tJ
JOVRNA' OF GEOFHYSICAL R>:SEARCH
614 NOWROOZI, KUO, AND EWING
defonnation of the earth and the measurement
of solid earth tides. Theoretical calculations of
the ocean tides for actual boundaries and depth
I d d . f I
are ~rea y un .or way assummg per ect y r~.
flectJVeboundanes (Pekens, personal commum-
cation, 1967). .Theoretical assumptions can be
checked by a comparison of the theoretical cal.
culation
. with theO actual
. measurement. The ob.
serva t IOns 0f th IS k m d aIs0 may b e use d for
tidal predication for shores which do not have
tidal measurements and finally for improvement
of the existing tidal predictions.
Acknowledgment. We are grateful for the con-
tributions of George Sutton, Stamatios Thanos,
William McDonald, and Gary Latham in design-
ing and testing the instrument. We express our
thanks to Drs. Lee Alsop and Gary Latham of
Lamont Geological Observatory and Mr. B. Zetler
of ESSA, Atlantic Oceanographic Laboratories for
critically reviewing the manuscript and offe'ring
suggestions.
The research was supported by the Advanced
Research Projects Agency under the Vela-Uniform
program through the Office of Naval Research
contract Nonr 266(92) and in part by NSF GA
1542and NSF GA 418.
REFERENCES
Alsop, L. E., and J. Kuo, The characteristic num-
ber of semidiurnal earth tidal components for
various earth models, Ann. Geophy.., 20, 286,
1964.
Barsenkov, S. N., A spectral analysis of tidal varia-
tions in the force of gravity at Talgar, IZV,
Earth Physics, 3, 43, 1967.
Defant, A., Ebb and Flow, University of Michigan
Press, Ann Arbor, 1958.
.....
VOL. 74, No. Z. JANUARY
Doodson, A. T., The harmonic development of the
tide gcnerating potential, Proc. Roy. Soc., A,
10.0,305, 1921.
Espmosa, A. F., G. H. Sutton, and H J Miller A
transient technique for seismogra~hic calibr..
tion, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 52, 767, 1962.
Harrison, J. C., N. F. Ness,!. M. Longman,
R. F. K Forkes, E. !>-.Kraut, and !-. B. Slichtcr,
natIOnal
Earth-tideGeophysICalYear, J. Geophys. Res. 68
observ.atlOnsIhade durmg the Inter-
1497 1963. ' ,
Kuo, J., and M. Ewing, Spatial variation of tidal
gravity in The Earth Beneath. the Continenr.,
Ge?phys.
Umon, Washmgton,
M~nographD.10, C.,Amencan
p. 595, 1967.
Geophysical
Longman, ~. M., Formulas for computing the tidal
acceleratIOns due to the moon and the sun, J.
Geophys. Res., 64, 2351, 1959.
Munk, W. H., and D. E. Cartwright, Tidal spec-
troscopy and prediction, Phil. Tram. Roy. Soc.
Lond., A, 259,533, 1966.
Nowroozl, A. A., Table for the Fisher's test of
significance in harmonic analysis, Geophy.. I.,
12,517, 1967.
Nowroo~i, !>-.A., G. H. Sutton, and B. Anld,
Oceamc tides recorded on the sea floor, Ann.
Geophys., 22, 512,1966.
Press, F., Rigidity of the earth's core, Science,1$4,
1204,1956.
Sutton, G. H., and G. V. Latham, Analysis of a
feedback controlled seismometer, J. Geophu..
Res., 49, 3865,1964.
Sutton, G. H., W. G. McDonald, D. D. Prentis8,
and S. N. Thanos, Ocean bottom seismic obser.
vatories, Proc. IEEE, 53, 1909,1965.
Schureman, P., A manual of the harmonic analy...
and prediction of tides, U.S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey Spec. Bull. 98, 1941.
(Received June 5, 1968;
revised August 26, 1968.)
15, 1969
Analysis of the Seismic Coda of Local Earthquakes as
Scattered Waves
KEIIT! AKI
M assach".setts Institute of Technology
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Cambridge, Ma.ssachusetts 02139
and National Center for Earthquake Research, U. S. Geological Survey
Menlo Park, California 940£5
A method was devised to extract useful information about the earthquake source from the
coda of local small earthquakes. The method is based on the assumption that the power
spectrum of coda waves of a local earthquake is only a function of time measured from the
earthquake origin time and independent of distance and details of wave path to the station.
Evidence supporting this assumption is presented, using the data on aftershocks of the Park-
field earthquakes of June 28, 1966. A 'simple statistical model of the' wave medium that
accounts for the observations on the coda is proposed. By applying the method to many
Parkfield aftershocks, the relation between the seismic moment M, and local magnitude M.
is determined as log M. (dyne em) = 15.8 + 1.5M.. The size of a microearthquake with
magnitude zero is estimated as 10 X 10meters.
INTRODUCTION treated entirely statistically, because their char-
The analysis of seismic surface waves, whether acters are determined by a particular nature ()f
for studying the crustal structure or for deter- the path between the source and station. How-
mining the earthquake source parameters, has ~ver, an entirely statistical treatment may be
been based on the assumption of the laterally JustIfied for the backscattering waves due to
homogeneous earth model. This assumption lateral heterogeneity, which may exist in the
seemsadequate for long-periodwaves but not seismogram~!!Ierous heterogeneousparts of
adcquate for short-period waves controlled by the earth's crust generate secondary waves upon
the shallow part of the earth's crust. One of _the mCldence of the prunary waves, theoacK-
the most urgent problems we are facing in pres- scattering waves WarDe;: superposition oftM
ent day seismologyis the development of a ~~~~...]'~ve~_alone and !l!aY"'!)eregardedas
practical analysis method for dealing with..J..ID.Ul1of many'independentsmallevents.iTs(),
seismicwaves in a laterally heterogeneous earth. an effective statistical analysis may be designed
This problem seems extremely difficult, and a for them. The right place and time to look for
straightforward solution may not be anticipated such backscattering waves are near the epi-
in the near future. On the other hand the need center and sufficiently after the passage of aU
(or such a method is desperate both for the the primary waves. In other words, they may be
sourcemechanism and for structure studies. For found in the coda of local earthquakes.
example, if we want to determine the seismic CODA WAVES OF LOCAL EARTHQUAKES
moment [Aki, 1966] for small earthquakes, we
must use short-period waves that suffer strongly Figure 1 shows an example of coda waves of
(rom lateral heterogeneity. small earthquakes in California obtained at
In the present paper, we attempt to avoid stations near the epicenter. The records are
the difficulty by resorting to a statistical treat. written by the EV-17 seismographs at two of
ment of the lateral heterogeneity. Of course, the temporary stations set up by the U. S. Geo-
most portions of a given seismogram cannot be logical Survey for the observation of aftershocks
of the Parkfield earthquake, June 28, 1966. The
records show some striking features of the cod~
Copyright @ 1969 by the American Geo!,hyskal Union.
615
~ 616
KEIITI AKI SEISMIC CODA OF LOCAL EARTHQUAKES 617

'L
'i[,,,.v'
I

p:
E
...
IQ
II)
T
' ~.~,
coveredareas
f" ili. """ p.ili i.,','i"
and Oliver,1964; Kizawa and Yamaguti, 1960].
.",,,
and Press, 1!J52; Sykes
[Ewing

If the coda observed at the closer stations as

shown in Figure 1 are coming directly from the
00""'" 6m. f m~"""' f~ ili. ~.-
quakc origin time can be expressed as
2

p(",lt) = 18(",)1 C(",lt)

where S(..) includes only the earthquake
(1)
source
g~
:,h" ,( BOurce.their I!roUDveloe;';.. ml1O'h" 1""'"0 tlIA" parfilIl~ters and where the propagation tenn
I
50 m/sec. which secms to be unusuallv low (C(.,lt») i$ independent of distance and details of
~ !~ Furthermore, we must assign velocities an order wave path to the station.
, ! ~ ii, OR"N STATIONNO,9 (lI' 15.6km I of magnitude hIgher to the coda obscrved at Our procedure of obtaining C(..lt) is as fol-
I ~~ Tlt.£

.. . ".
the farther stations. whICh show sDcetral eon- lows. We try to look at the coda spectrum of
u:'" tents similar to the ones observed at the closer each earthquake only at frequencies lower than
I~
CFF SCAI.£

II ,l' ,!!J',
iJ:
' , ,
~

~
4 , " ~' . HIGH GAl< (2,400,000 AT 3 'pol
stJItions. All these difficulties disappear
regard the coda as the backscattering
if we
waves
coming from scatterers (heterogeneities) dis-
tributed over a large area surrounding the sta-
the characteristic
finiteness,
frequency due to the source
which is roughly the rupture
divided by the source length. At these frequen-
cies, S(..) becomes a constant proportional to
velocity

.~ OR'"
STATION NO.1 (lI' 17.9km)
tions and epicenters. the intensity of the equivalent point source, i.e.
, ,l.J!
II'": $'" ' ]
To.£
, , "'h',.

~
I The above observation that the coda excita- the seismic moment., Therefore, if the seismic
\ t,'
.
,t
t J'
,
,
~ .
:.:;S
GAJN
tion appears to be independent of epicentral
distance is not limited to the Parkfield area. It
moment is known independently, we can deter-
mine C(..lt) for frequencies lower than the

I
it"
~

,I ~-- hasbeen widely observed that the total duration

of seismic waves, the F-P time, is independent
charactcristic frequency, simply by dividing the
observed P(..lt) by the seismic moment. If the

'jt)~!
n ORO<
To.£
STATION NO.9 (6' 2.1km)
LOW GAIN

HIGH GAIN
of epicentral distance, as long as the epicentral
distance is shorter than about 100 km. In fact,
a very simple method of calculating the earth-
moment is not'known,
be obtained.
higher for smaller
the shape of C(..lt) can
The characteristic
earthquakes,
frequency
but smaller
is

{I".,;
I '\ "'
I ~i --.JOf'F SCALE
quake magnitude from the F-P times has been
devisedby Bisztricsany [1958] and successfully
earthquakes do not generate low-frequency
waves. Therefore, we can only recover the
" ;,1" applied to Sakhalin earthquakes by Soloviev shape of C(..lt) for a limited frequency range
~i' ,
t~i' '
iiJi,' I~ '- . CODA [1965] and to Japanese earthquakes by Tsu- from the observation of a single event. We use
"
, "

~ I: , I
1 I 1 I I 1 I
mu,a [1967]. many earthqnakes of different sizes to connect
I , The similarity of speetral contents of the them over the required range of frequency
Fig. 1. The records of two aftershocks of the Parkfield earthquake obtained by EV-17
\. 1" ,J:, .j' vertical seismographs (unfiltered) at two of the temporary stations of U. S, Geological Survey.
coda wavesbetween different epicenter-station (0.2-3.0 cps).
~
,
;, r
"t
j!,
,10
t; : , 1
' ~i,

,
One of the shocks is located close to the station 1 and the other close to the station 9.The
wave groups arriving earlier than 15 see ehow the feature that indicates that they are propagat-
paths has also been observed elsewhere. For
example, Aki [1956] studied the power spectra
Thus we can determine C (..It) empirically,
without knowing the detail of the mechanism of
to "l1il ' ,
f"'\ M n' ii
,i'
" ing outward from the BOurce.However, the later portion of the records, which ia only clearly of various portions of local earthquake seismo- coda propagation. We want to know, however, if
'
seen on the high-gain trace. seems to share the same spectra, whether the station is as close grams in Japan and found that the earlier a realistic model of coda propagation can be
~!, /IHf"
, , Ii , ,
as I or 2 km to the BOurce or is located at 15 or 18 km from the source. We assume that they
t 'I ,
!
W) ' (
'HI'I
, "

I are backscattering waves due to distributed heterogeneities. portions (including P and S waves) show strong
variation due to the path difference, although
constructed to account for the observed C(..lt).
For this purpose, we need more specific models
'ii'\' records, which is too small to be seen on the
i I" i\I"i'l waves, which suggest that they may really be tbe coda spectrum is less sensitiveto thc path for both wave and medium. We shall assume
~ .' " '
the backscattering waves due to the lateral low-gain trace and is only clearly shown on the elfect. that the lateral heterogeneity responsible for
II U'
!'~ ." I heterogeneity. high-gain trace, seems to share similar ampli- the coda waves may be approximated by ran-
'1 Ii"'
,

tudes and similar spectral contents between two 'OUTLINE OF METHOD

J,j ' r, ' ii', ~, The low-gain and high-gain records of two
different stations,whether the stationis as close
domly distributed discrete scatterers. We shall
The insensitiveness of coda spectrum to the greatly simplify the properties of the primary
i,,~tJ~P ,~Ii ,,' aftershocks are shown for stations 1 and 9 in
'" ~ .\ f;1n:~'
as 1 or 2 kID to the source, or is located at 15or
, ,1 "

,
.,
Figure 1 (see Figure 7 for station location).
18 kID from the source. In other words, the
patheffectis encouraging to anyone looking for
amethodthat can recover the source mechanism
waves as well as the scattered waves. Some of
\"fi ' 'j ~I' ; One of the shocks is located close to station 1
power spectra of coda waves at a giventime by eliminating the path effect. The energy
the assumptions in our specific model may seem

"~;'fH~~; and the other close to station 9. As can be seen extremely oversimplified. We feel, however, that,
' :
'

.f measured from the earthquake origintimeap- carried by the coda is negligible as compared at least for coda waves, they may be much
~, .;, "~,I "'If
,

V''', ,
,
i,
in the low-gain traces, the wave groups arriving
pear to be nearly independent of the epicentral wilh the early arriving waves. Yet they may II
earlier than 15 sec (measured from the origin
,I
, time) show larger amplitudes and earlier arrivals
distance. be useful for the determination of the seismic
more realistic than the other
tion that the earth is laterally
extreme assump-
homogeneous.
It is difficult to explain the above observatioa I:
~IJ.111:,:,,
' 'Il:/f 'i;,
: "' just as long-period surface waves are

, at the closer stations. Most of the seismic moment,

ASSUMPTIONS ON SPECIFIC MODEL OF
'
,." energy is carried by these waves, and they by regarding the coda waves as slow aurface same purpose.
IlBeful for the
CoDA WAVES
Ii<, .,[" V,! , ,
: certainly seem to be propagating outward from waves directly coming from the source.Slow In the following analysis, we shall assume that
'. ",rid, i
the source. However, the later portion of the
surfacewaveshavebeenobservedforthe oceanic the power spectrum P(..lt) of coda waves ob- We shall construct our specific model on
~;'" 'i" i, I
, ~.! ",11.',
""",'
I'
I'
;)
",J t
~f\'\} 1
.' ,'I
' I
!~ "~~tI \ I'.
 i I.!J't I
KEIlT! AKI
jprw/t) rt L!)~
.1

::- ~ ;It je t} C . / I t
~'/ ~(f J)
618 ?J SEISMICCODAtF LOCALEARTHQUAKES 619
propagating waves in the local earthquake SIMPLE METHOD OF MEASURING POWEH 2
the following two assumptions. (1) The scat- seismograms after the arrival of S waves.
terers responsible for coda waves are distrib- I SPECTRUM P(w 1 t) = /<I>(w
I r)12~ 2 te-"'/Q (12)
uted two-dimensionally over the earth's surface. REPRESENTATION OF TRANSIENT POWER ! As is well kno:vn, the Fourier tr~n"form ~f a Since
( The distribution is random and uniform SPECTRUM powerspectrum IS the autocorrelatIOn functIOn.
'orzero lae:tthe autocorrelation function is the
(space stationary). (2) The prImary waves ana
the secondary waves are surface waves of the
Suppose that the scatterers are numbered ac- meansquare of the time series. In our case of y(w) = log P(w I t) (13)
same kind. We assume for simplicity, that a cording to the distance'from a given station. Let tnlnsient time series, the mean squarc may bc we get
smgle group velocity u, independent of fre-
fo (t) be the secondary waves from the nth I eotimatedfrom a short-time sample around a a
quency, applies to them. Assumption 1 may be
justified by the fact that the obstacles respon-
scatterer located at distance ro. From assump-
tions 2 and 3, we expect that the coda wavesat
\
\
&ivenabsolute time t. Putting such an estimatc
(v'(t)), wehave
g'(w) = 2 &:; log /<I>(w I r) / - tjQ (14) ,

sible for scattering, such as irregular topog-

raphy, complex surface geology, heterogeneouS
elastic property of rocks, and presence of cracks
and faults, are concentrated near the earth's
a time t (measured from the earthquake origin
time) may be expressed as a sum of secondary
waves generated by the scatterers within a
certain range of distance around r = utj2, '~1
(y'(t) = i; r
P(", t) dw I (6)
From (8), (14), and (15)
a'
g"(w) = 2 aw' log 1<I>(w
I r) I (15)

where u is the group velocity of the waves. 1 ' I Wesimplifythe measurementof powerspec-
surface. Assumption 2 naturally follows assump- f tnlm by an approximate method that is an
Taking a distance range Ar long enough,80 t(w.) = 2Q{aj(aw) log /<1>(",
I r)I)"-", (16)
tion 1, because body waves mostly propagate
downward to deeper parts where less hetero- that the corresponding At =
(2Ar)/u is greater oquivalentof the stationary phase method used
t in analysis of dispersed wave trains. To facili- g"(w.) = (1/Q)(dt (w.)jdw.) (17)
than the duration of individual fort), we ean
geneity is expected. For simplicity, we neglected write the expression for coda waves at t as I tatethe practical analysis procedure, we shall Inserting (17) into (10), we get
the dispersion.
In addition to the above assumptions, we J
lltimatethe powerspectrum by measuring the
, 1 Q '/2

impose a third condition on the portions of the

yet r) = ,«.<..0, fort)
1 L (2) traceamplitudesand periods.For this purpose,
weapproximate the power spectrum by an error (y (0) = (211')172 -dtjdw. J [ P(w. I t) (18)
records to which our statistical method is ap-
plicable. If r is the distance between station and
Let the Fourier transform of y(tlr) be Y(-I'),
functioDhaving a peak at a frequency w.. This relation permits us to calculate the power
spectrum P(wlt) from an amplitude measure-
, J
scatterer, R is the distance between epicenter
and scatterer, and A is the distance between
and that of fort) be Fo("')' Since, from assump-
tion 1, fort) and fm(t) are statistically independ:.. : P(III t) ~ exp {g(w.) g'(w.)(w ~ "'.) + ment, provided that the peak frequency",. is u
Ii
station and epicenter, the following condition ent of each other for n #' m, the expected val", known as a function of time t measured from
the earthquake origin time.
II
must be satisfied: of IY(",lr) \' simply becomes the sum of jF.(")12 +
g"(",.)( '
) (7)
~ \'" - w. } DISPERSION
L
(3) ~
\rhis condition will be satisfied if we only look
(Iy(",Ir)\')= '<h<'+O, (IFo("')
I')
(~
wbereg(w) = log P(wlt), the prime indicates
lhederivative with respect to frequency"" and
The relation betweenthe peak frequency",.,
and the time t was obtained for the Parkfield,'
i~
!:>! IF(", I r)I'.211'urAr
at sufficiently later portions of coda waves, be- .. ~ a function of time given by California, arca, using the records of aftershocks
cause, the later the arrivals are, the farther the where" is the number of scatterers per unil of the Parkfield earthquake of June 1966. The
g'(w.) = 0
scatterers responsible for them.
Some of the above assumptions may be tested
area and IF ("'\r) \ expresses the expected al.>
lute value of the Fourier transform of second&!)' Thenwecanrewrite (6) as
(8) data are supplied from stations operatcd by the
U. S. GeologicalSurvey. One of the stations II r
. directly by an array analysis of coda waves. As waves coming from a scatterer at a distance.. ' (Gold Hill) is a permanent one located nearby
a rule of thumb, the station spacing for such The above statistical independence may lit I 1 at the center of the aftershock zone. Others
an array analysis should be less than the wave- taken as the mathematICal delillIlfo'n of tilt (,(t))>= 2; pew. t) I are temporary stations set up for investigations
of the aftershocks.The distances betweenepi-
.1
~
length concerned, otherwise the waveforms hypothetical discrete scatterers. '
would not correlate between stations. Unfor-
tunately, the spacing of the temporary stations
Using the
write (3) as
relation r = (ut)/2, we can It'
-~ exp
Y"(w.) ( -
2 \w
{ w. } dw 9
) ( ) centcl'S and stations are all within about 20 km,
and the condition statec' in assumption 3 may
for the Parkfield aftershock study was larger Ifg"( ) < 0 t he satisficd for the coda waves arriving at the
than the wavelengths prevailing in most of the
(Iy(", I t)I') = IF(",Ir)I' ~ 2 tAt
(4
2
W, , we ge f\ time greater than, say, 30 sec. For earthquakcs
r,
coda waves. Besides, the recording is separate
for each station and is not in a convenient form
, 1 1
(,(I)} >=(2 )112[- "e )]'/' P(w. t) (10) I
with magnitudes 3 to 5 (listed in Table 4), we
measured the wave period directly on the record ii
<Iy(",\t)j')/At has a clear physical meaning;j 11' 9 w. of the standard Benioff short-period seismo-
for the required analysis. For these reasons, the
array analysis was not attempted in the present is the power spectrum P(",I t) of coda wavCI J Assumingthat the intrinsic dissipation of graph (1'8 =
1.0 sec., 1'g == 0.2 sec.) operated iH
paper. Such an analysis has, however, been time t, which can be obtained directly from u.. 'avCjjfollowsthe constant-Q law, we write the at Gold Hill station (station 11, in Figure 7 and
record. Then, we can estimate the specl/lll ~ndary waveintensityas Table 5). For microearthquakeswith magni-
made on local earthquakes elsewhere [Aki and
Tsujiura, 1959; Aki et al., 1958]. Their results ..1.1 -"'/'Q tudes of less than 3, wc used the record of EV-17 J
are consistent with the assumptions stated above. F (iJ) of the secondary waves by "
IF(",I r)I .,...Iq,(",Ir)I e (11) seismographs operated at stations 1 and 4.
It is usually impossible to find unidirectionally
, p(.1 'J - IF(wl,JI' .~'I(J
Tbenfrom (5)
fc~
;f/ Since the period of waves prevailing over a
t
 ~
. !t'
't
I:,~,
t
,,

t II."
,!fw"

'1'1
'
! ("
620
portion of a record may depend on the response
of the seismograph, we simulated the EV-17
seismograph to the Benioff by passing the
record (written on magnetic tape) through a
low-pass filter with a cutoff frequency of 3 cps.
The frequency responses of the Benioff and
EV-17 seismographs (without filter) are given
KEIITI AKI

that the
time measured
coda spectrum is only

SOURCE SPECTRUM
a function of
from the earthquake-origin

As shown in Figure 2, a single",.-t relation

seems to hold for earthquakes of different sizea.
In other words, the shape of the coda spectrum
time.

~2.0
en
3.0... ..
SEISMIC CODA OF LOCAL EARTHQUAKES
DISPERSION

L FilTER
OF CODA WAVES

CUT- OFF
621
, t2'

i
f
I" in Table 1. at a Iven tIlDe measured from . a.
u
'. The measurement of period was made by origin time IS rouJ!:hlv ind~pendell1..W..so~
counting the number of peaks within a certain size. This is expected if the frequencies of coda t; 1.0 ,
time interval (5 sec for earlier portions, 10-20 'are sufficiently low, so that the source can he Z
w
01 '0(
" 'j sec for later portions). The result for all the regarded as a point. The finiteness of the SOUI'«! ::>
0 .
"' ' earthquakes is plotted in a single diagram (Fig-
ure 2). It is remarkable that the points obtained
acts as a high-cut filter with the cutoff fre-
quency determined by its size. If the frequrn. ~0.5
{ , from many earthquakes fall within a limited cies of the coda are lower than the cutoff fre- U. 0.4 ,
!,,(t ~ range from a single common curve. This means quency for each earthquake, there will be DO :.:: t
I If' ~0.3
w
that a single ",.-t relation applies to all the finiteness effect on the coda spectrum. a. t f -1.5
> 1 coda waves, roughly independent of earthquake
size, epicentral distance, and nature of the direct
The spectrum density, in the absence 01the
finiteness effect, will be simply proportional to
0.2 ( )
iQO=o:ez

the seismic moment [Aki, 1967]. The sei8ll1it

." J'<, ,~'
~'" "~I
path between station and epicenter. The above
result is consistent with our basic assumption moment is defined as the moment of the WID.
f
I t' ,
(:,
' ;' ,~\: TABLE 1. Calculation of Dispersion-Attenuation Factor K 0",0
20 30 40 50 100 200 300 400
I
t'
",
,, " ,

", "
'{ " I
,I
"
"
! K(t) (1fv'8)Il(w)I-" LAPSE TIME (SEC)

"", ,iJ i'

Q-lI' .t'''ldl/dJI'It.
. ./IIG Fig. 2. Relation between the peak frequency of coda and the time measured from the "
;IJ
',!~},I:t~, II(f)I-' rarthquake origin time. The records of Benioff short-period seismographs and a simulated E-17
ft r,.'I, I \
'
EV.17 ..,i,mogrnphat Gold Hill station (U. S. Geologicsl Survey) are used. Data from many earth-
'~lj
~' I '

l
i:,
r'" , , t EV-17 Benioff, (24db), correction
quakes areofshown
coda amplitudes.
together. The linear relation shown in this figure is used for dispersion
-
, ,
, '

t ',
,
, ,
~11~;i!li , ,
"" I,
sec
/,
cpa Idt/dfl"' (1)'''ldt/dfl"'
exp (r/t/Q)
(Q 200)
Benioff,
X to-,
(24 db),
X to-,
X to-, cm X 10-<""
sec/mm -/m..
I Qr,jlji;~: i pooentcouple of the equivalent double-couple ,
f,'
" ~Jr' I'~
" ' "I ,
poiotsource.The moment is related to the
GEOMETRICAL SPREADING
~
",'i hi!::! , 15 3.00 1.66 6.41 2.0 4.2 0.83 0.10
1966]parameter by the formula [e.g., Aki,
OMJrce Since we assume that the scattered waves are
f \; 20
25
2.45
2.10
1.87
2.06
8.37
10.3
2.2
2.3
4.3
4.5
1.03
1.17
0.71
0.99
0.18
0.26 surface waves in our specific model, their spectra
bi~'""II"'
'" Ii'
Ii
30 1.85 2.22 12.2 2.4 5.0 1.33 1.34 0.37 P(",lr) will depend on travel distances accord-
! 35 1.67 2.37 14.0 2.5 5.7 1.44 1.9 0.48 ing to
"t ::'"I
I 40 1.55 2.49 15.7 2.6 6.3 1.58 2.4 0.61 , Mo = JJ(D)8 (19)
1 45 1.42 2.58 17.3 2.7 7.2 1.78 3.2 0.78 p. is the rigidity of medium in which fault
'
shere
", '

50 1.32 2.75 19.4 2.8 7.8 1.94 4.0 1.00 'P(", I r)1 = Ip(", I ro)/(80/8)'/'(ro/r)'/2 (22)
: 1 . lormed,(D) is the average dislocation over
, t ,."1i!>':r,1'"",1" where
:
"
60 1.17 2.96 22.9 3.0 9.8 2.22 6.4 l.43
,

, ",
70 1.05 3.16 26.4 3.2 9.1 !.berault plane, and 8 is the area of the fault
pUnt.
%1 ','., t'i . 11.5,
, ""

29.9
W
~ 80 0.96 3.34 3.4 15 14.3 r,r adistance between station and scatterer.
,

',r .11;, 90 0.88 3.52 33.4 3.5 19 21.2 Ifths assumption of a point source is valid in
reference.
I
!
~ '
t,~~~ t ,:~
.;'., 100 0.82 3.68 36.8 3.6 23 29 !.befrequencyrange of the coda, we Can isolate 8 ' distance between scatterer and epicenter.
8, a reference distance.
'.'~p Iifjl
"

I ,:1:
120
150
0.73
0.62
3.96
4.36
43.4
53.4
4.0
4.3
30
47
49
t02 !.belOurceeffect in the power spectrum. We re-
(' rrite(11) and (12) as
.' Under assumption 3, we can write
"

hfjC':i' 11;,1 ': 200

250
0.51
0.45
4.92
5.37
69.6
84.9
5.0
5.9
84
108
270
510
,
I'
I'
.\' "I
'~, Hi, i
!i' , :',
300
350
0.39
0.35
5.83
6.22
101.0
116.4
6.3
6.8
190
270
1140
2020
'f(w 1 r)1 = Mo '<1>0('" I r)1 .-.'/2G (20)
Ip(", I r)/ == /P(", / ro)/ ro/r ) (23)
"; Then, we have, using (21), I~
! t" t ,il. 400 0.32 6.58 131.6 7.5 350 3250 2

!,f I<,
450 0.30 6.89 146.2 8.3 430 4900
fVc)J 500 0.275,7.23 161.7 8.7 570 7570 1'(0.11)'= Mo' '<1>0('"
I r)I' "''; Ie-.'/o (21)
,
600 0.245 7.79 190.8 10.1 800 14,00 P(", I t) == Mo' '<1>0('"I ro)" (~)' ",~u' Ie-.'/0 I
j"t ~" 700 0.22 8.31 219.9 11.2 1150 26700 C;:(:~a only a function of the medium and is (24)
j f '1 , IIItIredto a point source with unit moment.
H! ,,' Putting r = utj2, we get
,>I ,{
,iilll:~
! 1,1
 ~ -~'",=-~~" ~-

622 KEIlTl AKl SEISMIC CODA OF LOCAL EARTHQUAKES 623

2
' trumX(",) from the spectra of Love and Rayleigh waves
recorded at many WWSSN (World-Wide Stan- I",o("'p I 500 km) I
P(", I t) = Mo' 1<1>0('"
I To)I' ~e-.'Io
t X(",,)= '(t)I/'e."I'O(- ~ ~; f'(v'(t)/I'(28) dard Seismograph Network) stations. Using the
theoretical transfer function computed by Ben- = 1.2 X 10-27 cm sec/dyne cm
= M'I
a <1>0'" ~
( I To)\,2N(To)e-.'10 (25) If we determine X(",,) for an, earthquake with Menahem and lIarkrideT [1964] for a Guten- This means that, a seatterer located at 500 km
bergearth model, the value of moment was esti- from the epicenter and station sends back sec-
where N(To) is the number of scatterers within known moment, we can estimate, by (27), the mated as 1.4 X 10" dynes em. Most of the ondary waves having an intensity of 10-" cm/
a radius of To. </>o(",JTo)is a function of fre- value of [2N(To)]'/'I<I>o(",,\ro)J,which is as- shocksstudied in this paper were too small to cps when the source is a unit double couple.
guency only, definea.!!Z-(20), and exW'e~sesthe sumed t? describe t~e mechanism of scattering. be recorded at WWSSN stations. One foreshoek The corresponding intensity of direct waves may
~ahle0f1lleFourier transform of dis- Once this IS determmed, we can use the same (June 28, 1966, 04h 08m 57s GMT), however, be estimated theoretically.
placement aue-tO'SeCondary wa'v;; ge~;;;'tea at equation to determine the seismic moment for excitedLove and Rayleigh waves that were well For a discussion of order of magnitude, we
a-scatterer at~a distance ro, by -a source oi;nit' other earthquakes, using the coda amplitudes. shall compute the intensity of Rayleigh waves
recordedat stations within North America. By
moment"located at the" same distance from the Thus, (27) plays a central role in our analysis comparing the spectra with those of the main from a unit double couple on a homogeneous
s;ari~~re~~It is compensated for dissipation'Tn of coda waves. S shock,the seismic moment of this forcshock was half-space. A double couple with unit moment
the form of (20). The unit of <I>,(",IT,)is cm C R
" C estimatedas 2 X 10" dynes cm. corresponding to strike-slip on a vertical fault
per cps per dyne cm. ALCULATION OF EDUCED ODA.PECTRUM The reduced coda spectrum of this shock was generates Hayleigh waves with intensity [Ben-
Equation 25 is a special case of (1). For the Table 1 shows how to calculate the reduced obtained by applying the method described in Menahem, 1961),
special model proposed above, the coda propa- coda spectrum. The first column shows the time thepreeeding sections to the short-period Benioff
gation term C(",\t), discussed earlier, takes the measured from the origin time of an earthquake. records at the Gold Hill station. As shown in W('" IT) = 0.125 sin 20/fI'Cn(Ar)I/') (32)
following form: coda second
The waves column
at the shows
corresponding time, which
the peak frequency of rable 2, the value is about 3 X 10-' em sec in where W(ro/r) is the Fourier transform of verti-
the frequency range 0.45-0.28 cps. Applying cal displacement at a distance r, I' is the rigidity
C('" I t) = \<1>0('"
I TO)I' 2N(To)
t e-.'/o was calculatedt/l00
by the=formula
(f/0.82)-1.6 (29)
(27)to theseobservedvalues,we get of medium, CR is the Rayleigh wave ve]oeity, A
is the wavelength, and 0 is the azimuth from
[2N(ro)j'/2 l<I>o("'p I To) I
REDUCED CODA SPECTRUM (where t .IS III
. seconds and! is in cps), which the fault strike. Poisson's ratio is assumed to be
0.25. Inserting I" := 3 X IOu dynes cm-', C. :=
No.w,we r~late I</>,(",Ir,)\to the measured was obtained by a straight line fitting to dstA '" 1.5 X 10-" em see/dyne em (31) 3 X 10' cm/sec, A == 10' em, and T := 5 X 10'
amphtudes usmg (18) shown in Figure 2. The third column show. em, we get the value of W(",lr) at the maxi-
'/' (dt/d!) 111.also calculated by (29). This show. lor0.28 < ",./2rr < 0.45. Let us examine what

.)
1

1 2 tbi,nnmber implies. mum direction as 0.2 X 10-" em/sec/dyne em.

(y'(t» = z;;:p(",.1 t)(-1/Q ~t/d"') 8 m the
th~t the dispersioncorrectionvaries
frequency range 2-0.2 cps. The fourth
from2 to For this earthquake, the measurement of coda This is about 200 times grca ter than our previous
waveswere made from 250 to 500 sec after the estimate of intensity of scattered waves. This
= Mo' \<1>0("" I To)I' the effect
column of dispersion
shows and geometricspread.
(t)"'ldt/d!I'I', which represen" origintime. If the velocity u is 3 km/see, this ratio, however, k dependent on the reference
distance roo
1 timerange corresponds to a distance to the
. 2N(To)e
t -;.'10 ((I/Q) (dt/dl.) )'1' (26) ing. The fifth column shows a correction fOf
Q := 200. The sixth and seventh columns show ICattererof 375-750 km. We may take 500 km
ISthereference distance r,.
The more convenient measure for the effi-
ciency of scattering is the energy ratio of scat-
where!, := ro.l2rr. the
short-period
reciprocalseismograph
of magnification for attheGold
operated Bcniofi
HiD j{ there is one scatterer in a square 10 X 10 tered waves to incident waves. If we know the
kin,N(500 km) would be 7500. Then from (31) length I of the portion of primary wave front
Hence station and for the EV-17 seismograph wit!>
attenuator setting at 24 db. The last two that hits the scatterer, we can calculate this
ratio as fo]Jows:
Mo[ 2N (To)] II> I<1>0(""ITo)I columns show the product of all the correctioJII
1 dt I/{, 1/' for each seismograph. The average 'peak-to- TABLE2. Reduced Coda Spectrum at Gold Hill Scattered Energy
-- 1/' ."IOO
( t) e (- Q df ) (V(t» (27) peak'amplitudeA(t) (inmm)observed
arouDd
lortheParkfield Foreshock of 04h 08m 57. GMT,
June 28, 1966 Incident Energy
. . 11' time t is multipliedby K (t) to obtaintheIf-
- 19(", , To)/' 2111'0
- ~ 10-'
~e may mt~rpret the first factor (t) on :the duced coda spectrum X~(f) (in cm per cps)for Reduced Coda
Tlght-h.and Side of .thls equatIOn as a geometrICal the corresponding frequenc !. Spectrum (X (I) - IW('" I To)121 - I cr(km -0)
I.peoTime, Frequency,
spreadmg correctIOn, the second factor as a y Ie. of Equation 30) where (31) and (32) are used. cris the number
dissipation correction, and the third as a die- X(f) = K(t). A(t) (30) - cpa cm sec
of scatterers per I km'. This energy ratio is
persion correction applied to the observed am- 250 0.45 independent of the choiee of the reference dis-
plitude. We call the right hand of (27) the ApPLICATION TO EARTHQUAKE WITH 300 3.3 X 10-'
0.39 2.7 X 10-2 tance roo This ratio must be smaIler than 1
'reduced coda spectrum' (the unit being cm KNOWN MOMENT 350 0.35
tOO 2.6 X 10-' because it is the efficiency of a single seatterer.
per cps). We shall now measure the coda spectrum~ 0.32 2.9 X 10-2 We do not known how much efficiency is real-
450 0.30
Using the ro.-t relation obtained in a pre- an earthquake with a known seismicmOineuL 500 3.4 X 10-2 istic, but the magnitude less than 10-' may be
vious section and assuming an appropriate Q The seismic moment of the main Parkfieldshoti 0.275 2.7 X 10-'
acceptable. Then, the above equation requires
value, we can calculate the reduced coda spec- has been deteT1llined by T8m and Aki [1~J that I must be greater than 10-1/" km for A ==
 ,...
"

f 624 KEIlTI AKI

SEISMIC CODA 01<'LOCAL EARTHQUAKES 625
~J I 10 km. If u is 10-' km-', I must be greater than The frequency dependence of this funclia!
LAPSE TIME (SEC)
}~ 10 km; if u is 10-' km-', I must be greater than should be related to the scattering mechanism. 10080 60 50454035 30 25
1 km; if u is 10" km-', I must be greater than 15 '
For example, the displacement of cylindriraJ
11

100 km. The last case is impossible, because the

;! '~~~
,i~' waves scattered from a crack with infinite length S~
!(
'iIii .
scatterer size becomes too large to be enclosed and finite width are proportional to ,,''', for I. ",,'
,

in the assigned area. However, it is possible to wavelengths greater than crack size, if plane ~f~
:ill!,!, ).
meet both efficiency and geometric conditions, harmonic waves of fixed displacement are in.
r if I is smaller than 10 km. cident on the crack [Ang and KnopofJ, 1964].
l t;.~t...
,~ If the incident waves have a displacement t: "',
DETERMINATION OF [2N(r,)]'I'I</>,1 (",Iro)
I spectrum proportional to '",'1' like the one
JO-2 n 'i
'~ f,~ !
In the preceding section, we determined the shown in (32), then the displacement of 8Ctt. ,. 1
'I ~,~,'

,I
value of [2N(r.)]'''I</>,('''lr.)Iin the frequency
range 0.45-0.28 cpa (equation 31), using the
data of an earthquake with known seismic mo-
ment. We now want to extend the determination
tered waves will be proportional
is a special case of the Rayleigh scatterina
[Rayleigh, 1896] that applies to waves 10JlCtl
than the size of sca tterer.
to ..'. 'Ib

~
. t!
'" to higher frequencies. We cannot do this by
using the same earthquake data because of the
The observed frequency independence of
---------- ,f' .I
</>,(",Ir,) may be explained, if the crack size ~ ~ 10-'
</) ,
Ii ,
;, limited dynamic range of instruments and also larger than the wavelength, in which case the
,I because of the restriction that we must look at approximation of Rayleigh scattering breab :::!:
u --/'V ,.1,
,', only those frequencies which are lower than the
! down. The finiteness effect of crack size may ael .!; l.IJ.
i:' cutoff frequency due to the finiteness of the as a double integrator and compensate for tho x v~.;
" source. Instead, we shall determine them by ",' dependence due to the Rayleigh scatterine. f ~
,,'I. ;, ::; combining the results for many earthquakes,

~
:::!:
The longest wavelength involved in our study iI =>
,ji' Ii- each covering different frequency ranges. about 10 km. On the other hand, we found in a 0::

I'
.,'"
I, Figure 3 shows the reduced coda spectra for previous section that a scatterer size of 10kill t
ILl
0..
10-. It
f
I
twenty foreshocksand aftershocksof the Park-
field earthquake obtained from the Gold Hill
and density of 1 per 10 km X 10 km sre &eo
ceptable. These values are not inconsistent with
</)
c(
! e.
~" ..,"
0 ,II \ !
record (Benioff short-period seismograph). Our the supposition that the scatterer sizes art 0
u
task is to find a common curve that fits the greater than the wavelengths. F.
0 t
shape of all the observed curves. As discussed in ILl
U
SEISMIC MOMENT AND EARTHQUAKE
earlier sections, our basic assumption is that =>
MAGNITUDES fa J()'
, I such a common curve exists. Fortunately, as a 0::
:t! result of reductions based on our specific me- The calculation' of seismic moment is straight.
dium model, the reduced coda spectra, shown forward once the function [2N(r,)J'/lI~C..lr.)1
in Figure 3, vary only little with frequency.
This makes it easier to find a common shape.
We may say, as a rough approximation, that the
commoncurve is a straight line parallel to the
is determined. The value of this functionfOl
Gold Hill station was previouslyobtainedfl'Olll
the earthquake/ (June 28, 1966, 04h OSm67.
GMT) with known moment, as 1.5 X 10'. em
1 ii'
, frequency axis. A closer look at the curves, how- sec/dyne cm for frequencies 0.28-0.45 cps.The 10-6 COMMON
ever, suggests a slight tendency to increase with values for higher frequencies are obtained by
frequency. We see that a solid curve designated using the common curve given in Figure 3.Tbt1
as 'common shape' fits the shapes of all the are shown in Table 3.Then, the seismicmomatll
observed curves reasonably well and seems to is determined as the ratio of the reduced coda
~.
justify our basic assumption.
The common shape of the reduced coda spec-
trum has a physical meaning in our specified
spectrum X(",)
The moment
to [2N(r,)]'I'I</>,C..lr,)I.
obtained at various frequencie8
are then aV,eraged for each earthquake. TIlt
10-7
! ."..
model. It is proportional to I</>. (",Ir.)I, which result is given in Table 4, .together with the . 0.2
is the ahsolute value of the Fourier transform 1.0 2.0 3.0
local magnitudes determined at Pasaden&aad
of displacement due' to secondary waves gen- Berkeley.
FREQUENCY(CPS)
erated at a scatterer at a distance r. by a source The relation between the seismic moment j/.
of unit moment at the same distance from the and magnitudes M. are shown in Figure 4. AI .Fig.3. Reducedcoda spectra for differentearthquakesobtainedby applyingdispersion, 'i
scatterer. d""pation, and geometrical spreading correction to coda amplitudes observed at Gold Hill
expected from the scaling law of seismic II*' llllion.Theyseemto sharea commonshapethat is indepenedentof sourcesizeand location. I ,~
,
 KEIlTI AKI SEISMIC CODA OF LOCAL EAHTIIQUATms 627
626
, '''';
~ TABLE 3. Values of (2N(ro)11I'I4<o(",lro)1
magnitude. However, examining the original
data of Gutenberg and Richter [1956, Figure 3],
SEPT. I 10 15, 1966 the cumulative number of earthquakes is plotted
against this mngnitude in Figure 5. The b value
. .,liI" \2N(ro)I'''I4<o(",\ro)\, we find that the (34) applies equally well to <II
'"
u ,~ b. 1.44 is 1.44, which is rather high but not unusually
j I ~
.. ,., t, cps cm Bec/dyne cm tho local magnitudo for ML > 3. Thus, we 0~
<II ,"- high for an aftershock sequence.
t. combine (33) and (34) and get ~ , There are many smaller earthquakes for which
3.00 4.4 X 10-" 0
~f 2A5 3.8 X 10-" log.. (E/ Mo) =, 4.4 (35) 0:
'"
\
" we could not apply our method beeause they do
not show measurable coda. Since the smallest
, ~, 2.10 3.2 X 10-" '"
'"
~ 10
1.85
1.67
2.6 X 10-"
2.1 X 10-"
The physical meaning of tbis ratio is very
clear if we assume a dislocation model of an f z
'"
magnitude we measured is about 1, they must
have a magnitude around O. According to (33),
1.55 1.9 X 10-" earthquake. The work done at the fault is > ~
the seismic moment eorresponding to !vIL = 0 is
t:ll 1.42 1.7 X 10-" ;:
4
\
(r)'(D)'S, whero (r) is the mean of...pr.e&xisted .J 10" dyne em, that is, /l(DS) = 10" dynes em.
1.32 1.7 X 10-" ~ ,
~
1.17
1.05 ~ 0.22
1.6 X 10-"
1.5 X 10-"
~sJlI\d_re.sidual.mress
~ation
aruLill) is tho average
over the fault plane. If we compare
'"
~
u " If we assume that the stress drop is of the order
of 10', wemay write (/l(D»/d "" 0(10'), where
this with the similar expression for seismic d is the width of the fault strip. Assuming also
moment (equation 19), we get \ 1'.0 2.0
\
, S "" cr, we get cr "" 0(10') em'. Thus, the
3.0
trum [Aki, 1967], the moment, which is propor-
tional to the low-frequency spectrum, does not E/ M. = fI(r)/,. (36) \ MAGNITUDE
size of crack associated with microearthquakes
of magnitude 0 is about 10 meters. Surprisingly,
Fig. 5. Number of ParkfieId aftershoeks for the i!
increase linearly with the amplitude of short- where '1 is tho efficiency of seismic energy radia- this fits the extrapolation of Utsu's formula
period waves, from which magnitudes are meas- tion and,. is the rigidity of medium. Assuming period August 1-15, 1966,with magnitudes greater [Utsu and Seki, 1954] log A (em') = 6 + M,
than the value specified on the abscissa. b is the
",
ured. The relation may be expressed as ,. =
3' X 10" dynes cm-', we get from (35) .Iope of the dashed line. The magnitude is deter- which relates the area of the aftershoek zone to
the magnitude of mainshDck for large earth-
and (36) miaed by (33) using the seismic moment esti-
logl. M. = 15.8 + 1.5ML (33) mated from coda amplitude. quakes in Japan.
fI(r) = 12 X 10' dynes cm-2 (37)
It is interesting to compare the above formula DEPENDENCE OF CODA EXCITATION ON
with the Gutenberg-Richter energy formula
This shows that the stress level (7) varies from GEOLOGY OF STATION SITE

log,. E = 11.4 + l.5M (34) 1024 12 to 120 bars, for the range of TJfrom 1.0 to
0.1. So far, we have studied the coda of different
This formula was proposed to apply to the earthquakes at the same station (Gold Hill).
surface wave magnitude and not to the local SIZE OF MICROEARTHQUAKES Our basic assumption that the coda spectrum

TABLE 4. Comparison of Solemlo Moment witb M..nitud. ( The measurement of seismic moment Was
extended to microearthquakes using the data
is independent of epicentral distanee may be
best examined if we study the coda of the same
earthquake at different stations. We will use
~:

OriginTime
CGMT} MCPAS) MCBRK)
SolemloMoment,
dyne om
~1023
w
Z
I ohtained at Gold Hill station for the period
September 1 to 15, 1966. The moment value is
the records of many temporary stations oper-
ated by the U. S. Geological Survey in the Park-
>- converted to magnitude by the use of (33), and
0 field-Cholame area. The seismographs are of the I:
Juoe 28, 1966 ~. I~I
Olb OOmS3. 3.5 3.1 1.4 X 10"
!': lili
;'1' 2.0 X 10" TABLE 5. Relative Coda Excitation at Some of the U. S. GeologicalSurvey Seismograph Stations in
04b 08m 57. 4.S 5.1 !z 1022 the Parkfield-Cholame Area
8.2 2.6 3.8 X 10" w
Otb ISm 38a ::;;
13b 48m 21. 8.8 2.7 1.2 X 10" 0
jl'l, 20b 46m 59. 8.4 8.1 4.8 X 10" ::;; Coda
I .i'lI!'" 28b 57m 241 8 .5 .2 X 10"
~ Station Height, Excitation
::;; Lat. N Long. W ft Factor
Juoe 29, 1966 <n Surface Geology
4.1 8.6 0.7 X 10"
02b 19m 410
8.2 2.9 0.9 X 10" \jj1021 35°45.35' 120°18.73' 1220 7.8
08b Mm 56&
8.8 X 10" Plio-Pleistocene nonmarine sediments i
18b 12m 01. 8.8 8.1
1.6 X 10" 2 35°47.46' (gravel). I
19b 58m 27. 4.8 5.0 : 120'21.44' 1240 6.6 Same as station 1, i I
3 35°43.20' 120°16.85' 1370 4.8 f
4 35°48.84' Same as station 1.
June 80, 1966
1.6 X 10"
120°16.07' 1590 1.5 Lower Miocene marine sediments
Olb 17m 87. 4.3 4.1
5 35°42.59' (sandstone).
July I, 1966
10201 I I I 5.0 120°22.72' 1470 5.2 Same as station 1. I!
1.1 X 10"
2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 7 35°39.06' 120°19.22' 1530 4.7
OOb 41m 281 3.6 8.2 MAGNITUDE 8 35°47.39' Same as station 1.
120°10.55' 1700 2.1 Eocene marine sediments. i
July 2, 1966 Fig. 4. Relation between the seismic moment 9 35°52.79' 120°24.72' 1540 6.1
1.6 X 10" 10 35°49.47' Same as station 1.
12b OSm 86. 8,9 8,7 estimated from coda amplitude and the local mag- 120°26.31' 2120 5.4 Same as station 1. ii
3.4 8.4 0.6 X 10"
nitude. The Berkeley magnitude for smaller earth- 11 35°49.88' 120°21.18' 1430
12b 16m 24&
8.1 2.3 X 10" 1.0 Mesozoic granitic rocks. ,I
8.1
12b 26m 24& quakes are excluded because of larger scatter. if ,
:"
 SEISMIC CODA OF LOCAL EARTHQUAKES 629
KEnTI AKI
120'15' 120'00
628 Figure 3 for Gold Hill station seems roughly to 36'00'
type E-17, with frequency response given in apply to all the other stations. However, there
Table 1. The station locations are given in are large differences in the level of curves among
Table 5 and Figure 7. the stations. For example, station 11 shows con-
We selected ten earthquakes with epicenters sistently the lowest values and station 1 shows
:";
' " 1
the highest values. We assumed that the 10 KM
distributed from one end of the station network ~_u...,
'
i\ ,- ,,<i to the other. We measured the reduced coda spectrum curves have a common shape among
,'.'1> q'
stations but differ hy a constant factor, which is
&. , "'..
..
. spectra at each station, and divided them by
the value at station 11 (Gold Hill) at a fre- determined for each station. The result is given
~,i<~;
I~ ,-
.
"1
quency of 2.5 cps. If our assumption is correct,
the normalized coda spectrum should be the
in Table 5 and Figure 7.
There is a remarkable correlation between the
~
.
!. ,," 'f' station factor and the geology of the station
;1 'Wlfii
same at all the stations for all the earthquakes.
site as indicated in Table 5 and Figura 7.
8(2.1)
The actual normalized spectra are shown in Fig-
-" , ""''' .1
ure 6. Younger sediments ahow greater values of the
35'45'
~j"'j"'" I As shown in Figure 6, we find that the nor- factor. We find the smallest value for granitic
'~I"i malized spectra at a given station agree within rocks. Such a correlation may be expected be-
a factor of about 2. Furthermore, all the curves cause the part of the medium with lower im.
I"~ . 1>'1
show a slight tendency to increase with fre- pedance would vibrate with greater amplitudes.
" ~,~ .'i" , . if . ' , 1:;::':':;':;1
Alluvium
, I' ~rtY'''';?' quency, and the 'common shape' obtained in .0 .."-".~ ':';.::. . , t'!

~ ~
,

0
7' '
f~a 'f::,
::.::. ' ~4.7) , '. , '.', Plio-Pleistocene
' .
STATI~
,
. "
'..:-;.. ,
.' .::':. '. . .
,0 , '. Sediments
11: ) ,

.0 . . '0'. '. ':~ ~ . [[]II] Miocene Sediments

Hti,
. .

~
~ Mesozo,c ~ Ir i
1'1 STATION 3
35' 30'1 I
§ Sediments ~ EoceneSediments

~
STAT~
Fig. 7. Map of stations operated by the U. S. Geological Survey. The number in brackets
~r
.... = '0 shows the relative factor of coda excitation at each station.
0 =
~ '0
~0
STATIO~ -
STATION 7
Tbus, we must conclude that the coda excita-
tionstrongly depends on the surface geology of
waves on the assumption that the coda spectra
are independent of epicentral distance and de-
"i'
0 tbe station site. A station correction is needed tails of the direct wave path from source to
eN in tbe use of the coda for the determination of station. The existence of a common <»p-trela-

-~
J" aeismicmoment. tion (Figure 2) as well as of a common shape of
, ,m ~ 10 Oncethe station correction is made, however, reduced coda spectrum (Figure 3) supports the
0 the seismic moments determined from different above assumption.
z
~
J Itations agree well. Each curve in Figure 8 It was found that the coda excitation strongly
".', ~, "', mowsthe seismic moment for a single earth- depends on the surface geology of the station
!( ' ' :.., .""o~~~ quske obtained from the coda spectrum cor- site. However, once the station effect is cor-
" STATION /;;"

.,l
~'t'
~..i~ L
.
,\~.~
I

'j,
.":;p
STATION II (GOLO HILL)

2.e 3.0 1.0 I.e

~",

2.0 2.e 3.0

Ittted for tbe station factor. It is ele~rly shown
that there is no significant dependence of the
aeismicmoment on the epicentral distance. This
result strongly supports our basic assumption
that the coda excitation is independent of the
reeted, the seismic moment determined from
coda waves does not show any significant de-
pendenee on the epicentral distanee.
The seismic moment M. may be expressed
as a function of local magnitude M. as log
I ...~

,:'~
.
t
$~
" :~.,.
\ 0:
1.0 I.e
50.5.0" '"
'
2.0

Z5
~
20
'---
F.REQUENCT
".
TIME
(CPS)
~. " . .
eo'540"
(SEC)
'" 25 .
20 ""
15
epicentraldistance.
CONCLUSION
M. = 15.8 + 1.5M.: The size of a microearth-
quake with M. = 0 is estimated to be about
10 X 10 meters. .
We proposed a, method of determining the A simple specific mode! of the wave medium
Fig. 6. Reduced coda spectra for several earthquakes rneasured simultaneously at different 8eismic moment of a !oca,! earthqua,ke from coda was presented to account for the observa,tion on
.stations. The values are normalized to the one observed at station 11 for a frequency of
2. 5 CpR.
 KEIITI AKI SEISMIC CODA OF LOCAL EARTHQUAKES
630 631
Eslimation of earthquake moment, released
energy and stress-strain drop from the G wave surface-wave dispersion, 2, Solomon Islands
spectrum, Bull. Earthquake Res. Inst. Tokyo Earthquake of July 29, 1950,Bull. Sei8mol. Soc.
Univ., 44, 73-88, 1966. Am., 42, 315-325,1952.
_'00 Aki, IC, Sealing law of seismic spectrum, J. Geo- Gutenberg, B., and C. F. Richter, Earthquake
"' phys. Res., 72, 1217-1231,1967. magnitude, intensity, energy, and acceleration,
Aki, K, and M. Tsujiura, Correlational study of Bull. Sei8mol. Soc. Am., 40, 105, 1956.
~
~ near earthquake waves, Bull. Earthquake Res. Kizawa, T., and R. Yamaguti, Some new phases
'" Inst., Tokyo Univ., 37, 207-232, 1959. observed in a study of earthquake swarms relat-
~ .Hi, K., M. Tsujiura, M. Hori, and K Goto, ing to volcanic
93-129, 1960. activity, 2, Geophys. Mag., 30,
~... Spectral study of near earthquake waves, Bull.
Earthquake
1958. Res. Inst. Tokyo Univ., 36, 71-98, Rayleigh, J. W. 8., The Theory of Sound, Mac-

.~_d_".km
ffi 10 millan, New York, 1896. (Reprinted by Dover,
"0
"
u
'-0.8km
~ Ang,D. D., and L. Knopoff, Diffraction of scalar New York, vol. 2, 149-152,1945.)
elastic waves by a finite crack, Proc. N at/. Acad. Soloviev, S. L., Seismicity of Sakhalin, Bull.
~
OJ
Sci., U. S., 61, 593-598, 1964. Earthquake
102, 1965. Res. Inst., Tokyo Univ., 43, 95-
'" ~d-0.8km
Ben-Menahem, A., Radiation of seismic surface-
wavesfrom finite moving sources, Bull. Sei8mol. Sykes, L. R., and J. Oliver, The propagation of
Soc. Am., 61, 401-435,1961. short-period seismic surface waves across oceanic
30 35 Ben-Menahem, A., and D. G. Harkrider, Radia- area, Bull. Sei8mol. Soc. Am., 64, 1349-1416,
1964.
'0 10 15 20 25 lion patterns of seismic surface waves from
EPICENTRALDISTANCE (KM)
buried dipolar point sources in a flat stratified Tsai, Y. B., and K. Aki, Simultaneous determina-
earth, J. Geophys. Res., 69, 2605-2620,1964. tion of the seismic moment and attenuation of
Bisztricsany,E. A., A new method for the deter- seismic1969.
69(1), surface waves, Bull. Sei8mol. Soc. Am.
100 mination of the magnitude of earthquakes,
w Geoliz.Kozlemen., 7, no. 2, 1958. Tsumura, K, Determination of earthquake mag-
~d'O.. d'" Eaton, J. P., Dependence of hypocenter deter- nitude from total duration of oscillation, Bull.
minations on the distribution of recording sta- Earthquake
1967. Res. Inst., Tokyo Univ., 46, 7-18,
tions and the precision of the seismic velocity
~ /""~/'--./~~d'1.5 model of the earth's crust in the Parkfield- Utsu, T., and A. Seki, A relation between the area
;;;
;
~
10
~ "4.0

-
Cholame area, paper presented at the Confer-
ence on Geologic Problems of the San Andreas
of aftershock region and the energy of main
shock, Zi8in
233-240, 1954.(J. Sei8mol. Soc. Japan), Ser. 2, 7,

r ~
doT.' fault system,
California,1967. Stanford University, Palo Alto,
~
" (Received March 25, 1968;
Ewing,M., and F. Press, Crustal structure and
revised September 16, 1968.)
*
Iii
IL '
0.,0" 20,,'0
EPICENTRAI. OISTANCE (KM)

Fig. 8. The seismic moment obtained from simultaneous observations of coda amplitudes
at different stations is plotted against the epicentral distance. The parameter d indicates the
focaldepth of eachearthquakein kilometersas givenby Eaton [19671.d ==0 is a restricted
value.

the coda of local earthquakes. Our specific model for their constructive criticism, upon which ilie
is extremely simplified ' but seems to1 be more This workhaswas
manuscript beenpartly supported
extensively by the Ad.
revised.
h
use ful as a mod e1 0f cod a waves, at east, t ~ vanced Research Projects Agency and was mODi.
the laterally homogeneous earth models. In thIs tored by the Air Force Office of Scienlific
model, the coda of local earthquakes are as- Research under contract AF 49(638)-1632.TbiJ
surned to be composed of secondary waves com- work was done partly at the National Ce~ter for
.
ing from uniformly distributed discrete scat- with the GeologICal
E~rthquake Rese.archSurvey.
under a publicatIOn author-
Tap~r appOlntmeD(
terers. The scatterer sIze appears to be about ized by the Director, U. S. Geological Survey.
10 kIn, and the density about 1 per 100 kIn'.
REFERENCES
Acknowledgments. It is my pleasure to ac-
knowledge the assistance of Mr. Roger Greens- Aki, K., Correlogram analyses of seismogram. by
felder in the analysis of seismograms. I am also means of a simple automatic computer, J. PhU'-
grateful to Dr. J. P. Eaton for his helpful advice Earth, 4, 71-79, 1956.
and stimulating comments. Dr. Frank Press kindly Aki, K, Generation and propagation of G wave!
read the manuscript and gave me valuable sugges- from the Niigata earthquake of June 16,11)64,t
tions. I wish to express my thanks to the reviewers