Long-Period Moment-Tensor Inversion: The Global CMT Project

Synonyms

Global centroid-moment-tensor inversion; Long-period earthquake analysis

Introduction

Long-period moment-tensor inversion is a methodology to estimate first-order earthquake parameters by inverse modeling of long-period seismograms, typically recorded at teleseismic distances. Data from large numbers of globally distributed digital broadband seismographs and knowledge of elastic wave propagation through the heterogeneous Earth currently make possible the uniform determination of moment tensors of earthquakes with M ≥ 5.0. The Global CMT Project is an ongoing systematic research effort to study all significant earthquakes occurring worldwide using long-period moment-tensor inversion and to maintain and curate a catalog of the resulting earthquake parameters.

Earthquakes are complex geophysical events with the potential to cause vast destruction. When and where earthquakes occur and a characterization of their size and effects form knowledge of scientific and societal value. For...