Abstract
GEOCHEMISTRY GEOPHYSICS GEOSYSTEMS,
VOL. 4,
1072,
23 PP., 2003
doi:10.1029/2002GC000379 [Citation]
Using earthquake doublets to study inner core rotation and seismicity catalog precision
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
We report our search for doublets in the South Sandwich Islands (SSI) region among 906 earthquakes from January 1982 to December
1998. Event pairs with source separation less than 40 km, which was calculated using PDE locations, were checked using vertical
component short period and broadband digital records. Cross correlation coefficients of P (or PKP) waveforms were computed
for similarity comparison. Whole waveforms of those event pairs with correlation coefficients larger than 0.8 were checked
by eye. By this process, 17 doublets were found, some of which form multiplets. However, only one doublet event pair (14 August
1995 and 28 March 1987) has clear PKP(DF) phases on both records at College, Alaska (COL). The PKP(DF) travel time change
measured by cross correlation is a decrease by 0.15 s, with standard deviation 0.02 s, over a time period of about 8 years.
This result strongly supports differential rotation of the Earth's inner core relative to the mantle and the crust. The estimated
rotation rate ranges from 0.4° to 1° per year eastward. The special case of a locked inner core can then be ruled out. We
also checked the precision of PDE and ISC locations using the 17 doublets. Results show that both catalogs have relatively
high location precision. Standard deviations in latitude, longitude and depth are less than 4 km, 6 km, and 10 km respectively,
supporting prior claims of detection of inner core rotation [
Received 13 May 2002; accepted 23 June 2003; published 9 September 2003.
Citation: (2003), Using earthquake doublets to study inner core rotation and seismicity catalog precision, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 4(9), 1072, doi:10.1029/2002GC000379.
Cited By
