Details of ES3105 (Autumn 2020)

Level: 3 Type: Theory Credits: 4.0

Course CodeCourse NameInstructor(s)
ES3105 Seismology Supriyo Mitra

Syllabus
Study of earthquake source, excitation of seismic waves and its propagation through the Earth.
Concept of stress and strain in 3-D: stress and strain tensors, Eigen value problem: computing the
principal axes of stress and strain, the linear stress-strain relationship and elastic tensor, seismic
body wave velocities in terms of Lame parameters. The seismic wave equation and solutions: The
momentum equation, the seismic wave equation, solutions to the wave equation, polarizations of Pand S-waves. Seismic Ray theory: The eikonal equation, travel times, Snells law, ray paths for
laterally homogeneous models, ray tracing through velocity gradients, travel time curves and delay
times, reduced velocity, the ?(p) function, low-velocity zones, spherical-Earth ray tracing, the Earthflattening transformation, ray nomenclature, crustal phases, whole Earth phases, global body-wave
observations. Ray theory: Amplitude and phase: Energy in seismic waves, geometrical spreading in 1-
D velocity models, reflection and transmission coefficients, SH-wave reflection and transmission
coefficients, vertical incidence coefficients, energy-normalized coefficients, dependence on ray
angle, turning points and Hilbert transforms, matrix methods for modeling plane waves, attenuation,
Earths attenuation, observing Q, Seismic attenuation and global politics. Reflection seismology:
Velocity analysis, Receiver functions, Kirchhoff theory and migration, statics corrections, Huygens
principle, diffraction hyperbolas , migration methods, zero-offset sections, common midpoint
stacking , sources and deconvolution, migration. Surface waves and normal modes: Love waves,
Solution for a single layer, Rayleigh waves, dispersion, global surface waves, observing surface
waves, normal modes. Earthquakes and source theory: Non-double-couple sources, Greens
functions and the moment tensor, Earthquake faults, Radiation patterns and beach balls, Example:

Plotting a focal mechanism, far-field pulse shapes, directivity, source spectra, Empirical Greens
functions, stress drop, self-similar earthquake scaling, radiated seismic energy, earthquake energy
partitioning, earthquake magnitude, the b-value, the intensity scale, finite slip modeling, the heat
flow paradox. Earthquake prediction: The earthquake cycle, earthquake triggering, searching for
precursors, are earthquakes unpredictable?

Prerequisite
NOTE: This course is a PRE REQUISITE for the Seismology Laboratory course of spring

For this course, the pre requisites are all DES courses of first and second years.

References
Textbooks:

1. Introduction to Seismology, 2nd Ed., by Peter M. Shearer, 2009, Cambridge University Press.
2. An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure by Seth Stein, Michael
Wysession, January 1991, Wiley-Blackwell

Course Credit Options

Sl. No.ProgrammeSemester NoCourse Choice
1 IP 1 Elective
2 IP 3 Not Allowed
3 IP 5 Not Allowed
4 MR 1 Not Allowed
5 MR 3 Not Allowed
6 MS 5 Core
7 MS 7 Not Allowed
8 MS 9 Not Allowed
9 RS 1 Not Allowed
10 RS 2 Not Allowed