Earthquake relocation using a 3D a-priori geological velocity model from the western Alps to Corsica: Implication for seismic hazard

Description

The region between the inner zones of the Alps and Corsica juxtaposes an overthickened crust to an oceanic domain, which makes difficult to ascertain the focal depth of seismic events using routine location codes and average 1D velocity models. The aim of this article is to show that, even with a rather lose monitoring network, accurate routine locations can be achieved by using realistic 3D modelling and advanced location techniques. Previous earthquake tomography studies cover the whole region with spatial resolutions of several tens of kilometres on land, but they fail to resolve the marine domain due to the absence of station coverage and sparse seismicity. To overcome these limitations, we first construct a 3D a-priori P and S velocity model integrating known geophysical and geological information. Significant progress has been achieved in the 3D numerical modelling of complex geological structures by the development of dedicated softwares (e.g. 3D GeoModeller), capable at once of elaborating a 3D structural model from geological and geophysical constraints and, possibly, of refining it by inversion processes (Calcagno et al., 2008). Then, we build an arrival-time catalogue of 1500 events recorded from 2000 to 2011. Hypocentres are then located in this model using a numerical code based on the maximum intersection method (Font et al., 2004), updated by Theunissen et al. (2012), as well as another 3D location technique, the NonLinLoc software (Lomax and Curtis, 2001). The reduction of arrival-time residuals and uncertainties (dh, dz) with respect to classical 1D locations demonstrates the improved accuracy allowed by our approach and confirms the coherence of the 3D geological model built and used in this study. Our results are also compared with previous works that benefitted from the installation of dense temporary networks surrounding the studied epicentre area.The resulting 3D location catalogue allows us to improve the regional seismic hazard assessment, more particularly in the south of the Argentera massif and in the Ligurian basin.

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