The characteristics of unusual OBS data exposed to strong shaking and the influence of applying these data to EEW processing: examples of Off-Kushiro OBS, JAMSTEC

Abstract:

On-line cable type Ocean Bottom Seismograph (OBS) is expected to be useful for making Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) earlier. However, careful handling of these data is required because the installation environment of OBSs may be different from that of land stations. The stability of OBS data exposed to strong shaking is one of those problems. For instance, Yamamoto et al. (2004) pointed out that the attitude of one of Off-Kushiro OBS (JAMSTEC) was changed about 5 degree by strong ground motion during the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake of M_jma8.0. The inclination of OBS causes baseline offset change in acceleration waveform on the gravitational acceleration component. Furthermore, it is also expected that coupling of the OBS and the ocean floor becomes weak. Since the processing of the EEW is ongoing in real-time, it is difficult to detect abnormal data appropriately. In this study, we investigate the characteristics of unusual OBS data exposed to strong motion at the Off-Kushiro OBSs. First, we estimate the amount of acceleration offset caused by rotation of the cable. The acceleration offset by slight inclination of OBS increases with input acceleration. And it is found that the acceleration offsets is larger on the horizontal component (Y’, perpendicular to the cable line) than the other horizontal component (X’, along cable line). Second, we compare the difference between the S-wave H/V spectral ratio for strong ground motion and that for weak ground motion to investigate nonlinear response. We found that S-wave H/V ratio for strong motion at OBS has typical features of nonlinear response which is similar with land stations: the dominant peak shift of lower frequency and the attenuation at high frequency. Finally, we discuss the influence of these unusual OBS data on EEW magnitude. We conclude that acceleration offsets resulting from incline of OBS could cause overestimation of magnitude.

Acknowledgment: Strong motion acceleration waveform data of Off-Kushiro OBS were obtained from Submarine Cable Data Center, JAMSTEC.