Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4741703 Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 2013 12 Pages PDF
Abstract

•Coda Q attenuation and S-wave attenuation have been computed in the Umbria–Marche (Italy) region.•Intrinsic and scattering attenuation have been separated.•Intrinsic attenuation of the Umbria–Marche region is high compared to other regions of the Earth.•The mechanism explaining the high attenuation is fluid percolation in a fractured fault-system.

The attenuation of coda and S waves has been inferred for the Umbria–Marche region (central Italy) using seismic waveforms collected during the 1997 seismic crisis. The selected dataset is composed of 343 small magnitude (1.4 < ML < 4.2) earthquakes recorded at a temporary array composed of 23 seismic stations. The Sato (1977) method, based on the assumption of single isotropic scattering has been used to infer Qc, considering three different lapse times (20, 30 and 40 s). The coda normalization method (Aki, 1980) has been used to infer Qβ. Both Qc and Qβ show a clear frequency dependence with a different frequency dependent parameter. The frequency dependence of Qc is comparable with that previously found in the same area and around it. Using the method of Wennerberg (1993), intrinsic and scattering attenuation have been separated. Intrinsic attenuation is found to be close to coda attenuation and dominates over scattering dissipation. Coda Q increases with increasing lapse time but at a rate smaller than that observed in other areas of the Earth. Coda and intrinsic attenuation in the Umbria–Marche region are very high compared to other seismic active regions of the Earth. The retrieved high values of intrinsic attenuation may be explained in terms of the previously hypothesized fluid-pressurized regime of the crust in the central Apennines ( Miller et al., 2004).

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Earth and Planetary Sciences Geophysics
Authors
, , ,