Waveform Tomography Improves Far-Regional Distance Simulations of Underground Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes from the Former Nuclear Test Site, Western United States

We investigated the efficacy of seismic Earth models to simulate complete regional distance waveforms from underground nuclear explosions and earthquakes on and near the former Nevada Test Site in Nevada, western United States. We focused on two far-regional stations (∼1000 km) in two period bands 2...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Arthur Rodgers
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Seismological Society of America 2024-11-01
Series:The Seismic Record
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1785/0320240039
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850119647661129728
author Arthur Rodgers
author_facet Arthur Rodgers
author_sort Arthur Rodgers
collection DOAJ
description We investigated the efficacy of seismic Earth models to simulate complete regional distance waveforms from underground nuclear explosions and earthquakes on and near the former Nevada Test Site in Nevada, western United States. We focused on two far-regional stations (∼1000 km) in two period bands 20–50 and 15–40 s, for which path propagation effects over many wavelengths accumulate and pose challenges to low-magnitude nuclear explosion monitoring (NEM). Four seismic models were considered: two average radially symmetric 1D and two fully 3D models. Model performance was evaluated with metrics of waveform phase (cross-correlation delay time), shape (correlation coefficient), and amplitude (variance reduction with delay time shift) and averaged into a summary score. We found that a recent 3D model based on full waveform inversion (FWI) tomography including radial anisotropy and crustal thickness variations performs on average better than the alternatives. Results suggest that FWI based on crustal depth earthquakes can provide useful 3D models for NEM. Such models can be used for the simulation of Green’s functions for source characterization including moment tensor inversion and source type characterization (e.g., explosion–earthquake–collapse identification, moment and yield estimation).
format Article
id doaj-art-c5de91f6d9a44c5d8c58f97032d07e08
institution OA Journals
issn 2694-4006
language English
publishDate 2024-11-01
publisher Seismological Society of America
record_format Article
series The Seismic Record
spelling doaj-art-c5de91f6d9a44c5d8c58f97032d07e082025-08-20T02:35:35ZengSeismological Society of AmericaThe Seismic Record2694-40062024-11-014429930710.1785/032024003924039Waveform Tomography Improves Far-Regional Distance Simulations of Underground Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes from the Former Nuclear Test Site, Western United StatesArthur Rodgers0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6784-5695Geophysical Monitoring Program, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, U.S.A.We investigated the efficacy of seismic Earth models to simulate complete regional distance waveforms from underground nuclear explosions and earthquakes on and near the former Nevada Test Site in Nevada, western United States. We focused on two far-regional stations (∼1000 km) in two period bands 20–50 and 15–40 s, for which path propagation effects over many wavelengths accumulate and pose challenges to low-magnitude nuclear explosion monitoring (NEM). Four seismic models were considered: two average radially symmetric 1D and two fully 3D models. Model performance was evaluated with metrics of waveform phase (cross-correlation delay time), shape (correlation coefficient), and amplitude (variance reduction with delay time shift) and averaged into a summary score. We found that a recent 3D model based on full waveform inversion (FWI) tomography including radial anisotropy and crustal thickness variations performs on average better than the alternatives. Results suggest that FWI based on crustal depth earthquakes can provide useful 3D models for NEM. Such models can be used for the simulation of Green’s functions for source characterization including moment tensor inversion and source type characterization (e.g., explosion–earthquake–collapse identification, moment and yield estimation).https://doi.org/10.1785/0320240039
spellingShingle Arthur Rodgers
Waveform Tomography Improves Far-Regional Distance Simulations of Underground Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes from the Former Nuclear Test Site, Western United States
The Seismic Record
title Waveform Tomography Improves Far-Regional Distance Simulations of Underground Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes from the Former Nuclear Test Site, Western United States
title_full Waveform Tomography Improves Far-Regional Distance Simulations of Underground Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes from the Former Nuclear Test Site, Western United States
title_fullStr Waveform Tomography Improves Far-Regional Distance Simulations of Underground Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes from the Former Nuclear Test Site, Western United States
title_full_unstemmed Waveform Tomography Improves Far-Regional Distance Simulations of Underground Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes from the Former Nuclear Test Site, Western United States
title_short Waveform Tomography Improves Far-Regional Distance Simulations of Underground Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes from the Former Nuclear Test Site, Western United States
title_sort waveform tomography improves far regional distance simulations of underground nuclear explosions and earthquakes from the former nuclear test site western united states
url https://doi.org/10.1785/0320240039
work_keys_str_mv AT arthurrodgers waveformtomographyimprovesfarregionaldistancesimulationsofundergroundnuclearexplosionsandearthquakesfromtheformernucleartestsitewesternunitedstates