On the full-waveform inversion of seismic moment tensors

• Published in: International journal of solids and structures Vol. 202; pp. 717 - 728
• Main Authors: Amad, Alan A.S., Novotny, Antonio A., Guzina, Bojan B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Acoustic emission; Elastic bodies; Elastic properties; Inverse source problem; Mathematical analysis; Multiple sources; Reconstruction; Seismic activity; Seismic moment tensor; Seismic surveys; Tensors; Waveform inversion; Waveforms; Acoustic emission; Multiple sources; Seismic moment tensor; Inverse source problem; Waveform inversion
• ISSN: 0020-7683; 1879-2146
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2020.06.012

In this work, we propose a full-waveform technique for the spatial reconstruction and characterization of (micro-) seismic events via joint source location and moment tensor inversion. The approach is formulated in the frequency domain, and it allows for the simultaneous inversion of multiple point-like events. In the core of the proposed methodology is a grid search for the source locations that encapsulates the optimality condition on the respective moment tensors. The developments cater for compactly supported elastic bodies in R2; however our framework is directly extendable to inverse (seismic) source problems in R3 involving both bounded and unbounded elastic domains. A set of numerical results, targeting laboratory applications, is included to illustrate the performance of the inverse solution in situations involving: (i) reconstruction of multiple events, (ii) sparse (pointwise) boundary measurements, (iii) “off-grid” location of the micro-seismic events, and (iv) inexact knowledge of the medium’s elastic properties.