IGPP is pleased to invite you to join its Virtual Seminar Series presentation featuring Dr. Tianze Liu. Dr. Liu's talk, "Imaging the lithosphere with Virtual Deep Seismic Sounding (VDSS)" will be available via Zoom on Tuesday, May 19, starting at 12:30pm. Zoom registration is available through here: https://ucsd.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJErcumuqzkqHdbJh89cuf_UugDu6jRtRCiW
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Time: 12:30 pm, Pacific Time
Note: This meeting will be recorded.
Abstract: In traditional reflection seismology, scientists deploy artificial sources at the surface and use them to image the
earth’s interior. By contract, in Virtual Deep Seismic Sounding (VDSS), we use “virtual sources” generated by natural earthquakes to achieve the same goal. In this talk, I will present the fundamental ideas of VDSS and how to apply it to the study of lithospheric structures. I will show that, with VDSS alone, we can derive the uppermostmantle Vp at the VDSS reflection point, and by combining VDSS and traditional P receiver functions, we could constrain the average crustal Vp/Vs ratio, a key parameter closely related to the average composition of the crust. I will also demonstrate the challenges of applying VDSS in a heterogeneous lithosphere and introduce a simple raytheory-based back-projection method that can successfully image the Moho geometry with VDSS in the presence of moderate lateral heterogeneity.