Theoretical Geophysics

Teacher: Dr K. I. Konstantinou
Lesson 4: Surface waves, normal modes and
earthquake location
 Some important definitions that are necessary...

Surface waves are disturbances at the free surface of a medium

There are two kinds of surface waves: Rayleigh and Love waves

Differences of surface waves when compared to body waves:

- they travel more slowly

- their amplitude decay is less
- their velocities depend strongly on their frequency
Particle motion and depth dependence of Rayleigh waves

Particle motion is a combination

of P-SV oscillations
For a Poisson solid the velocity
of Rayleigh waves is 0.92
Generation of Love waves: Multiple reflections of SH waves

NOTE#1: When the wavelength of the Love wave is small, its velocity
is close to 1
BUT
when the wavelength is large the velocity is close to 2 .

NOTE#2: There cannot be generation of Love waves in a half-space!!!

 Surface waves (Rayleigh, Love) are polarized(*) waves

Rayleigh waves are vertically polarized (x-z plane)

Love waves are horizontally polarized (x-y plane)

(*) Polarization means that particle oscillations occur only along a

particular plane (electromagnetic waves such as light may also be polarized)
Dispersion is a property
of surface waves and has
to do with the dependence
of velocity on frequency.

Lower frequency waves

(longer period) travel deeper
and arrive first.
Higher frequency waves
(shorter period) travel slowly
and arrive later.
It is time to see a complete (body+surface waves) seismogram
Standing waves in a vibrating string of length L (n=nv/L)

Fundamental mode

1st Overtone

2nd Overtone

3rd Overtone

4th Overtone

5th Overtone

6th Overtone
 “After a large earthquake the Earth rings like a bell”:
Normal modes = standing waves in the Earth

Normal modes are the free oscillations of the Earth after

a large earthquake whose frequencies are determined
by the elastic properties and structure of the Earth's interior.

There are three kinds of normal modes:

- Radial
- Spheroidal
- Toroidal
Radial+Spheroidal
Toroidal (or Torsional)
A comparison of propagation of surface waves and normal
modes
The full spectrum of wave motions in the Earth
 Again some important definitions that are necessary:

Origin time is the time that the earthquake occurs

Hypocenter is the point inside the Earth where the rupture
has started (NOT the same as centroid!)
Epicenter is just the vertical projection of the hypocenter on
the Earth's surface

All three of them are needed to study an earthquake and

they are called source parameters of that earthquake
Absolute location is an earthquake location that is determined
or specified within a fixed geographic co-ordinate system and
a fixed time base (e.g. Greenwich Mean Time or GMT). Such
a location is determined using P, S arrival times.

Relative location is an earthquake location that is determined

or specified with respect to another spatio-temporal object
(e.g. the location of another earthquake or explosion). Such
a location is determined using the time differences between
the fixed earthquake (or explosion) and the event we want to
locate in a relative sense.
Earthquake location (absolute):
Formulation of the problem
 Iterative solution to the earthquake location problem or
back to the good-old days when computers were sloooow!!!
But now computers are really fast: Grid-search as a solution
to the earthquake location problem

“L2-norm” > For Gaussian errors

“L1-norm” > For non-Gaussian errors

Goodness-of-fit criterion for trial locations:

Factors that affect the quality of earthquake locations:

- Lateral heterogeneity of the Earth

- Station coverage (or better azimuthal distribution)
- Number of observed travel times
- Errors in the measurement of the arrival times

Agencies that provide information about locations of

earthquakes that occur globally:
- ISC (International Seismological Center)
- NEIC (National Earthquake Information Center - USGS)
 Summary of today's lesson

(Chapters 5, 8 from Shearer's book):

- Two kinds of surface waves (Rayleigh and Love)

- Standing waves and normal modes of the Earth
- The earthquake location problem formulation
- Location using an Iterative solution (linear method)
- Location using a grid-search (non-linear method)
- Factors that affect the quality of locations