-wave arrival time data. Our relocation result show that travel-time RMS errors were greatly reduced compared to the BMKG catalog. Seismicity at shallower depth (less than 50 km) shows significantly improvement especially in depth, and refined shallow geological structures, e.g. trench and major strike slip faults. Clustered seismicity is also detected beneath volcanic region, and probably related volcano activities and also major faults nearby. In the Sunda arc region, seismicity at shallower depth centered at two major distributions parallel to the trench strike direction, i.e. around fore-arc and in mainland that related to major fault, e.g. the Sumatran fault, and volcanic fronts. Below Central Java region, relocated hypocenter result showed double seismic zone pattern. A seismic gap is detected around the Sunda-Banda transition zone where transition between oceanic subduction to continental crust collision of Australian plate occurs. In Eastern Indonesia region, shallow earthquakes are observed related to major strike slip faults, e.g. Sorong and Palu-Koro fault, volcanism, and shallow part of subduction and collision zones. We also compare our result in the Sunda Arc region with slab1.0 model and our relocated seismicity shows good agreement with the previous slab geometry. Horizontal position shift of relocated events are mostly perpendicular to the trench directions.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Magma intrusion near Volcan Tancitaro: Evidence from seismic analysis

Between May and June 2006, an earthquake swarm occurred near Volcan Tancítaro in Mexico, which was recorded by a temporary seismic deployment known as the MARS network. We located ~1000 events from this seismic swarm. Previous earthquake swarms in the area were reported in the years 1997, 1999 and 2000. We relocate and analyze the evolution and properties of the 2006 earthquake swarm, employing a waveform cross-correlation-based phase repicking technique. Hypocenters from 911 events were located and divided into eighteen families having a correlation coefficient at or above 0.75. 90% of the earthquakes provide at least sixteen phase picks. We used the single-event location code Hypo71 and the P-wave velocity model used by the Jalisco Seismic and Accelerometer Network to improve hypocenters based on the correlation-adjusted phase arrival times. We relocated 121 earthquakes, which show clearly two clusters, between 9–10 km and 3–4 km depth respectively. The average location error estimates are <1 km epicentrally, and <2 km in depth, for the largest event in each cluster. Depths of seismicity migrate upward from 16 to 3.5 km and exhibit a NE-SW trend. The swarm first migrated toward Paricutin Volcano but by mid-June began propagating back toward Volcán Tancítaro. In addition to its persistence, noteworthy aspects of this swarm include a quasi-exponential increase in the rate of activity within the first 15 days; a b-value of 1.47; a jug-shaped hypocenter distribution; a shoaling rate of ~5 km/month within the deeper cluster, and a composite focal mechanism solution indicating largely reverse faulting. As a result, these features of the swarm suggest a magmatic source elevating the crustal strain beneath Volcan Tancítaro.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Preliminary results of local earthquake tomography around Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa regions

Bali, Sumbawa, and Lombok regions are located in active tectonic influence by Indo-Australia plate subducts beneath Sunda plate in southern part and local back-arc thrust in northern part the region. Some active volcanoes also lie from eastern part of Java, Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa regions. Previous studies have conducted subsurface seismic velocity imaging using regional and global earthquake data around the region. In this study, we used P-arrival time from local earthquake networks compiled by MCGA, Indonesia within time periods of 2009 up to 2013 to determine seismic velocity structure and simultaneously hypocenter adjustment by applying seismic tomography inversion method. For the tomographic inversion procedure, we started from 1-D initial velocity structure. We evaluated the resolution of tomography inversion results through checkerboard test and calculating derivative weigh sum. The preliminary results of tomography inversion show fairly clearly high seismic velocity subducting Indo-Australian and low velocity anomaly around volcano regions. The relocated hypocenters seem to cluster around the local fault system such as back-arc thrust fault in northern part of the region and around local fault in Sumbawa regions. Our local earthquake tomography results demonstrated consistent with previous studies and improved the resolution. For future works, we will determine S-wave velocity structure using S-wave arrival time to enhance our understanding of geological processes and for much better interpretation.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Unsupervised learning from three-component accelerometer data to monitor the spatiotemporal evolution of meso-scale hydraulic fractures

Enhanced geothermal systems can provide a substantial share of the global energy demand. There exist several hurdles in the engineering implementations of such geothermal systems. One such hurdle is the accurate monitoring of the fracture networks created in subsurface through hydraulic stimulation of these systems. Micro seismicity associated with the stimulation is the primary means to locate the event hypocenters for estimating the stimulated rock volume. Existing methods for location the hypocenters are restricted to only the highest amplitude impulsive signals that are simultaneously detected on several sensors. Consequently, a large portion (usually ~99%) of the measurements are left unused. In this paper, an unsupervised manifold-approximation followed by clustering of 3-component accelerometer data is used to analyze the seismicity recorded on a monitoring well. With this method, a larger portion of the measured signal is used for the monitoring of the hydraulic fracture network. We analyze the EGS Collab experiment 1 microseismic data, recorded at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, South Dakota. Using the data from a single three-component accelerometer, the polarization features viz. Azimuth, incidence, rectilinearity, and planarity are used as inputs for the unsupervised manifold approximation followed by clustering. Our study shows that density-based clusters in the projected 3D space correspond to distinct types of hydraulically fractured zones around the injection point. Finally, we show that the temporal evolution of these clusters can be used to track fracture creation and propagation.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗