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Exploration Geophysics Exploration Geophysics Society
Journal of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Estimation of surface-wave phase velocity from microtremor observation using an array with a reference station

Hiroaki Yamanaka 1 3 Kei Kato 1 Kosuke Chimoto 1 Seiji Tsuno 2
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

1 Tokyo Institute of Technology, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 226-8503, Japan.

2 Railway Technical Research Institute, 2-8-38 Hikari-cho, Kokubunji-shi, Tokyo 185-8540, Japan.

3 Corresponding author. Email: yamanaka@depe.titech.ac.jp

Exploration Geophysics 46(3) 267-275 https://doi.org/10.1071/EG14069
Submitted: 16 July 2014  Accepted: 18 July 2014   Published: 8 September 2014
Originally submitted to SEGJ 24 May 2013, accepted 23 May 2014  

Abstract

A procedure for estimation of Rayleigh wave phase velocities from microtremor observations, using an array with a reference station, is investigated in this study. Simultaneous observation of microtremors at a reference station and at a strong motion observation array in the Kanto Basin, Japan, was carried out. We first calculated cross correlations between records at the reference station and those at stations in the array using a seismic interferometric processing method on a 4300-h data series. After identifying dispersive Rayleigh waves from results of multiple filtering analysis of the cross correlations, semblance analysis of the cross correlations for different segments was carried out to estimate phase velocities for fundamental and higher-mode Rayleigh waves. The phase velocities from the proposed method are more appropriate than those from conventional methods at long periods as they avoid contamination by higher mode Rayleigh waves. The fundamental Rayleigh wave phase velocities were inverted to an S-wave velocity profile for deep sedimentary layers.

We also examined the variations in the phase velocity with decreasing data duration. The phase velocities at periods less than 3 s from 6-h records are similar to those from 4300-h records, suggesting that our method is possibly applicable in microtremor exploration.

Key words: array observation, cross correlation, microtremor exploration, multi-modal Rayleigh wave, phase velocity, S-wave velocity, seismic interferometry.


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