Quantitative analysis of impact-induced seismic signals by numerical modeling

We quantify the seismicity of impact events using a combined numerical and experimental approach. The objectives of this work are (1) the calibration of the numerical model by utilizing real-time measurements of the elastic wave velocity and pressure amplitudes in laboratory impact experiments; (2) the determination of seismic parameters, such as quality factor Q and seismic efficiency k, for materials of different porosity and water saturation by a systematic parameter study employing the calibrated numerical model. By means of “numerical experiments” we found that the seismic efficiency k decreases slightly with porosity from k = 3.4 × 10−3 for nonporous quartzite to k = 2.6 × 10−3 for 25% porous sandstone. If pores are completely or partly filled with water, we determined a seismic efficiency of k = 8.2 × 10−5, which is approximately two orders of magnitude lower than in the nonporous case. By measuring the attenuation of the seismic wave with distance in our numerical experiments we determined the seismic quality factor Q to range between ∼35 for the solid quartzite and 80 for the porous dry targets. For water saturated target materials, Q is much lower, <10. The obtained values are in the range of literature values. Translating the seismic efficiency into seismic magnitudes we show that the seismic magnitude of an impact event is about one order of magnitude smaller considering a water saturated target in comparison to a solid or porous target. Obtained seismic magnitudes decrease linearly with distance to the point of impact and are consistent with empirical data for distances closer to the point of impact. The seismic magnitude decreases more rapidly with distance for a water saturated material compared to a dry material.