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Probing the in situ Elastic Nonlinearity of Rocks with Earth Tides and Seismic Noise

Christoph Sens-Schönfelder and Tom Eulenfeld
Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 138501 – Published 5 April 2019
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Abstract

Heterogeneous materials such as rocks, concrete, and granular materials exhibit a strong elastic nonlinearity. The sensitivity of the elastic nonlinearity to the applied stress and pore pressure in principle allows the use of seismic waves for remote observations of stress or pore pressure changes. Yet the nonlinearity of rocks is difficult to quantify in situ as active deformation tests are not possible in the field. We investigate the elastic nonlinearity in a fully natural experiment using the ambient seismic noise of a single seismic station to sense changes of the seismic velocity in the subsurface reaching 0.026% in response to the minute deformation caused by various constituents of the tidal forces exerted by the Sun and Moon.

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  • Received 9 October 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.138501

© 2019 American Physical Society

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General PhysicsInterdisciplinary Physics

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Seismic Waves Feel the Moon’s Tug

Published 5 April 2019

Seismic measurements reveal the influences of lunar gravitational forces and solar heat on the properties of rocks.

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Authors & Affiliations

Christoph Sens-Schönfelder*

  • Helmholtz Centre Potsdam—GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, 14473, Germany

Tom Eulenfeld

  • Institute of Geosciences, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, 07749, Germany

  • *sens-schoenfelder@gfz-potsdam.de

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Issue

Vol. 122, Iss. 13 — 5 April 2019

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