Intrinsic attenuation and scattering of shear waves in the lithosphere of Kamchatka

Abstract

Records of small local Kamchatka earthquakes were processed using Multiple Lapse Time Window Analysis (MLTWA). The method makes use of normalized integrals of 3D seismic energy density in several windows applied to an earthquake record that has been put through a bandpass filter. The intrinsic attenuation and scattering properties of the earth were estimated by choosing parameters that provide the best agreement between experimental and theoretical integrals as functions of hypocentral distance. The theoretical normalized integrals as functions of distance were computed using an analytical solution to the equation of seismic energy transport based on a simple model of isotropic scattering for scalar seismic waves excited by an impulse point source in an earth that is uniform as to scattering and intrinsic attenuation. The resulting estimates of attenuation and scattering parameters are similar to those derived in other studies of Kamchatka, as well as of other continents: America (California, US), Europe (the Canary Is., Spain, and Italy), and Asia (Japan).