Spectral element analysis on the characteristics of seismic wave propagation triggered by Wenchuan M_s8.0 earthquake

作     者：YAN ZhenZhen ZHANG Huai YANG ChangChun SHI YaoLin 

作者机构：Institute of Geology and GeophysicsChinese Academy of SciencesBeijing 100029China Laboratory of Computational GeodynamicsGraduate University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing 100049China 

出 版 物：《Science China Earth Sciences》 (中国科学（地球科学英文版）)

年 卷 期：2009年第52卷第6期

页      面：764-773页

核心收录：

学科分类：070801[理学-固体地球物理学] 07[理学] 0708[理学-地球物理学] 

基　　金：National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2004CB418406) National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40774049 and 40474038) Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. INF105-SCE-02-12) 

主　　题：Wenchuan earthquake spectral element method numerical simulation global seismic wave parallel computing 

摘      要：The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake occurred in an active earthquake zone, i.e., Longmenshan tectonic zone. Seismic waves triggered by this earthquake can be used to explore the characteristics of the fault rupture process and the hierarchical structure of the Earth s interior. We employ spectral element method incorporated with large-scale parallel computing technology, to investigate the characteristics of seismic wave propagation excited by Wenchuan earthquake. We calculate synthetic seismograms with one-point source model and three-point source model respectively. The AK135 model is employed as a prototype of our numerical global Earth model. The Earth s ellipticity, Earth’s medium attenuation, and topography data are taken into consideration. These wave propagation processes are simulated by solving three-dimensional elastic wave governing equations. Three-dimensional visualization of our numerical results displays the profile of the seismic wave propagation. The three-point source, which is proposed from the latest investigations through field observation and reverse estimation, can better demonstrate the spatial and temporal characteristics of the source rupture process than the one-point source. We take comparison of synthetic seismograms with observational data recorded at 16 observatory stations. Primary results show that the synthetic seismograms calculated from three-point source agree well with the observations. This can further reveal that the source rupture process of Wenchuan earthquake is a multi-rupture process, which is composed by at least three or more stages of rupture processes.