Shear wave velocity models retrieved using Rg wave dispersion data in shallow crust in some regions of southern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Many crucial tasks in seismology, such as locating seismic events and estimating focal mechanisms, need crustal velocity models. The velocity models of shallow structures are particularly important in the simulation of ground motions. In southern Ontario, Canada, many small shallow earthquakes occur, generating high-frequency Rayleigh (Rg) waves that are sensitive to shallow structures. In this research, the dispersion of Rg waves was used to obtain shear-wave velocities in the top few kilometers of the crust in the Georgian Bay, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay areas of southern Ontario. Several shallow velocity models were obtained based on the dispersion of recorded Rg waves. The Rg waves generated by an m _N 3.0 natural earthquake on the northern shore of Georgian Bay were used to obtain velocity models for the area of an earthquake swarm in 2007. The Rg waves generated by a mining induced event in the Sudbury area in 2005 were used to retrieve velocity models between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River. The Rg waves generated by the largest event in a natural earthquake swarm near Thunder Bay in 2008 were used to obtain a velocity model in that swarm area. The basic feature of all the investigated models is that there is a top low-velocity layer with a thickness of about 0.5 km. The seismic velocities changed mainly within the top 2 km, where small earthquakes often occur.