Synonyms
Definitions
Earthquake location. Methods for determining the latitude, longitude, depth, and time of origin of a seismic event (earthquake, explosion, etc.) using the arrival times of seismic waves.
Introduction
Knowing the location of an earthquake (its latitude, longitude, depth, and origin time) is an essential starting point for the vast majority of quantitative seismological analyses. In the context of this entry, earthquake location will be taken to mean determining the initiation point of fault rupture, i.e., the hypocenter. After briefly tracing some of the early history of methods for the quantitative determination of earthquake locations, the focus of discussion turns to modern methods for single-event location and uncertainty estimation. The final section covers multiple-event location, with an emphasis on the substantial to – in some cases – profound improvement in relative location accuracy that can be achieved by combining waveform...
Bibliography
Allen RV (1978) Automatic earthquake recognition and timing from single traces. Bull Seismol Soc Am 68:1521
Allen RV (1982) Automatic phase pickers: their present use and future prospects. Bull Seismol Soc Am 72:S225
Anderson BE, Griffa M, Larmat C, Ulrich TJ, Johnson PA (2008) Time reversal. Acoust Today 4:5
Artman B, Podladtchikov I, Witten B (2010) Source location using time-reverse imaging. Geophys Prospect 58:861
Aster R, Borchers B, Thurber C (2019) Parameter estimation and inverse problems, 3rd edn. Elsevier/Academic Press, Amsterdam
Battaglia J, Thurber C, Got J-L, Rowe C, White R (2004) Precise relocation of earthquakes following the June 15, 1991 explosion of mount Pinatubo (Philippines). J Geophys Res 109:B07302
Bergman EA, Engdahl ER (2001) Validation and generation of reference events by cluster analysis. Seism Res Lett 72:3
Billings SD (1994) Simulated annealing for earthquake location. Geophys J Int 118:680
Billings SD, Sambridge MS, Kennett BLN (1994) Errors in hypocenter location: picking, model, and magnitude dependence. Bull Seismol Soc Am 84:1978
Bolt BA (1960) The revision of earthquake epicentres, focal depths and origin times using a high-speed computer. Geophys J R Astron Soc 3:433
Bolt BA (2006) Earthquakes. W.H. Freeman, New York
Bondár I, McLaughlin K (2009) A new ground truth data set for seismic studies. Seismol Res Lett 80:465
Bratt SR, Bache TC (1988) Locating events with a sparse network of regional arrays. Bull Seismol Soc Am 78:780–798
Buland R (1976) The mechanics of locating earthquakes. Bull Seismol Soc Am 66:173
Buland R (1986) Uniform reduction error analysis. Bull Seismol Soc Am 76:217
Chang AC, Shumway RH, Blandford RR, Barker BW (1983) Two methods to improve location estimates – preliminary results. Bull Seismol Soc Am 73:281
Cichowicz A (1993) An automatic S-phase picker. Bull Seismol Soc Am 83:180
Deichmann N, Garcia-Fernandez M (1992) Rupture geometry from high precision relative hypocentre locations of microearthquake clusters. Geophys J Int 110:501–517
Diehl T, Deichmann N, Kissling E, Husen S (2009) Automatic S-wave picker for local earthquake tomography. Bull Seismol Soc Am 99:1906
Dodge DA, Beroza GC, Ellsworth WL (1995) Foreshock sequence of the 1992 landers, California, earthquake and its implications for earthquake nucleation. J Geophys Res 100:9865
Douglas A (1967) Joint epicenter determination. Nature 215:47
Draper NR, Smith H (1981) Applied regression analysis. Wiley, New York
Du W, Thurber CH, Eberhart-Phillips D (2004a) Earthquake relocation using cross-correlation time delay estimates verified with the bispectrum method. Bull Seismol Soc Am 94:856
Du W, Thurber CH, Reyners M, Eberhart-Phillips D, Zhang H (2004b) New constraints on seismicity in the Wellington region, New Zealand, from relocated earthquake hypocenters. Geophys J Int 158:1088
Earle P, Shearer PM (1994) Characterization of global seismograms using an automatic-picking algorithm. Bull Seismol Soc Am 84:366
Engdahl ER (2006) Application of an improved algorithm to high precision relocation of ISC test events. Phys Earth Planet Inter 158:14
Engdahl ER, van der Hilst R, Buland R (1998) Global teleseismic earthquake relocation with improved travel times and procedures for depth determination. Bull Seismol Soc Am 88:722
Evernden JF (1969) Precision of epicenters obtained by small numbers of world-wide stations. Bull Seismol Soc Am 59:1365
Flinn EA (1965) Confidence regions and error determinations for seismic event location. Rev Geophys 3:157
Font Y, Honn K, Lallemand S, Liu C, Chiao L (2004) Hypocentre determination offshore of eastern Taiwan using the maximum intersection method. Geophys J Int 158:655
Fremont M-J, Malone SD (1987) High-precision relative location of earthquakes at Mount St. Helens, Washington. J Geophys Res 92:10223
Geiger L (1910) Herdbestimmung bei erdbeden ans den ankunftzeiten. Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 4:331
Geiger L (1912) Probability method for the determination of earthquake epicenters from the arrival time only. Bull St Louis Univ 8:60
Gill PE, Murray W, Wright MH (1981) Practical optimization. Academic, New York
Gomberg JS, Shedlock KM, Roecker SW (1990) The effect of S-wave arrival times on the accuracy of hypocenter estimation. Bull Seismol Soc Am 80:1605
Got J-L, Frechet J, Klein F (1994) Deep fault plane geometry inferred from multiplet relative relocation beneath the south flank of Kilauea. J Geophys Res 99:15375
Husen S, Hardebeck JL (2010) Earthquake location accuracy. Community Online Res Stat Seismicity Anal. https://doi.org/10.5078/corssa-55815573
Jeffreys H (1939) Theory of probability. Oxford University Press, London
Jordan TH, Sverdrup KA (1981) Teleseismic location techniques and their application to earthquake clusters in the south-Central Pacific. Bull Seismol Soc Am 71:1105
Kennett BLN, Engdahl ER, Buland R (1995) Constraints on seismic velocities in the earth from travel times. Geophys J Int 122:108
Klein FW (1978) Hypocenter location program HYPOINVERSE. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78–694, p 113
Larmat C, Clay CS (2019) Time reversal methods. Springer, Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics
Leonard M (2000) Comparison of manual and automatic onset time picking. Bull Seismol Soc Am 90:1384
Leonard M, Kennett BLN (1999) Multi-component autoregressive techniques for the analysis of seismograms. Phys Earth Planet Inter 113:247
Lomax A, Virieux J, Volant P, Berge C (2000) Probabilistic earthquake location in 3D and layered models: introduction of a Metropolis-Gibbs method and comparison with linear locations. In: Thurber CH, Rabinowitz N (eds) Advances in seismic event location. Kluwer, Amsterdam, pp 101–134
Maeda N (1985) A method for reading and checking phase times in autoprocessing system of seismic wave data. Zisin Jishin 38:365
McMechan GA (1982) Determination of source parameters by wavefield extrapolation. Geophys J R Astron Soc 71:613
Milne J (1886) Earthquakes and other earth movements. Appleton, New York
Myers SC, Johannesson G, Hanley W (2007) A Bayesian hierarchical method for multiple-event seismic location. Geophys J Int 171:1049
Parvulescu A, Clay CS (1965) Reproducibility of signal transmission in the ocean. Radio Electron Eng 29:223
Pavlis GL (1986) Appraising earthquake hypocenter location errors: a complete, practical approach for single event locations. Bull Seismol Soc Am 76:1699
Pavlis GL (1992) Appraising relative earthquake location errors. Bull Seismol Soc Am 82:836
Pesicek JD, Thurber CH, Zhang H, DeShon HR, Engdahl ER, Widiyantoro S (2010) Teleseismic double-difference relocation of earthquakes along the Sumatra-Andaman subduction zone with a three-dimensional model using a 3-D model. J Geophys Res 115:B10303. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JB007443
Pesicek JD, Child D, Artman B, Cieślik K (2014) Picking versus stacking in a modern microearthquake location: comparison of results from a surface passive seismic monitoring array in Oklahoma. Geophysics 79:KS61–KS68
Phillips WS, Hartse HE, Steck LK (2001) Precise relative location of 25 ton chemical explosions at Balapan using IMS stations. Pure Appl Geophys 158:173
Poupinet G, Ellsworth WL, Fréchet J (1984) Monitoring velocity variations in the crust using earthquake doublets: an application to the Calaveras fault, California. J Geophys Res 89:5719
Pujol J (2000) Joint event location: the JHD technique and applications to data from local seismic networks. In: Advances in seismic event location. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 71–99
Rabinowitz N (1988) Microearthquake location by means of nonlinear simplex procedure. Bull Seismol Soc Am 78:380
Rodi WL (2006) Grid-search event location with non-Gaussian error models. Phys Earth Planet Inter 158:55
Rodi WL, Myers SC (2007) Modeling travel-time correlations based on sensitivity kernels and correlated velocity anomalies. In: Proceedings of the 29th monitoring research review: ground-based nuclear explosion monitoring technologies, Denver, 25–27 Sept
Rowe CA, Aster RC, Borchers B, Young CJ (2002a) An automatic, adaptive algorithm for refining phase picks in large seismic data sets. Bull Seismol Soc Am 92:1660
Rowe CA, Aster RC, Phillips WS, Jones RH, Borchers B, Fehler MC (2002b) Using automated, high-precision repicking to improve delineation of microseismic structures at the Soultz geothermal reservoir. Pure Appl Geophys 159:536
Rowe CA, Thurber CH, White RA (2004) Dome growth behavior at Soufriere Hills volcano, Montserrat, revealed by relocation of volcanic event swarms, 1995–1996. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 134:199
Rowlett H, Forsyth DW (1984) Microearthquakes and recent faulting at the intersection of the Vema fracture zone and the mid-Atlantic ridge. J Geophys Res 89:6079
Rubin AM, Gillard D, Got J-L (1998) A reinterpretation of seismicity associated with the January 1983 dike intrusion at Kilauea volcano, Hawaii. J Geophys Res 103:10003
Rubin AM, Gillard D, Got J (1999) Streaks of microearthquakes along creeping faults. Nature 400:635
Ruud BO, Husebye ES (1992) A new three-component detector and automatic single station bulletin production. Bull Seismol Soc Am 82:221
Sambridge M, Gallagher K (1993) Earthquake hypocenter location using genetic algorithms. Bull Seismol Soc Am 83:1467
Sambridge MS, Kennett BLN (1986) A novel method for hypocentre location. Geophys J R Astron Soc 87:679
Satriano C, Lomax A, Zollo A (2008) Real-time evolutionary earthquake location for seismic early warning. Bull Seismol Soc Am 98:1482
Schaff DP, Richards PG (2004) Repeating seismic events in China. Science 303:1176
Schaff DP, Bokelmann GHR, Beroza GC, Waldhauser F, Ellsworth WL (2002) High-resolution image of Calaveras fault seismicity. J Geophys Res 107:2186
Schöffel H-J, Das S (1999) Fine details of the Wadati-Benioff zone under Indonesia and its geodynamic implications. J Geophys Res 104:13101
Shearer PM (1997) Improving local earthquake locations using the L1 norm and waveform cross correlation: application to the Whittier narrows, California, aftershock sequence. J Geophys Res 102:8269
Sleeman R, van Eck T (1999) Robust automatic P-phase picking: an on-line implementation in the analysis of broadband seismogram recordings. Phys Earth Planet Inter 113:265
Slunga R, Rögnvaldsson ST, Böðvarsson R (1995) Absolute and relative locations of similar events with application to microearthquakes in southern Iceland. Geophys J Int 123:409
Sumiejski L, Thurber C, DeShon H (2009) Relocation of earthquake families associated with the 2006 eruption of Augustine volcano using the equal differential time method. Geophys J Int 176:1017
Thurber CH (1985) Nonlinear earthquake location: theory and examples. Bull Seismol Soc Am 75:779
Thurber CH, Engdahl ER (2000) Advances in global seismic event location. In: Thurber C, Rabinowitz N (eds) Advances in seismic event location. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 3–22
Thurber C, Trabant C, Haslinger F, Hartog R (2001) Nuclear explosion locations at the Balapan, Kazakhstan, nuclear test site: the effects of high-precision arrival times and three-dimensional structure. Phys Earth Planet Inter 123:283
Thurber C, Roecker S, Zhang H, Baher S, Ellsworth W (2004) Fine-scale structure of the San Andreas fault and location of the SAFOD target earthquakes. Geophys Res Lett 31:L12S02
Vidale JE (1986) Complex polarization analysis of particle motion. Bull Seismol Soc Am 76:1393–1405
Waldhauser F, Ellsworth WL (2000) A double-difference earthquake location algorithm: method and application to the northern Hayward fault, California. Bull Seismol Soc Am 90:1353
Waldhauser F, Schaff DP (2008) Large-scale relocation of two decades of Northern California seismicity using cross-correlation and double-difference methods. J Geophys Res 113:B08311
Waldhauser F, Ellsworth WL, Cole A (1999) Slip-parallel seismic lineations on the Hayward fault and the San Andreas fault near Parkfield, California. Geophys Res Lett 70:246
Wang J, Teng T (1997) Identification and picking of S phase using an artificial neural network. Bull Seismol Soc Am 87:1140
Wilcock WS, Toomey DR (1991) Estimating hypocentral uncertainties for marine microearthquake surveys: a comparison of the generalized inverse and grid search methods. Mar Geophys Res 13:161
Wolfe CJ (2002) On the mathematics of using difference operators to relocate earthquakes. Bull Seismol Soc Am 92:2879
Zhang H, Thurber C, Rowe C (2003) Automatic P-wave arrival detection and picking with multiscale wavelet analysis for single-component recordings. Bull Seismol Soc Am 93:1904
Zhou H-W (1994) Rapid three-dimensional hypocentral determination using a master station method. J Geophys Res 99:15439
Zoback MD, Hickman S, Ellsworth WL (2011) Scientific drilling into the San Andreas fault zone – an overview of SAFOD’s first five years. Sci Drill 11:14
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Thurber, C.H. (2019). Earthquakes: Location Techniques. In: Gupta, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10475-7_25-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10475-7_25-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-10475-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-10475-7
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Earthquakes, Location Techniques- Published:
- 08 September 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10475-7_25-2
-
Original
Earthquakes: Location Techniques- Published:
- 24 January 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10475-7_25-1