A study was undertaken to evaluate an automated process to invert for seismic moment tensors from seismic data recorded in mining environments. The data for this study was recorded at Nickel Rim South mine, Sudbury, Ontario. The mine has a seismic monitoring system manufactured by ESG Solutions that performs continuous monitoring of seismicity. On average, approximately 400 seismic events are recorded each day. Currently, data are automatically processed by ESG Solution's software suite during acquisition. The automatic processors pick the P- and/or S-wave arrivals, locate the events and solve for certain source parameters, excluding the seismic moment tensor. In order to solve for the moment tensor, data must be manually processed, which is laborious and therefore seldom performed. This research evaluates an automatic seismic moment tensor inversion method and demonstrates some of the difficulties (through inversions of real and synthetic seismic data) of the inversion process. Results using the method are also compared to the inversion method currently available from ESG Solutions, which requires the manual picking of first-motion polarities for every event. As a result of the extensive synthetic testing of the automatic inversion program, as well as the inversion of real seismic data, it is apparent that there are key parameters requiring greater accuracy in order to increase the reliability of the automation. These parameters include the source time function definition, source location (in turn requiring more accurate and precise knowledge of the earth media), arrival time picks and an attenuation model to account for ray-path dependent filtering of the source time function. In order to improve the automatic method three key pieces of research are needed: (1) studying various location algorithms (and the effects of increasing earth model intricacy) and automatic time picking to improve source location methods, (2) studying how the source time pulse can be accurately extracted from the seismic records, as well as the validity of various source models, and (3) studying how attenuation can be modeled more accurately to account for the filtering of the seismic waves through the earth media (in particular distortion to the source time function). / Thesis (Master, Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-17 23:08:32.198

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To date, most shear velocity heterogeneity models in the lower mantle have been derived using long period data. Comparatively little use has been made of the vast ISC database of shear wave arrival times, which covers the years 1964 to 1991. The aim of this study is to use this database to construct global models of shear wave heterogeneity in the lower mantle and compare it with existing P models using similar period data in order to evaluate the hypothesis that P and S heterogeneity are proportional. In order to reproduce the resolution operator inherent in these existing models, the same parameterization has been employed; lateral dependence is in terms of spherical harmonics up to degree and order 6, and radial dependence in terms of a quartic polynomial. The inversion uses data from over 4500 events selected according to criteria which minimize the bias introduced by uneven source receiver coverage. Despite having approximately one sixth of the amount of data the model correlates well with a P wave model computed using data from the same events, and this in turn is almost identical to models computed by other authors using similar inversion methods. Assuming proportionality of P and S heterogeneity, a joint inversion of the P and S data has been performed. The resultant model correlates extremely well with the P model of this study, and similar variance reductions are obtained for both the P and S datasets as were found in the original inversions. Several model parameterizations have been used to try to investigate the dependence of the model expansion on the results. Consequently, taking into account results from synthetic experiments and from experiments into trade-offs with other inversion parameters, the average ratio of relative S to P heterogeneity ^{d ln v_s}andfrasl;_{d ln v_p} throughout the lower mantle is constrained to be in the interval (1.8,2.1) with emphasis on higher values within these bounds. This value is in agreement with other studies using similar period data, and the upper bound is close to the optimum value of 2.27 obtained by Li et al., 1991 from normal mode data, suggesting that the ratio is at least only weakly dependent on frequency. In addition evidence is presented that the ratio is increasing with depth although attempts to extract specific gradients have failed because of the very poor distribution of S rays in the deepest mantle.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "August, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-162). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.) Dept. of Physics, University of Adelaide, 1982. / Typescript (photocopy).

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1954. / "Stellingen" ([2] p.) inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [86]-88).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1991. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [133]-153).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1954. / "Stellingen" ([2] p.) inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43).