Earthquakes heavily deform the crust in the vicinity of the fault, which leads to mass redistribution in the earth interior. Then it will produce the change of the Earth's rotation (polar motion and length of day) due to the change of Earth inertial moment. This paper adopts the elastic dislocation to compute the co-seismic polar motion and variation in length of day (LOD) caused by the 2011 Sumatra earthquake. The Earth's rotational axis shifted about 1mas and this earthquake decreased the length of day of 1μs, indicating the tendency of earthquakes make the Earth rounder and to pull the mass toward the centre of the Earth. The result of variation in length of day is one order of magnitude smaller than the observed results that are available. We also compared the results of three fault models and find the co-seismic change is depended on the fault model.
This study investigates data-processing methods and examines the precipitation effect on gravity measurements at the Dali gravity network, established in 2005. High-quality gravity data were collected during four measurement campaigns. To use the gravity data validly, some geophysical corrections must be considered carefully. We first discuss data-processing methods using weighted leastsquares adjustment with the constraint of the absolute gravity datum. Results indicate that the gravity precision can be improved if all absolute gravity data are used as constraints and if calibration functions of relative gravimeters are modeled within the observation function. Using this data-processing scheme, the mean point gravity precision is better than 12 lgal. After determining the best data-processing scheme, we then process the gravity data obtained in the four measurement campaigns, and obtain gravity changes in three time periods. Results show that the gravity has a remarkable change of more than 50 lgal in the first time period from Apr–May of 2005 to Aug–Sept of 2007. To interpret the large gravity change, a mean water mass change(0.6 m in height) is assumed in the ETOPO1 topographic model. Calculations of the precipitation effect on gravity show that it can reach the same order of the observed gravity change. It is regarded as a main source of the remarkable gravity change in the Dali gravity network, suggesting that the precipitation effect on gravity measurements must be considered carefully.
Data obtained by GRACE(Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) have been used to invert for the seismic source parameters of megathrust earthquakes under the assumption of either uniform slip over an entire fault or a point-like seismic source.Herein, we further extend the inversion of GRACE long-wavelength gravity changes to heterogeneous slip distributions during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake using three fault models:(Ⅰ) a constant-strike and constant-dip fault,(Ⅱ) a variable dip fault, and(Ⅲ) a realistically varying strike fault. By removing the post-seismic signal from the time series, and taking the effect of ocean water redistribution into account, we invert for slip models I, II, and III using co-seismic gravity changes measured by GRACE, de-striped by DDK3 decorrelation filter. The total seismic moments of our slip models, with respective values of 4.9×10^(22) Nm, 5.1×10^(22) Nm, and 5.0×10^(22) Nm, are smaller than those obtained by other studies relying on GRACE data. The resulting centroids are also located at greater depths(20 km, 19.8 km,and 17.4 km, respectively). By combining onshore GPS, GPS-Acoustic, and GRACE data, we obtain a jointly inverted slip model with a seismic moment of 4.8×10^(22) Nm, which is larger than the seismic moment obtained using only the GPS displacements. We show that the slip inverted from low degree space-borne gravimetric data, which contains information at the ocean region, is affected by the strike of the arcuate trench. The space-borne gravimetric data help us constrain the source parameters of a megathrust earthquake within the frame of heterogeneous slip models.
The complex geographical environment in China makes its gravity signals miscellaneous.This work gives a comprehensive representation and explanation in secular trend of gravity change in different regions,the key features of which include positive trend in inner Tibet Plateau and South China and negative trend in North China plain and high mountain Asia(HMA).We also present the patterns of amplitudes and phases of annual and semiannual change.The mechanism underlying the semiannual period is explicitly discussed.The displacement in three directions expressed in terms of geo-potential spherical coefficients and load Love numbers are given.A case study applied with these equations is presented.The results show that Global Positioning System(GPS) observations can be used to compare with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE) derived displacement and the vertical direction has a signal-noise-ratio of about one order of magnitude larger than the horizontal directions.
This paper reviews the recent advances in computing coseismic deformations,and their contributions to seismology and geodesy. At first,an overview on the history of the dislocation theory development is given in the introduction section. Then,emphasis are given on some new developments through few examples in the following sections,such as the new dislocation theory for a 3D Earth model,a new computing scheme on coseismic deflection change of vertical,the relation of dislocation Love number and the conventional Love numbers,the application of dislocation theory applied in satellite gravity observations,the coseismic deformations observed by GRACE,and a new method to determine dislocation Love numbers by GRACE. Furthermore,some advanced theoretical and cases studies are introduced to illustrate how dislocation theory is important in interpret geodetic data,or invert seismic slip for co- and post-seismic processes,using seismic and geodetic data. Final remarks are given in the last section,with discussions,conclusions,comments on existing problems,and expected methods to solve them.
