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Imaging a Crustal Low‐Velocity Layer Using Reflected Seismic Waves From the 2014 Earthquake Swarm at Long Valley Caldera, California: The Magmatic System Roof?
Author(s) -
Nakata Nori,
Shelly David R.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl077260
Subject(s) - seismology , geology , caldera , reflector (photography) , reflection (computer programming) , magma , waveform , seismic wave , microseism , earthquake swarm , surface wave , seismogram , hypocenter , geophysics , volcano , induced seismicity , radar , optics , physics , computer science , programming language , telecommunications , light source
Abstract The waveforms generated by the 2014 Long Valley Caldera earthquake swarm recorded at station MLH show clear reflected waves that are often stronger than direct P and S waves. With waveform analyses, we discover that these waves are reflected at the top of a low‐velocity body, which may be residual magma from the ∼767 ka caldera‐forming eruption. The polarity of the reflection compared to direct P and S waves suggests that the reflection is S P waves ( S from hypocenters to reflector and then convert to P waves to the surface). Because the wavefields are coherent among different earthquakes and hold high signal‐to‐noise ratios, we apply them to a wavefield migration method for imaging reflectors. The depth of the imaged magmatic system roof is around 8.2 km below the surface. This is consistent with previous studies. Even though we use only one station and waveforms from one earthquake swarm, the dense cluster of accurately located earthquakes provides a high‐resolution image of the roof.