Seismic velocity variations along the rupture zone of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, California

[1] We revisit the rupture zone of the 1989 Mw6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake, central California, by developing high-resolution three-dimensional (3-D)Vp and Vp/Vs models. We apply the simul2000 inversion method and algorithm to a set of “composite” events, which have greater number of picks per event and reduced random picking errors compared with traditional master events. Our final P-wave velocity model generally agrees with previous studies, showing a high velocity body of above 6.7 km/s in the southeast rupture zone of the main shock. The 3-DVp/Vs model, however, has different features, with low Vp/Vs in the upper crust and high Vp/Vs anomalies in deeper layers of the rupture zone. We interpret the low Vp/Vs at shallow depths to be granitic rocks, whereas at greater depths the areas of higher Vp/Vs(around 1.725–1.75) presumably are mafic rocks. The resulting 3-D velocity model was used to improve absolute locations for all local events between 1984 and 2010 in our study area. We then applied a similar event cluster analysis, waveform cross-correlation, and differential time relocation methods to improve relative event location accuracy. Over 88% of the seismicity falls into similar event clusters. A dramatic sharpening of seismicity patterns is obtained after using these methods. The medians of the relative location uncertainties calculated by using the bootstrap approach are 5 m for horizontal and 8 m for vertical. Differential times from cross-correlation are used to estimatein situnear-sourceVp/Vsratio within each event cluster. The high-resolutionVp/Vs method confirms the trend of the velocity variations from the tomographic results, although absolute values are slightly different.