‘Treasure trove’ of earthquake clues could be unearthed by wavy new technique

Science Daily  September 24, 2019
Current rock mapping techniques use sound waves that help assess how rocks might behave when stress builds up, and how much shaking there would be in an earthquake. An international team of researchers (UK, New Zealand) have plugged current sound wave information into full waveform inversion which helps them paint a picture of the Hikurangi fault zone in unprecedented detail. They also captured the shallow faults which were responsible for the large Gisborne tsunami in 1947 — an example of a large tsunami caused by a relatively small slow slip earthquake. The researchers combined data from acoustic mapping with the full waveform inversion technique. This converted the sound waves into higher resolution, more intricately detailed maps of the seabed and rock beneath. The technique can be used to study earthquake and tsunami-prone areas around New Zealand and the rest of the world…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE

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