2002/01/29 04:36:58 43.58N 110.61W 5 3.7 Wyoming
USGS Felt map for this earthquake
USGS Felt reports page for Intermountain Western US
The focal mechanism was determined using broadband seismic waveforms. The location of the event and the station distribution are given in Figure 1.
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STK = 30
DIP = 80
RAKE = -15
MW = 3.79
HS = 16
Thsi is small earthquake, recorded from 2002 when there were fewer broadbands than now. The surface-wave spectral amplitude data are magtnial. The preferred solution is based on the waveform fit.
The program wvfgrd96 was used with good traces observed at short distance to determine the focal mechanism, depth and seismic moment. This technique requires a high quality signal and well determined velocity model for the Green functions. To the extent that these are the quality data, this type of mechanism should be preferred over the radiation pattern technique which requires the separate step of defining the pressure and tension quadrants and the correct strike.
The observed and predicted traces are filtered using the following gsac commands:
hp c 0.02 3 lp c 0.07 3 br c 0.12 0.2 n 8 p 2The results of this grid search from 0.5 to 19 km depth are as follow:
DEPTH STK DIP RAKE MW FIT
WVFGRD96 0.5 215 85 10 3.36 0.2227
WVFGRD96 1.0 35 90 -5 3.39 0.2423
WVFGRD96 2.0 215 90 0 3.49 0.3197
WVFGRD96 3.0 35 90 0 3.54 0.3507
WVFGRD96 4.0 30 75 -20 3.60 0.3725
WVFGRD96 5.0 30 70 -25 3.64 0.3956
WVFGRD96 6.0 30 70 -25 3.67 0.4140
WVFGRD96 7.0 30 70 -25 3.68 0.4274
WVFGRD96 8.0 30 70 -25 3.71 0.4389
WVFGRD96 9.0 30 75 -25 3.72 0.4461
WVFGRD96 10.0 30 75 -25 3.73 0.4516
WVFGRD96 11.0 30 75 -20 3.74 0.4561
WVFGRD96 12.0 30 75 -20 3.75 0.4590
WVFGRD96 13.0 30 75 -20 3.76 0.4603
WVFGRD96 14.0 30 75 -15 3.77 0.4611
WVFGRD96 15.0 30 80 -15 3.78 0.4614
WVFGRD96 16.0 30 80 -15 3.79 0.4617
WVFGRD96 17.0 30 80 -15 3.80 0.4607
WVFGRD96 18.0 215 85 20 3.81 0.4592
WVFGRD96 19.0 215 85 20 3.82 0.4580
The best solution is
WVFGRD96 16.0 30 80 -15 3.79 0.4617
The mechanism correspond to the best fit is
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The best fit as a function of depth is given in the following figure:
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The comparison of the observed and predicted waveforms is given in the next figure. The red traces are the observed and the blue are the predicted. Each observed-predicted componnet is plotted to the same scale and peak amplitudes are indicated by the numbers to the left of each trace. The number in black at the rightr of each predicted traces it the time shift required for maximum correlation between the observed and predicted traces. This time shift is required because the synthetics are not computed at exactly the same distance as the observed and because the velocity model used in the predictions may not be perfect. A positive time shift indicates that the prediction is too fast and should be delayed to match the observed trace (shift to the right in this figure). A negative value indicates that the prediction is too slow. The bandpass filter used in the processing and for the display was
hp c 0.02 3 lp c 0.07 3 br c 0.12 0.2 n 8 p 2
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| Focal mechanism sensitivity at the preferred depth. The red color indicates a very good fit to thewavefroms. Each solution is plotted as a vector at a given value of strike and dip with the angle of the vector representing the rake angle, measured, with respect to the upward vertical (N) in the figure. |
NODAL PLANES
STK= 30.00
DIP= 65.00
RAKE= 29.99
OR
STK= 286.29
DIP= 63.06
RAKE= 151.70
DEPTH = 14.0 km
Mw = 3.85
Best Fit 0.8485 - P-T axis plot gives solutions with FIT greater than FIT90
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The P-wave first motion data for focal mechanism studies are as follow:
Sta Az(deg) Dist(km) First motion AHID 204 99 eP_D LKWY 9 111 eP_D BW06 136 124 eP_- HWUT 200 233 eP_+ BOZ 341 244 iP_D
Surface wave analysis was performed using codes from Computer Programs in Seismology, specifically the multiple filter analysis program do_mft and the surface-wave radiation pattern search program srfgrd96.
The velocity model used for the search is a modified Utah model .
Digital data were collected, instrument response removed and traces converted
to Z, R an T components. Multiple filter analysis was applied to the Z and T traces to obtain the Rayleigh- and Love-wave spectral amplitudes, respectively.
These were input to the search program which examined all depths between 1 and 25 km
and all possible mechanisms.
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| Pressure-tension axis trends. Since the surface-wave spectra search does not distinguish between P and T axes and since there is a 180 ambiguity in strike, all possible P and T axes are plotted. First motion data and waveforms will be used to select the preferred mechanism. The purpose of this plot is to provide an idea of the possible range of solutions. The P and T-axes for all mechanisms with goodness of fit greater than 0.9 FITMAX (above) are plotted here. |
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| Focal mechanism sensitivity at the preferred depth. The red color indicates a very good fit to the Love and Rayleigh wave radiation patterns. Each solution is plotted as a vector at a given value of strike and dip with the angle of the vector representing the rake angle, measured, with respect to the upward vertical (N) in the figure. Because of the symmetry of the spectral amplitude rediation patterns, only strikes from 0-180 degrees are sampled. |
Sta Az(deg) Dist(km) AHID 204 99 BW06 136 124 HWUT 200 233 BOZ 341 244 HVU 222 267 HLID 271 307 CTU 197 334 JLU 192 338 BGU 215 357 MPU 192 405 NLU 197 421 ELK 232 496 SRU 179 497 MVU 194 580 ISCO 134 591 WVOR 262 667 MOD 260 815 WUAZ 184 898
Since the analysis of the surface-wave radiation patterns uses only spectral amplitudes and because the surfave-wave radiation patterns have a 180 degree symmetry, each surface-wave solution consists of four possible focal mechanisms corresponding to the interchange of the P- and T-axes and a roation of the mechanism by 180 degrees. To select one mechanism, P-wave first motion can be used. This was not possible in this case because all the P-wave first motions were emergent ( a feature of the P-wave wave takeoff angle, the station location and the mechanism). The other way to select among the mechanisms is to compute forward synthetics and compare the observed and predicted waveforms.
The velocity model used for the waveform fit is a modified Utah model .
The fits to the waveforms with the given mechanism are show below:
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This figure shows the fit to the three components of motion (Z - vertical, R-radial and T - transverse). For each station and component, the observed traces is shown in red and the model predicted trace in blue. The traces represent filtered ground velocity in units of meters/sec (the peak value is printed adjacent to each trace; each pair of traces to plotted to the same scale to emphasize the difference in levels). Both synthetic and observed traces have been filtered using the SAC commands:
hp c 0.02 3 lp c 0.07 3 br c 0.12 0.2 n 8 p 2
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Should the national backbone of the USGS Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) be implemented with an interstation separation of 300 km, it is very likely that an earthquake such as this would have been recorded at distances on the order of 100-200 km. This means that the closest station would have information on source depth and mechanism that was lacking here.
Dr. Harley Benz, USGS, provided the USGS USNSN digital data.
The figures below show the observed spectral amplitudes (units of cm-sec) at each station and the
theoretical predictions as a function of period for the mechanism given above. The modified Utah model earth model
was used to define the Green's functions. For each station, the Love and Rayleigh wave spectrail amplitudes are plotted with the same scaling so that one can get a sense fo the effects of the effects of the focal mechanism and depth on the excitation of each.
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Here we tabulate the reasons for not using certain digital data sets
The following stations did not have a valid response files:
