Simulation of Broadband Ground Motion by Superposing High-Frequency Empirical Green’s Function Synthetics on Low-Frequency Spectral-Element Synthetics

Seismic wave-propagation simulations are limited in their frequency content by two main factors: (1) the resolution of the seismic wave-speed structure of the region in which the seismic waves are propagated through; and (2) the extent of our understanding of the rupture process, mainly on the short length scales. For this reason, high-frequency content in the ground motion must be simulated through other means. Toward this end, we adopt a variant of the classical empirical Green’s function (EGF) approach of summing, with suitable time shift, recorded seismograms from small earthquakes in the past to generate high-frequency seismograms (0.5–5.0 Hz) for engineering applications. We superimpose these seismograms on low-frequency seismograms, computed from kinematic source models using the spectral element method, to produce broadband seismograms. The non-uniform time- shift scheme used in this work alleviates the over-estimation of high-frequency content of the ground motions observed. We validate the methodology by simulating broadband motions from the 1999 Hector Mine and the 2006 Parkfield earthquakes and comparing them against recorded seismograms.

Adjoint tomography of the southern California crust

Using an inversion strategy based on adjoint methods, we developed a three-dimensional seismological model of the southern California crust. The resulting model involved 16 tomographic iterations, which required 6800 wavefield simulations and a total of 0.8 million central processing unit hours. The new crustal model reveals strong heterogeneity, including local changes of +/-30% with respect to the initial three-dimensional model provided by the Southern California Earthquake Center. The model illuminates shallow features such as sedimentary basins and compositional contrasts across faults. It also reveals crustal features at depth that aid in the tectonic reconstruction of southern California, such as subduction-captured oceanic crustal fragments. The new model enables more realistic and accurate assessments of seismic hazard.