Improvement of a model for seismic noise generated by sediment transport in rivers
Author:
Sarun AtiganyanunMentor:
Victor Tsai, Assistant Professor of Geophysics, California Institute of TechnologyMeasuring seismic noise is a promising way to study sediment transport in rivers, and thus a simple physical model for the seismic noise generated by sediment transport in rivers has been proposed. However, further improvement must be made to the model before it can be used. The project has identified three ways for improving the model. One way is to reconstruct the model, using fewer assumptions than used originally. A second way is to include a Love wave into the model where only a Rayleigh wave was included previously. A third way is to reconstruct the model for the Rayleigh wave using velocity data from observations. Our reconstruction of the Rayleigh wave which assumes homogeneity of the Earth's layers has shown that the contribution of the Rayleigh wave to the seismic noise is less significant than was previously predicted. On the other hand, our incorporation of the Love wave, and the reconstruction of the Rayleigh wave have shown that the Love wave's contribution is more significant than that of the Rayleigh wave by at least the factor of three. These results suggest that further research should be pursued to compare experimental data with our model to evaluate the model's validity and limitations.