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Detection of the Time-Dependent Gravity Field and Global Change

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Book cover Global Dynamics of the Earth: Applications of Viscoelastic Relaxation Theory to Solid-Earth and Planetary Geophysics

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Abstract

In this chapter we consider the effects on \(\dot{J}_{\ell }\) due to both the deglaciation of the Pleistocene and present-day ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland. The secular drift up to degree 6 from time series of the zonal coefficients of the Earth’s gravity field from Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) data are compared with predictions from viscoelastic Earth’s models forced by PGR, to infer the mantle viscosity and the present-day ice instabilities in Antarctica and Greenland. The cumulative effects of the spherical harmonic perturbations on the gravity field is analyzed on the basis of the GRACE space gravity mission, to enlighten the importance of a precise PGR modeling for a correct interpretation of the anomalous gravity pattern from GRACE. Global deformation patterns from PGR are shown, in terms of vertical and horizontal displacements. We show how it is possible to make use of GRACE data to develop a new branch of seismology, which we name “gravitational” seismology, to retrieve the source parameters of giant, thrust earthquakes at subduction zones, as the Sumatran, 2004, and Tohoku-Oki, 2011, earthquakes. We develop the Gravitational Centroid Moment Tensor solution (GCMT) for a point source, for the Tohoku-Oki earthquake, comparing it with classical solutions from wave seismology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Geophysics, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Roberto Sabadini

  2. University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Bert Vermeersen

  3. NIOZ/Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Bert Vermeersen

  4. University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Gabriele Cambiotti

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  1. Roberto Sabadini
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  2. Bert Vermeersen
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  3. Gabriele Cambiotti
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Correspondence to Roberto Sabadini .

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Sabadini, R., Vermeersen, B., Cambiotti, G. (2016). Detection of the Time-Dependent Gravity Field and Global Change. In: Global Dynamics of the Earth: Applications of Viscoelastic Relaxation Theory to Solid-Earth and Planetary Geophysics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7552-6_5

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