Jeffry L. Stevens

Empirical and Numerical Modeling of T-phase Propagation from Ocean to Land

Abstractu200a—u200aT-phase propagation from ocean onto land is investigated by comparing data from hydrophones in the water column with data from the same events recorded on island and coastal seismometers. Several events located on Hawaii and the emerging seamount Loihi generated very large amplitude T phases that were recorded at both the preliminary IMS hydrophone station at Point Sur and land-based stations along the northern California coast. We use data from seismic stations operated by U. C. Berkeley along the coast of California, and from the PG&E coastal California seismic network, to estimate the T-phase transfer functions. The transfer function and predicted signal from the Loihi events are modeled with a composite technique, using normal mode-based numerical propagation codes to calculate the hydroacoustic pressure field and an elastic finite difference code to calculate the seismic propagation to la nd-based stations. The modal code is used to calculate the acoustic pressure and particle velocity fields in the ocean off the California coast, which is used as input to the finite difference code TRES to model propagation onto land. We find both empirically and in the calculations that T phases observed near the conversion point consist primarily of surface waves, although the T phases propagate as P waves after the surface waves attenuate. Surface wave conversion occurs farther offshore and over a longer region than body wave conversion, which has the effect that surface waves may arrive at coastal stations before body waves. We also look at the nature of T phases after conversion from ocean to land by examining far inland T phases. We find that T phases propagate primarily as P waves once they are well inland from the coast, and can be observed in some cases hundreds of kilometers inland. T-phase conversion at tenuates higher frequencies, however we find that high frequency energy from underwater explosion sources can still be observed at T-phase stations.

Normal Mode Composition of Earthquake T Phases

Abstract— Understanding the nature of the coupling between the underwater acoustic field and the land seismic field is important for evaluating the performance of the T-phase stations in the International Monitoring System for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. For upslope propagation in an ocean environment, the places where underwater acoustic field energy couples into the land seismic field are determined to first approximation by the local water depth and the normal mode composition of the acoustic energy. Therefore, the use of earthquake-generated T phases as natural probes of water-to-land coupling characteristics is aided by knowledge of their modal composition. Data collected by a 200-element, 3000-m-aperture vertical hydrophone array during a 1989 experiment in the deep northeast Pacific Ocean are used to determine the mode composition of T-phase arrivals from two mb 4.1 earthquakes near the w est coast of the U.S., one occurring offshore and the other on land. Results from an eigenanalysis approach and conventional mode decomposition for the two events are consistent and show that at 5u2009Hz, the offshore events arrivals have higher-order mode content compared to those from the event on land. Single hydrophone recordings at Pt. Sur of two mb 4.4 Hawaiian events in 1996 and 1997, one occurring offshore and the second on land, display time-frequency arrival structures that are explainable by the dispersion characteristics over the oceanic path. Although other effects due to complex source time functions and shear wave and dispersive propagation effects along the initial land path cannot be separated with these single element data, differences in these two events arrival structures suggest differences in normal mode content consistent with those seen in the pair of 1989 events. Ocean-path dispersion also appears to play a significant role in determining the i n-water arrival structure from a 1995 French nuclear test at Mururoa. Recordings of two Hawaiian events in 1997 by the T-phase station VIB and the seismic station at Berkeley illustrate that the water-land coupling confuses the relative timing between normal modes, resulting in apparent loss of information about the source.

Analysis of Russian Hydroacoustic Data for CTBT Monitoring

Abstractu200a—u200aAs part of a collaborative research program for the purpose of monitoring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), we are in the process of examining and analyzing hydroacoustic data from underwater explosions conducted in the former Soviet Union. We are using these data as constraints on modeling the hydroacoustic source as a function of depth below the water surface. This is of interest to the CTBT because although even small explosions at depth generate signals easily observable at large distances, the hydroacoustic source amplitude decreases as the source approaches the surface. Consequently, explosions in the ocean will be more difficult to identify if they are on or near the ocean surface. We are particularly interested in records featuring various combinations of depths of explosion, and distances and depths of recording.¶Unique historical Russian data sets have now become available from test explosions of 100-kg TNT cast spherical charges in a shallow reservoir (87u2009m length, 25u2009m to 55u2009m width, and 3u2009m depth) with a low-velocity air-saturated layer of sand on the bottom. A number of tests were conducted with varying water level and charge depths. Pressure measurements were taken at varying depths and horizontal distances in the water. The available data include measurements of peak pressures from all explosions and digitized pressure-time histories from some of them. A reduction of peak pressure by about 60–70% is observed in these measurements for half-immersed charges as compared with deeper explosions. In addition, several peak-pressure measurements are also available from a 1957 underwater nuclear explosion (yield <10u2009kt and depth 30u2009m) in the Bay of Chernaya (Novaya Zemlya).¶The 100-kg TNT data were compared with model predictions. Shockwave modeling is based on spherical wave propagation and finite element calculations, constrained by empirical data from US underwater chemical and nuclear tests. Modeling was performed for digitized pressure-time histories from two fully-immersed explosions and one explosion of a half-immersed charge, as well as for the peak-pressure measurements from all explosions carried out in the reservoir with water level at its maximum (3u2009m). We found that the model predictions match the Russian data well.¶Peak-pressure measurements and pressure-time histories were simulated at 10u2009km distance from hypothetical 1-kt and 10-kt nuclear explosions conducted at various depths in the ocean. The ocean water was characterized by a realistic sound velocity profile featuring a velocity minimum at 700u2009m depth. Simulated measurements at that same depth predict at least a tenfold increase in peak pressures from explosions in the SOFAR channel as compared with very shallow explosions (e.g., ∼3u2009m depth).¶The observations and the modeling results were also compared with predictions calculated at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory using a different modeling approach. All results suggest that although the coupling is reduced for very shallow explosions, a shallow 1-kt explosion should be detectable by the IMS hydroacoustic network.n