Inversion of complex body waves

Abstract

A numerical method to deconvolve complex body waves into a multiple shock sequence is developed. With the assumption that all the constituent events of a multiple shock have identical fault geometry and depth, the far-field source time function is obtained as a superposition of ramp functions. The height and the onset time of the ramp functions are determined by matching the synthetic waveforms with the observed ones in the least-square sense. The individual events are then identified by pairs of ramp functions or discrete trapezoidal pulses in the source time sequence. The method can be used for the analysis of both single and multi-station data. Teleseismic long-period P waves from the 1976 Guatemala earthquake are analyzed as a test of our method. The present method provides a useful tool for a systematic analysis of multiple event sequences.