Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

A repeating source of infrasound from the Wells, Nevada earthquake sequence

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters

The Wells, Nevada earthquake of February 21, 2008, generated a complex seismoacoustic wakefield. In addition to epicentral infrasound, the earthquake triggered a secondary source of infrasound, which was also initiated by subsequent aftershocks. By applying simple constraints on the propagation of seismic and infrasound waves, we show that the secondary source is an isolated peak that appears to efficiently generate infrasound through the interaction with seismic surface waves. By measuring peak-to-peak amplitudes of epicentral and secondary arrivals and correcting them for the effects of distance and winds, we find that epicentral arrivals lit with empirical relationships of Mutschlecner and Whitaker (2005) and Le Pichon et al. (2006), which form the basis for a proposed infrasound discriminant (Anderson et al., Pers. Comm.). In contrast, the secondary arrivals are much higher in amplitude, highlighting the importance of being able to separate epicentral and secondary arrivals for infrasonic event discrimination.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
962383
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-09-01713; LA-UR-09-1713
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters; ISSN GPRLAJ; ISSN 0094-8276
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (9)

Infrasonic imaging of the Kunlun Mountains for the great 2001 China earthquake: INFRASONIC IMAGING OF THE KUNLUN MOUNTAINS journal August 2003
Ground‐coupled air waves and diffracted infrasound from the Arequipa earthquake of June 23, 2001 journal September 2002
Uncertainties associated with parameter estimation in atmospheric infrasound arrays journal January 2004
Meteor Phenomena and Bodies journal September 1998
Infrasound from earthquakes journal January 2005
Infrasound associated with 2004-2005 large Sumatra earthquakes and tsunami: SUMATRA EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI INFRASOUND journal October 2005
Traveltimes for infrasonic waves propagating in a stratified atmosphere journal October 1998
Multistation infrasonic observations of the Chilean earthquake of 2005 June 13 journal November 2006
The Seismic Wavefield journal January 2019

Similar Records

Seismo-Acoustic Wave Simulation for Earthquake-Generated Infrasound
Technical Report · Mon Nov 29 23:00:00 EST 2021 · OSTI ID:1833208

Seismo-Acoustic Wave Simulation for the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake
Technical Report · Wed Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · OSTI ID:1826880

Infrasonic observations of the Northridge, California, earthquake
Conference · Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994 · OSTI ID:10179901