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An eikonal equation-based earthquake location method by inversion of multiple phase arrivals

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Abstract

The precise determination of earthquake location is the fundamental basis in seismological community, and is crucial for analyzing seismic activity and performing seismic tomography. First arrivals are generally used to practically determine earthquake locations. However, first-arrival traveltimes are not sensitive to focal depths. Moreover, they cannot accurately constrain focal depths. To improve the accuracy, researchers have analyzed the depth phases of earthquake locations. The traveltimes of depth phases are sensitive to focal depths, and the joint inversion of depth phases and direct phases can be implemented to potentially obtain accurate earthquake locations. Generally, researchers can determine earthquake locations in layered models. Because layered models can only represent the first-order feature of subsurface structures, the advantages of joint inversion are not fully explored if layered models are used. To resolve the issue of current joint inversions, we use the traveltimes of three seismic phases to determine earthquake locations in heterogeneous models. The three seismic phases used in this study are the first P-, sPg- and PmP-waves. We calculate the traveltimes of the three seismic phases by solving an eikonal equation with an upwind difference scheme and use the traveltimes to determine earthquake locations. To verify the accuracy of the earthquake location method by the inversion of three seismic phases, we take the 2021 MS6.4 Yangbi, Yunnan earthquake as an example and locate this earthquake using synthetic and real seismic data. Numerical tests demonstrate that the eikonal equation-based earthquake location method, which involves the inversion of multiple phase arrivals, can effectively improve earthquake location accuracy.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions, which greatly improved the quality of the article. We thank the International Earthquake Science Data Center at the Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration for providing seismic data for this study (https://doi.org/http://www.esdc.ac.cn). All the figures are created by the Generic Map** Tools (GMT). This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42174111 and 42064004), the Bei**g Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 8222033) and the Ningxia Science and Technology Leading Talent Training Program (Grant No. 2022GKLRLX04).

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  1. Contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Natural Hazards, Ministry of Emergency Management of China, Bei**g, 100085, China

    Gaoyue Lao, Shaolin Liu & Guiju Dong

  2. School of Earth Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, China

    Gaoyue Lao & Kui Liu

  3. Department of Mathematical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Bei**g, 100084, China

    Dinghui Yang

  4. School of Mathematics and Statistics, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, 750021, China

    Wenshuai Wang

Authors
  1. Gaoyue Lao
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  2. Dinghui Yang
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  3. Shaolin Liu
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  4. Guiju Dong
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  5. Wenshuai Wang
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  6. Kui Liu
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Correspondence to Shaolin Liu.

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Lao, G., Yang, D., Liu, S. et al. An eikonal equation-based earthquake location method by inversion of multiple phase arrivals. Sci. China Earth Sci. 67, 1802–1817 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-023-1292-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-023-1292-2

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