Geophysical Imaging of Earth Processes: Electromagnetic Induction in Rough Geologic Media, and Back-Projection Imaging of Earthquake Aftershocks
| dc.contributor.author | Beskardes, Gungor Didem | en |
| dc.contributor.committeechair | Hole, John A. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Zhou, Ying | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Chapman, Martin C. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Spotila, James A. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Weiss, Chester J. | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Geosciences | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-06-05T08:00:23Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2017-06-05T08:00:23Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2017-06-04 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation focuses on two different types of responses of Earth; that is, seismic and electromagnetic, and aims to better understand Earth processes at a wider range of scales than those conventional approaches offer. Electromagnetic responses resulting from the subsurface diffusion of applied electromagnetic fields through heterogeneous geoelectrical structures are utilized to characterize the underlying geology. Geology exhibits multiscale hierarchical structure which brought about by almost all geological processes operating across multiple length scales and the relationship between multiscale electrical properties of underlying geology and the observed electromagnetic response has not yet been fully understood. To quantify this relationship, the electromagnetic responses of textured and spatially correlated, stochastic geologic media are herein presented. The modelling results demonstrate that the resulting electromagnetic responses present a power law distribution, rather than a smooth response polluted with random, incoherent noise as commonly assumed; moreover, they are examples of fractional Brownian motion. Furthermore, the results indicate that the fractal behavior of electromagnetic responses is correlated with the degree of the spatial correlation, the contrasts in ground electrical conductivity, and the preferred orientation of small-scale heterogeneity. In addition, these inferences are also supported by the observed electromagnetic responses from a fault zone comprising different lithological units and varying wavelengths of geologic heterogeneity. Seismic signals generated by aftershocks are generally recorded by local aftershock networks consisted of insufficient number of stations which result in strongly spatially-aliased aftershock data. This limits aftershock detections and locations at smaller magnitudes. Following the 23 August 2011 Mineral, Virginia earthquake, to drastically reduce spatial aliasing, a temporary dense array (AIDA) consisting of ~200 stations at 200-400 m spacing was deployed near the epicenter to record the 12 days of the aftershocks. The backprojection imaging method is applied to the entire AIDA dataset to detect and locate aftershocks. The method takes advantage of staking of many seismograms and improves the signal-to-noise ratio for detection. The catalog obtained from the co-deployed, unusually large temporal traditional network of 36 stations enabled a quantitative comparison. The aftershock catalog derived from the dense AIDA array and the backprojection indicates event detection an order of magnitude smaller including events as small as M–1.8. The catalog is complete to magnitude –1.0 while the traditional network catalog was complete to M–0.27 for the same time period. The AIDA backprojection catalog indicate the same major patterns of seismicity in the epicentral region, but additional details are revealed indicating a more complex fault zone and a new shallow cluster. The b-value or the temporal decay constant were not changed by inclusion of the small events; however, they are different for two completeness periods and are different at shallow depth than greater depth. | en |
| dc.description.abstractgeneral | This dissertation revolves around two ends of geophysics: seismology and electromagnetics. The electromagnetic method of exploration geophysics aims to characterize the underlying geology by evaluating the electromagnetic responses resulting from the interaction between the applied electromagnetic fields and the subsurface electrical properties. In case of rough geology comprising heterogeneity at every scale, the electromagnetic responses are more complicated than the response of a piecewise smooth Earth structure. Most analyses treat the responses of small-scale heterogeneities as random, uncorrelated noise. Here, more realistic geologic models comprising spatially-correlated, fine-scale heterogeneities are incorporated into electromagnetic modeling to better understand the relationship between the causative multiscale geoelectrical heterogeneities and the electromagnetic responses. The numerical results indicate that these electromagnetic responses are not random as commonly assumed, in contrast, they are repeatable and fractally distributed presenting spatial fluctuations that appear on all length scales. Moreover, the numerical results indicate that the fractal behavior of electromagnetic responses is correlated with the degree of the spatial correlation, the contrasts in ground electrical conductivity, and the preferred orientation of small-scale heterogeneity. In addition, the analysis of the observed electromagnetic responses from a fault zone comprising multiscale heterogeneity also support these inferences. Seismic signals generated by aftershocks are generally recorded by local aftershock networks consisted of insufficient number of stations which result in strongly spatially-aliased aftershock data. This limits aftershock detections and locations at smaller magnitudes. Following the 23 August 2011 Mineral, Virginia earthquake, to drastically reduce spatial aliasing, a temporary dense array (AIDA) consisting of ∼200 stations at 200-400 m spacing was deployed near the epicenter to record the 12 days of the aftershocks. The backprojection imaging method is applied to the entire AIDA dataset to detect and locate aftershocks. The method takes advantage of summing of many seismograms and improves the signal-to-noise ratio for detection. The catalog obtained from the co-deployed, unusually large temporal traditional network of 36 stations enabled a quantitative comparison. The aftershock catalog derived from the dense AIDA array and the backprojection indicates event detection an order of magnitude smaller. The AIDA backprojection catalog indicate the same major patterns of seismicity in the epicentral region, but additional details are revealed indicating a more complex fault zone and a new shallow cluster. The decay of aftershock rate and the distribution of earthquakes with respect to the magnitude do not show a significant change by inclusion of the small events; however, they differ at shallow and greater depth, and for different completeness periods. | en |
| dc.description.degree | Ph. D. | en |
| dc.format.medium | ETD | en |
| dc.identifier.other | vt_gsexam:11085 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/77891 | en |
| dc.publisher | Virginia Tech | en |
| dc.rights | In Copyright | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | Electromagnetic induction | en |
| dc.subject | Numerical Modeling | en |
| dc.subject | Multiscale heterogeneity | en |
| dc.subject | Backprojection imaging | en |
| dc.subject | Dense arrays | en |
| dc.subject | Virginia earthquake | en |
| dc.title | Geophysical Imaging of Earth Processes: Electromagnetic Induction in Rough Geologic Media, and Back-Projection Imaging of Earthquake Aftershocks | en |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Geosciences | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | en |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph. D. | en |
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