Improved inversion for seismic structure using transformed, S-wavevector receiver functions: Removing the effect of the free surface

Date

2003

Authors

Kennett, Brian
Reading, Anya
Sambridge, Malcolm

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

American Geophysical Union

Abstract

The determination of structure from the inversion of teleseismic receiver functions may be improved by removing the contribution of the free surface. The free surface interaction gives rise to the highest amplitude signal on standard receiver functions and yet this initial pulse tells us little about the receiver structure below the surface layer. We apply a transformation to P, S and Horizontal wavevector components, which removes the free surface response and hence the initial P-pulse. A "pure" receiver function is calculated by deconvolving the S-wavevector component with the P-wavevector. In general, converted phase amplitudes within the receiver function waveform are better matched by the inverse algorithm, resulting in an improved estimation of seismic structure. In particular, low amplitude receiver function waveforms, often associated with poorly constrained structure, now yield a successful inverse.

Description

Keywords

Keywords: Functions; Surface waves; Waveform analysis; Seismic structure; Seismology; data inversion; P-wave; S-wave; seismic tomography; teleseismic wave

Citation

Source

Geophysical Research Letters

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

License Rights

Restricted until

2037-12-31