Bernard Chouet

Bio: Bernard Chouet is an academic researcher from United States Geological Survey. The author has contributed to research in topics: Volcano & Magma. The author has an hindex of 58, co-authored 124 publications receiving 11250 citations. Previous affiliations of Bernard Chouet include Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Origin of coda waves: Source, attenuation, and scattering effects

Abstract: Coda waves from small local earthquakes are interpreted as backscattering waves from numerous heterogeneities distributed uniformly in the earth's crust. Two extreme models of the wave medium that account for the observations on the coda are proposed. In the single backscattering model the scattering is considered to be a weak process, and the loss of seismic energy by scattering is neglected. In the diffusion model the seismic energy transfer is considered as a diffusion process. Both models lead to similar formulas that allow an accurate separation of the effect of earthquake source from the effects of scattering and attenuation on the coda spectra. A unique difference was found in the scaling law of earthquake source spectra between central California and western Japan, which may be attributed to the difference in inhomogeneity length of the earth's crust. The Q of coda waves in the two regions is strongly frequency dependent with values increasing from 50–200 at 1 Hz to about 1000–2000 at 20 Hz. This observation is interpreted as a combined effect of variation of Q with depth and frequency-dependent composition of coda waves described below. The turbidity coefficient of the lithosphere required at 1 Hz to explain the observed coda as body wave scattering is orders of magnitude greater than previously known values such as those obtained by Aki (1973) and Capon (1974) under the Montana Lasa from the amplitude and phase fluctuations of teleseismic P waves. From the high attenuation and turbidity obtained at this frequency we conclude that at around 1 Hz the coda is made of backscattering surface waves from heterogeneities in the shallow, low-Q lithosphere. The high Q observed for the coda at frequencies higher than 10 Hz, on the other hand, eliminates the possibility that these waves are backscattering surface waves. We conclude that at these high frequencies the coda must be made of backscattering body waves from heterogeneities in the deep lithosphere. The low turbidities found for deep earthquake sources under western Japan are consistent with this model of coda wave generation.

Long-period volcano seismicity: its source and use in eruption forecasting

Abstract: At an active volcano, long-period seismicity (with typical periods in the range 02–2 s) reflects pressure fluctuations resulting from unsteady mass transport in the sub-surface plumbing system, and hence provides a glimpse of the internal dynamics of the volcanic edifice When this activity occurs at shallow depths, it may signal the pressure-induced disruption of the steam-dominated region of the volcano, and can accordingly be a useful indicator of impending eruption

Source mechanisms of explosions at Stromboli Volcano, Italy, determined from moment-tensor inversions of very-long-period data

Abstract: [1] Seismic data recorded in the 2–30 s band at Stromboli Volcano, Italy, are analyzed to quantify the source mechanisms of Strombolian explosions during September 1997. To determine the source-centroid location and source mechanism, we minimize the residual error between data and synthetics calculated by the finite difference method for a point source embedded in a homogeneous elastic medium that takes topography into account. Two source centroids are identified, each representative of the distinct event types associated with explosive eruptions from two different vents. The observed waveforms are well reproduced by our inversion, and the two source centroids that best fit the data are offset 220 and 260 m beneath and � 160 m northwest of the active vents. The source mechanisms include both moment-tensor and single-force components. The principal axes of the moment tensor have amplitude ratios 1:1:2, which can be interpreted as representative of a crack, if one assumes the rock matrix at the source to have a Poisson ratio n = 1/3, a value appropriate for hot rock. Both imaged cracks dip � 60� to the northwest and strike northeast–southwest along a direction parallel to the elongation of the volcanic edifice and a prominent zone of structural weakness, as expressed by lineaments, dikes, and brittle structures. For our data set, the volume changes estimated from the moments are � 200 m 3 for the largest explosion from each vent. Together with the volumetric source is a dominantly vertical force with a magnitude of 10 8 N, consistent with the inferred movement of the magma column perched above the source centroid in response to the piston-like rise of a slug of gas in the conduit. INDEX TERMS: 7215 Seismology: Earthquake parameters; 7280 Seismology: Volcano seismology (8419); 8414 Volcanology: Eruption mechanisms; KEYWORDS: very-long-period seismicity, moment tensor inversions, eruption mehanics

Resonance of a fluid-driven crack: Radiation properties and implications for the source of long-period events and harmonic tremor

Abstract: A dynamic source model is presented, in which a three-dimensional crack containing a viscous compressible fluid is excited into resonance by an impulsive pressure transient applied over a small area ΔS of the crack surface. The crack excitation depends critically on two dimensionless parameters called the crack stiffness, C = (b/μ)(L/d), and viscous damping loss, F = (12ηL)/(ρƒd2α), where b is the bulk modulus, η is the viscosity, ρƒ is the density of the fluid, μ is the rigidity, α is the compressional velocity of the solid, L is the crack length, and d is the crack thickness. The first parameter characterizes the ability of the crack to vibrate and shapes the spectral signature of the source, and the second quantifies the effect of fluid viscosity on the duration of resonance. Resonance is sustained by a very slow wave trapped in the fluid-filled crack. This guided wave, called the crack wave, is similar to the tube wave propagating in a fluid-filled borehole; it is inversely dispersive, showing a phase velocity that decreases with increasing wavelength, and its wave speed is always lower than the acoustic velocity of the fluid, decreasing rapidly as the crack stiffness increases. The source spectrum shows many sharp peaks characterizing the individual modes of vibration of the crack; the variation of spectral shape, both in the number and width of peaks, is surprisingly complex, reflecting the interference between the lateral and longitudinal modes of resonance, as well as nodes for these modes. The far-field spectrum is marked by narrow-band dominant and subdominant peaks that reflect the interaction of the various source modes. The frequency of the dominant spectral peak radiated by the source is independent of the radiation direction. The frequency, bandwidth, and spacing of the resonant peaks are strongly dependent on the crack stiffness, larger values of the stiffness factor shifting these peaks to lower frequencies and decreasing their bandwidth. The excitation of a particular mode depends on the position of the trigger and on the extent of the crack surface affected by the pressure transient. Fluid viscosity decreases the amplitudes of the main spectral peaks, smears out the finer structure of the spectrum, and greatly reduces the duration of the radiated signal. The energy loss by radiation is stronger for high frequencies, producing a seismic signature that is marked by a high-frequency content near the onset of the signal and dominated by a longer-period component of much longer duration in the signal coda. Such signature is in harmony with those displayed by long-period events observed on active volcanoes and in hydrofracture experiments. The very low velocity which is possible in a crack with high stiffness (C ≥ 100) also provides an attractive explanation for very long period tremor, such as type 2 tremor at Aso volcano, Japan, without the requirement of an unrealistically large magma container. The standing wave pattern set up on the crack surface by the sustained resonance in the fluid is observable in the near field of the crack, suggesting that the location and extent of the source may be estimated from the mapping of the pattern of nodes and antinodes seen in its vicinity. According to the model, the long-period event and harmonic tremor share the same source but differ in the boundary conditions for fluid flow and in the triggering mechanism setting up the resonance of the source, the former being viewed as the impulse response of the tremor generating system and the latter representing the excitation due to more complex forcing functions.

Emergence of broadband Rayleigh waves from correlations of the ambient seismic noise.

Abstract: [1] We demonstrate that the coherent information about the Earth structure can be extracted from the ambient seismic noise We compute cross-correlations of vertical component records of several days of seismic noise at different pairs of stations separated by distances from about one hundred to more than two thousand kilometers Coherent broadband dispersive wavetrains clearly emerge with group velocities similar to those predicted from the global Rayleigh-wave tomographic maps that have been constrained using ballistic surface waves Those results show that coherent Rayleigh waves can be extracted from the ambient seismic noise and that their dispersion characteristics can be measured in a broad range of periods This provides a source for new types of surface-wave measurements that can be obtained for numerous paths that could not be sampled with the ballistic waves and, therefore, can significantly improve the resolution of seismic images

Nonvolcanic deep tremor associated with subduction in southwest Japan.

Abstract: Deep long-period tremors were recognized and located in a nonvolcanic region in southwest Japan. Epicenters of the tremors were distributed along the strike of the subducting Philippine Sea plate over a length of 600 kilometers. The depth of the tremors averaged about 30 kilometers, near the Mohorovic discontinuity. Each tremor lasted for at most a few weeks. The location of the tremors within the subduction zone indicates that the tremors may have been caused by fluid generated by dehydration processes from the slab.

Seismic Wave Propagation in Stratified Media

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on elastic wave propagation in stratified media. The development of the theory of elastic wave propagation in stratified media has been strongly influenced by the problems of seismic wave propagation and the nature of the seismograms recorded from earthquakes. For purely analytic developments of elastic wave propagation, the level of manageable algebraic complexity is reached in a model with one or two uniform layers overlying a uniform half space. This chapter shows how the excitation of elastic waves, within a horizontally stratified structure, can be conveniently developed in terms of reflection and transmission matrices. This procedure has allowed the construction of the full response of the medium or approximations with desired properties so that theoretical seismograms may be calculated for realistic distributions of elastic parameters. Although this development has been for isotropic media, nearly all the results apply directly to the case of full anisotropy if 3 × 3 reflection and transmission matrices allowing coupling between all wave types are employed. This development of the wavefield for both source and receiver within the stratification may be used for other classes of wave propagation.

Introduction to the spectral element method for three-dimensional seismic wave propagation

Abstract: SUMMARY We present an introduction to the spectral element method, which provides an innovative numerical approach to the calculation of synthetic seismograms in 3-D earth models. The method combines the £exibility of a ¢nite element method with the accuracy of a spectral method. One uses a weak formulation of the equations of motion, which are solved on a mesh of hexahedral elements that is adapted to the free surface and to the main internal discontinuities of the model. The wave¢eld on the elements is discretized using high-degree Lagrange interpolants, and integration over an element is accomplished based upon the Gauss^Lobatto^Legendre integration rule. This combination of discretization and integration results in a diagonal mass matrix, which greatly simpli¢es the algorithm. We illustrate the great potential of the method by comparing it to a discrete wavenumber/re£ectivity method for layer-cake models. Both body and surface waves are accurately represented, and the method can handle point force as well as moment tensor sources. For a model with very steep surface topography we successfully benchmark the method against an approximate boundary technique. For a homogeneous medium with strong attenuation we obtain excellent agreement with the analytical solution for a point force.

The spectral element method: An efficient tool to simulate the seismic response of 2D and 3D geological structures

Abstract: We present the spectral element method to simulate elastic-wave propagation in realistic geological structures involving complieated free-surface topography and material interfaces for two- and three-dimensional geometries. The spectral element method introduced here is a high-order variational method for the spatial approximation of elastic-wave equations. The mass matrix is diagonal by construction in this method, which drastically reduces the computational cost and allows an efficient parallel implementation. Absorbing boundary conditions are introduced in variational form to simulate unbounded physical domains. The time discretization is based on an energy-momentum conserving scheme that can be put into a classical explicit-implicit predictor/multi-corrector format. Long-term energy conservation and stability properties are illustrated as well as the efficiency of the absorbing conditions. The associated Courant condition behaves as Δ tC < O ( nel−1/nd N −2), with nel the number of elements, nd the spatial dimension, and N the polynomial order. In practice, a spatial sampling of approximately 5 points per wavelength is found to be very accurate when working with a polynomial degree of N = 8. The accuracy of the method is shown by comparing the spectral element solution to analytical solutions of the classical two-dimensional (2D) problems of Lamb and Garvin. The flexibility of the method is then illustrated by studying more realistic 2D models involving realistic geometries and complex free-boundary conditions. Very accurate modeling of Rayleigh-wave propagation, surface diffraction, and Rayleigh-to-body-wave mode conversion associated with the free-surface curvature are obtained at low computational cost. The method is shown to provide an efficient tool to study the diffraction of elastic waves by three-dimensional (3D) surface topographies and the associated local effects on strong ground motion. Complex amplification patterns, both in space and time, are shown to occur even for a gentle hill topography. Extension to a heterogeneous hill structure is considered. The efficient implementation on parallel distributed memory architectures will allow to perform real-time visualization and interactive physical investigations of 3D amplification phenomena for seismic risk assessment.