Applying the Time-Domain Moment Tensor Inversion technique to Regional Earthquake Data in the Puerto Rico-Virgin Island Region

Abstract:

The quick determination of an earthquake’s moment tensor, whose description relate to centroid depth, faulting geometry and size, is crucial for tsunami warning systems. Whether an event possesses the critical parameters to produce a devastating tsunami, tsunami warning centers must knowThis research project seeks to test, well-formulated time-domain moment tensor inversion code in order to obtain in quasi real-time faulting parameters of significant regional earthquakes in the Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands region. The inversion code has been developed by researchers at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, whose main attractive is to decrease the time it takes to have an estimate calculation of a moment tensor for any major earthquake using regional data, approximately less than 7 minutes of an earthquake’s origin time. Four seismic events in the region have been used as testbed to the inversion code configured for this area. In order to compare our results, previously computed and published moment tensor inversions from the Global CMT and USGS for the same events were used to assess the deviations from results obtained in this study. Our results indicate the inversion method is capable of reproducing the regional and teleseismic solutions, and thus can be incorporated into daily earthquake location operations at the Puerto Rico Seismic Network (PRSN) for quick estimation of faulting mechanisms and tsunami warning purposes.