Earthquake Centroid Locations Using Calibration from Ambient Seismic Noise

Abstract

Earthquakes occur in complex geology, making it difficult to determine their source parameters and locations because of uncertainty in path effects. We can avoid some of these problems by applying the cut-and-paste (CAP) method, which allows for timing shifts between phases, assuming a 1D model, and determines source parameters. If the travel times or lags of the phases due to path effects are known relative to a reference model, we can locate the events’ centroid with surface waves without knowledge of the 3D velocity structure. Here, we use ambient seismic noise for such a calibration. We cross correlate the seismic stations near the earthquake with stations 100–300 km away to obtain the 10–100-s surface wave Green’s functions. The new method is tested in southern California to locate the 2008 Chino Hills earthquake, which proves consistent with the epicenter location from P waves. It appears possible to use the location offset between the high-frequency P-wave onset relative to the centroid to provide a fast estimate of directivity.