Waveform-based Gradient method for estimating hypocenter mechanism before observing aftershocks

Abstract

The location of the hypocenter of an earthquake as well as the determination of the source parameters have shown some limitations in the past. The actual studies often neglect the tailing of the waveform to concentrate on the first waves arrivals and the inversion methods often need a precise distribution of aftershocks to locate the fault plane. Using former models of fault slip propagation, we produce synthetic waveforms related to different fault geometries. The inversion method will be adapted to analyze the total waveform and, using a higher number of seismograms, will give back the source parameters of the studied earthquake. The different geometries of slip models give back precise waveforms and the flexibility of the code should be an advantage to future inversion processes of earthquake location. The improvements of the fault models and the inversion method are discussed through this paper.