Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
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Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America; April 1964; v. 54; no. 2; p. 571-610
© 1964 Seismological Society of America
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Geographical interpretation of measurements of average phase velocities of surface waves over great circular and great semi-circular paths

GEORGE E. BACKUS

INSTITUTE OF GEOPHYSICS AND PLANETARY PHYSICS AND DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO, LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

Abstract

If the averages of the reciprocal phase velocity c–1 of a given Rayleigh or Love mode over various great circular or great semicircular paths are known, information can be extracted about how c–1 varies with geographical position. Assuming that geometrical optics is applicable, it is shown that if c–1 is isotropic its great circular averages determine only the sum of the values of c–1 at antipodal points and not their difference. The great semicircular averages determine the difference as well. If c–1 is anisotropic through any cause other than the earth's rotation, even great semicircular averages do not determine c–1 completely. Rotation has negligible effect on Love waves, and if it is the only anisotropy present its effect on Rayleigh waves can be measured and removed by comparing the averages of c–1 for the two directions of travel around any great circle not intersecting the poles of rotation. Only great circular and great semicircular paths are considered because every earthquake produces two averages of c–1 over such paths for each seismic station. No other paths permit such rapid accumulation of data when the azimuthal variations of the earthquakes' radiation patterns are unknown. Expansion of the data in generalized spherical harmonics circumvents the fact that the explicit formulas for c–1 in terms of its great circular or great semicircular integrals require differentiation of the data. Formulas are given for calculating the generalized spherical harmonics numerically.




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