Characterization Of Seismic Sources
Abstract
The seismic discrimination between weapons tests, industrial explosions, natural earthquakes, and other types of seismic events is limited by an incomplete understanding of the basic physics of the source processes. The problem of quantifying how the generation of elastic waves is related to such factors as mode of energy release, source dimensions, material properties, and stress concentrations is still unsolved for the most part. While a complete solution of this complicated problem may not be possible at the present time, an examination of the similarities and differences between various types of seismic sources could prove useful in the discrimination task. This was one of the objectives of this research effort. A starting point for the comparison of the different types of seismic sources is the large amounts of empirical data that are summarized in various seismic scaling relationships, such as moment versus yield for contained explosions and stress drop versus moment for natural earthquakes. By converting these scaling relationships for different types of sources to a common form, it is possible to assess whether there are significant differences in the basic source processes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA526094
Entities
People
- Lane R. Johnson
Organizations
- University of California, Berkeley