Using Ambient Noise Data from the ALBACORE OBS Array to Determine a 3D Seismic Velocity Model Offshore Southern California

Abstract:

The Pacific-North America plate boundary in Southern California extends far west of the coastline, and a 12-month ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) array spanned the western side of the plate boundary in order to image seismic velocities in the lithosphere. Velocities are modeled through stacked cross correlations of ambient noise data. The offshore data come primarily from the OBS array that collected 12 months of continuous data during 2010-2011, combined with Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN) station data. The cross correlations were stacked for noise correlation functions and examined using standard time- and frequency-domain methods to determine phase velocity and group velocity dispersion curves. Signals between the vertical-component OBS and co-located horizontal-component OBS observations associated with tilt noise, and pressure gauge observations associated with infragravity waves, were examined to further improve signals. The non-elastic noise was estimated by calculating the transfer functions between the vertical-to-horizontal and vertical-to-pressure components, and subtracting the coherent signal between the two from the vertical-component time series. We find that these effects are small in our dataset. We are simultaneously inverting all measureable dispersion curves to solve for 3D crustal velocity structure. Shear-wave velocities comprise the direct solution, and Vp/Vs ratios are constrained as much as the data allow. Calculations on data from 780 OBS-OBS, SCSN-SCSN, and OBS-SCSN pairs filtered around multiple narrow bands between 5 and 50 s show clear propagating waves traveling at group velocities between 1.2 and 3.5 km/s. The longer-term outcome of this work will comprise a 3D crustal and uppermost mantle velocity model with areal coverage not attainable before the deployment of the ocean bottom seismometers. The results define the transition in three dimensions from continental lithospheric structure in the near-shore region to oceanic structure west of the continental borderland, and will provide new constraints for determination of earthquake relocations and rupture styles, and in particular the degree to which offshore faults produce dip-slip rupture.