Identifying Isotropic Events Using a Regional Moment Tensor Inversion
In our previous work the deviatoric and isotropic source components for 17 explosions at the Nevada Test Site, as well as 12 earthquakes and 4 collapses in the surrounding region of the western US, were calculated using a regional time-domain full waveform inversion for the complete moment tensor (Dreger et al., 2008; Ford et al., 2008; Ford et al., 2009a). The events separate into specific populations according to their deviation from a pure double-couple and ratio of isotropic to deviatoric energy. The separation allows for anomalous event identification and discrimination between explosions, earthquakes, and collapses. Confidence regions of the model parameters are estimated from the data misfit by assuming normally distributed parameter values. We developed a new Network Sensitivity Solution (NSS) in which the fit of sources distributed over a source-type plot (Hudson et al., 1989) show the resolution of the source parameters. The NSS takes into account the unique station distribution, frequency band, and signal-to-noise ratio of a given event scenario. The NSS compares both a hypothetical pure source (for example an explosion or an earthquake) and the actual data with several thousand sets of synthetic data from a uniform distribution of all possible sources. The comparison with a hypothetical pure source provides the theoretically best-constrained source-type region for a given set of stations, and with it one can determine whether further analysis with the data is warranted. We apply the NSS to a NTS nuclear explosion, and earthquake, as well as the 2006 North Korean explosion, and a nearby earthquake. The results show that explosions and earthquakes are distinguishable, however the solution space depends strongly on the station coverage. Finally, on May 25, 2009 a second North Korean test took place. Our preliminary results show that the explosive nature of the event may be determined using the regional distance moment tensor method. Results indicate that the 2009 event is approximately 5-6 times larger than the earlier test, with an isotropic moment of about 1.8e+22 dyne cm. We perform a series of inversions for pure double-couple, pure explosion, combined double-couple and explosion, full moment tensor, and damped moment tensor inversions to assess the resolution of the isotropic moment of the event.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 967287
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-CONF-415456; TRN: US200923%%303
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at: Monitoring Research Review, Tucson, AZ, United States, Sep 21 - Sep 23, 2009
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Identifying isotropic events using a regional moment tensor inversion
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