Search

Seismic attenuation parameters in Taiwan have been obtained by using a modified "MultipleLapse Time Window Analysis" approach in order to take into account the scatteringanisotropy. MLTWA method exploits the spatio-temporal dependence of the ratio betweencoherent and incoherent seismic intensity to determine the scattering and absorptionproperties of a heterogeneous medium. In addition to the mean free path l (or the scatteringquality factor Qsc), the seismic wave propagation is controlled by a parameter g(independent of l) which determines the angular redistribution of energy upon scattering(scattering anisotropy). Preferentially forward (resp. backward) scattering correspondsto g > 0 (resp. g < 0), with g = 0 for isotropic scattering. We use Monte-Carlosimulations to compute Green functions and sensitivity kernels for Qsc, Qi (absorptionquality factor) and g in media with an heterogeneous crust overlying a transparentmantle. We analyse seismic records of local earthquakes with magnitude greater than 3.5which occurred between 1994 and 2016. For each stations, we collect events withina radius of 100 km and a maximum depth of 40 km. About 350000 waveformswith a S/N ratio greater than 4 in the coda are selected. Seismic energy in three15 s time windows from the S-wave arrival are measured in 3 frequency bands(1-2, 2-4,4-8 Hz). To account for site amplification and source amplitude, wenormalize observed energy by the average energy in a late coda window at 65 s fromthe origin time of the earthquakes. For every station, we analyse the normalizedenergy in the three time widows as a function of the hypocentral distance. In order todetermine the attenuation parameters Qsc−1, Qi−1 and g with related errors, weimplement a Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. To guide the inversion, we use thesensitivity kernels for the attenuation parameters computed with our Monte-Carloapproach. Overall, Taiwan is more attenuating than most orogens with a mean effective scatteringloss (Qsc∗)−1 = Qsc−1(1 − g) about 0.012 and a mean intrinsic absorption Qi−1 about0.009 at 1.5 Hz. Our maps reveals strong lateral variations of attenuation with scale lengthfrom 10 to 100 km. Scattering loss (Qsc∗)−1 varies over more than one order of magnitudeacross Taiwan (between 0.0022 and 0.16 at 1.5 Hz). By contrast, absorption fluctuations areabout 30%. The more attenuating zones are the Coastal Range and the Costal Plain wherescattering dominates over absorption at low frequency, and inversely at high frequency. Theseregions are also characterized by strong backscattering (g < −0.85) at 1.5 Hz and ratherhigh V P∕V S ratio. Scattering becomes much more isotropic at high frequency.We speculate that the observed strong backscattering at low frequency is relatedto strong impedance fluctuations in the crust induced by the presence of fluids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]