Anisotropic elastic parameter estimation from multicomponent ground-motion observations: a theoretical study

Abstract

SUMMARY We investigate the potential of multicomponent, single-point ground-motion observations (displacement, rotation and strain) to allow the estimation of near-receiver anisotropic elastic parameters. Based on full-space, plane-wave propagation analysis, we demonstrate that in (locally homogeneous) anisotropic media, the wave propagation direction and the velocities of quasi-P and quasi-S waves can—in principle—be determined from three components of displacements and three components of rotations. Mimicking the situation of a borehole setting, we formulate an inverse problem, estimating the full elastic tensor from multidirectional observations. We show that in the presence of noise it is beneficial to observe additionally a longitudinal strain component (e.g. along the borehole), further constraining the predominantly quasi-P related elastic tensor components.