HR: 1340h
AN: S53B-1264 [Abstracts]
TI: REGIONAL P-CODA FOR STABLE ESTIMATES OF BODY WAVE MAGNITUDE: EXTENDING THE Ms:mb DISCRIMINANT TO SMALLER EVENTS
AU: * Mayeda, K
EM: kmayeda@yahoo.com
AF: Weston Geophysical Corporation, 181 Bedford Street, Suite 1, Lexington, MA 02420, United
States
AU: Bonner, J
EM: jes_bonner@yahoo.com
AF: Weston Geophysical Corporation, 181 Bedford Street, Suite 1, Lexington, MA 02420, United
States
AB:
The most successful teleseismic discriminant is Ms:mb, and many studies are underway to try and extend
surface wave magnitude (Ms) estimation to regional distances. A problem that is encountered at regional
distances and small magnitudes is how to estimate mb so that the Ms:mb discriminant is meaningful and
consistent with teleseismic measures.
Over the past several years, a regional S-coda wave methodology has been developed that provides for the
lowest variance estimate of the seismic source spectrum. Thus, regional MW and mb estimates derived from Sn
and Lg coda are very stable, even when only a single station is used. However, these mb's&p are inherently biased for earthquakes because they are an S-based measurement, and explosions are relatively
depleted in S-waves. Previous research projects have used region-specific mb scales based on direct
measurements of Pn and Pg to improve the Ms:mb discrimination, even though the mb estimates often had a
large variance.
In our preliminary research, we have found that P-coda envelopes for both explosions and earthquakes can be
obtained for events from both the NTS and NZ regions without bias. Our next step at NTS will be to derive path
corrections, similar to the approach of Mayeda et al. (2003) for Lg-coda. We will compare inter-station scatter of
distance-corrected amplitudes as a function of window length. This will provide an empirical measure of error
based on window length for each frequency band. For each frequency band, we will regress our coda envelope
amplitudes against regional and teleseismic estimates of mb (e.g., mb(Pn), mb(P)) to determine which band
provides the lowest variance. This will yield slope and intercept values for each frequency band. We will then
derive mb(Pn) and mb(P) (following Denny et al., 1989) to compare against mb(P-coda) to assess performance
at the network and single-station level. Most of the nuclear explosions already have an mb(Pn) compiled by
Vergino and Mensing (1989). Patton (2001) has estimated mb(Pn) for many historic NTS earthquakes. For
recently recorded earthquakes, we will need to estimate mb(Pn) and mb(P). Finally, we will compute Ms(VMAX)
from the regional stations and form an Ms(VMAX):mb(Pcoda) discriminant to compare against teleseismic values
and trends.
DE: 1240 Satellite geodesy: results (6929, 7215, 7230, 7240)
DE: 7219 Seismic monitoring and test-ban treaty verification
SC: Seismology [S]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting