High-rate GNSS data in seismic moment tensor inversion: application to anthropogenic earthquakes

Abstract

Earthquakes are traditionally monitored by seismic networks. However, the progress in high-rate Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations caused them to be included as a standard supplementary tool for strong natural earthquake monitoring. Here, we demonstrate that the displacement time series obtained with high-rate GNSS data can be included as a supplementary tool for the characterization of low-magnitude anthropogenic earthquakes to monitor the dangerous impact that such tremors may have on infrastructure. We analyzed two mining tremors with magnitudes of 3.7 and 4.0, respectively, and utilized the spectral amplitudes of seismic and high-rate GNSS observations in the seismic moment tensor calculation. Our study reveals that the high-rate GNSS time series can be successfully included in moment tensor calculations and might also be crucial if there is a lack of seismic data.

Keywords

• High-rate GNSS
• moment tensor inversion
• mining tremors
• anthropogenic earthquakes
• seismogeodesy