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Seismic Viscoelastic Attenuation

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Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Synonyms

Seismic intrinsic attenuation

Definition

Linear viscoelastic attenuation. The fractional loss of seismic energy in a material in which elastic deformation (strain) induced by one cycle of a seismic wave or mode lags in time the applied stress associated with the wave or mode.

Apparent seismicattenuation. The loss of energy in a propagating seismic wave or standing mode due to viscoelasticity combined with the loss of scattered energy redistributed in time and space by heterogeneity.

Introduction

The amplitude of seismic waves decreases with increasing distance from earthquake, explosion, and impact sources. How this amplitude decrease occurs and how it depends on frequency of the seismic waves are fundamentally important to the efforts to describe Earth structure and seismic sources. The decay of amplitude of seismic waves with increasing distance of propagation through Earth is known as seismic wave attenuation. The attenuation occurring under high-temperature rheological...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Vernon F. Cormier

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  1. Vernon F. Cormier
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Correspondence to Vernon F. Cormier .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Geophysical Research Institute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hyderabad, India

    Harsh K. Gupta

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Cormier, V.F. (2021). Seismic Viscoelastic Attenuation. In: Gupta, H.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58631-7_55

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