The Doppler effect induced by earthquakes: A case study of the Wenchuan MS8.0 earthquake

Abstract

Seismologists have found that the first arrival frequencies of P waves at different seismic stations have different widths, that is, different periods or frequencies, and they think that this phenomenon can be used to identify whether a Doppler effect is induced by earthquakes. However, the fault rupture process of a real earthquake is so complex that it is difficult to identify a frequency shift similar to the Doppler effect. A method to identify whether a Doppler effect is induced by an earthquake is proposed here. If a seismic station is in the direction of fault rupture propagation, this station could observe a Doppler effect induced by the earthquake. The Doppler effect causes the frequency of the seismic wave to shift from low frequency to high frequency, and the high frequency amplitudes become mutually superimposed. Under the combined influences of the absorption effect, geometric spreading effect and Doppler effect, the high frequency amplitude of the seismic wave will gradually become higher than the low frequency amplitude with increasing epicentral distance. If we find that the high frequency amplitude is higher than the low frequency amplitude with increasing epicentral distance in the direction of fault rupture propagation, then there is a Doppler effect. The fault that generated the Wenchuan earthquake is a reverse fault, and its horizontal rupture propagation velocity was low. To link fault rupture propagation velocity with the Doppler effect and identify the Doppler effect more easily, we decompose three-component records into two directions: the direction of fault rupture propagation and the direction perpendicular to the fault rupture propagation along the fault plane. The initial components of the two directions are processed by wavelet transform. Several seismic stations in the direction of fault rupture propagation of the Wenchuan earthquake were selected, and it was found that with increasing epicentral distance, the high frequency amplitudes of the wavelet spectra become obviously higher than the low frequency amplitudes. It can be concluded that due to the existence of the Doppler effect, high frequency amplitudes can overcome the influences of the absorption and geometric spreading effects on seismic waves in the fault rupture propagation process.