High-resolution surface-wave tomography from ambient seismic noise

Science. 2005 Mar 11;307(5715):1615-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1108339.

Abstract

Cross-correlation of 1 month of ambient seismic noise recorded at USArray stations in California yields hundreds of short-period surface-wave group-speed measurements on interstation paths. We used these measurements to construct tomographic images of the principal geological units of California, with low-speed anomalies corresponding to the main sedimentary basins and high-speed anomalies corresponding to the igneous cores of the major mountain ranges. This method can improve the resolution and fidelity of crustal images obtained from surface-wave analyses.