Seven thousand seismograms of small earthquakes in the Mammoth Lakes‐Bishop area were used to measure values of Q from the decay of the earthquake coda. These measurements were compared between events that occurred before and after the Round Valley earthquake (M=5.7). We found that in regions near the main shock epicenter, measurements of coda Q−1 for earthquakes that occurred after the main shock were higher than for those earthquakes that occurred prior to the main shock. The opposite behavior was found for regions farther away from the main shock, namely, lower coda Q−1 after the main shock than before. Measurements of coda Q−1 in the Long Valley caldera, outside of the immediate source region of the earthquake, were higher than in surrounding areas before the main shock, but the difference disappeared after the occurrence of the main shock. This indicates that the temporal variation in coda Q−1 is comparable to its spatial variation. The doughnut model (seismicity quiescence surrounded by a zone of activity) which was invoked for explaining the precursory seismicity pattern appears to be similar with the observed coda Q−1 variation associated with the Round Valley earthquake. The observed spatial variations in coda Q−1 also help to reconcile conflicting results published in previous studies of the coda Q−1 precursor.
Abstract~oda wave data from California microearthquakes were studied in order to delineate regional fluctuations of apparent crustal attenuation in the band 1.5 to 24 Hz. Apparent attenuation was estimated using a single back scattering model of coda waves. The coda wave data were restricted to < 30 s following the origin time; this insures that crustal effects dominate the results as the backscattered shear waves thought to form the coda would not have had time to penetrate much deeper. Results indicate a strong variation in apparent crustal attenuation at high frequencies between the Franciscan and Salinian regions of central California and the Long Valley area of the Sierra Nevada. Although the coda Q measurements coincide at 1.5 Hz (Qc = 100), at 24 Hz there is a factor of four difference between the measurements made in Franciscan (Qc = 525) and Long Valley (Qc = 2100) with the Salinian midway between (Qc = 900). These are extremely large variations compared to measures of seismic velocities of comparable resolution, demonstrating the exceptional sensitivity of the high frequency coda Q measurement to regional geology. In addition, the frequency trend of the results is opposite to that seen in a compilation of coda Q measurements made worldwide by other authors which tend to converge at high and diverge at low frequencies, however, the worldwide results generally were obtained without limiting the coda lengths and probably reflect upper mantle rather than crustal properties. Our results match those expected due to scattering in random media represented by Von Karman autocorrelation functions of orders 1/2 to 1/3. The Von Karman medium of order 1/3 corresponding to the Franciscan coda Q measurement contains greater amounts of high wavenumber fluctuations. This indicates relatively large medium fluctuations with wavelengths on the order of 100 m in the highly deformed crust associated with the Franciscan, however, the influence of scattering on the coda Q measurement is currently a matter of controversy.
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