Manuel Rocha Medal recipient - A relative moment tensor inversion technique applied to seismicity induced by mining

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to develop a robust MTI method to estimate the moment tensors of clusters of seismic events recorded in the underground environment. To achieve this, three 'hybrid' MTI methods were developed by the author. These methods involve different iterative weighting schemes designed to enhance the accuracy of the computed moment tensors by decreasing the effect of outliers (data points whose residuals lie 'far' from the mean or median error). The additional information required for hybrid methods is obtained by considering a spatial cluster of seismic events and assuming that the waves generated by each event in the cluster follow a similar path through the rockmass and allowing a common ray-path to be assumed. Hence the unknown effect of the heterogeneous rockmass on the waveform is similar for all the events in the cluster. The final objective was to determine whether the techniques developed could be successfully applied to real data. The hybrid MTI methods using the median and the weighted mean correction were applied to a cluster of 10 events, having remarkably similar waveforms, recorded at Oryx Gold Mine. For comparative purposes, the more conventional absolute method was also applied. The solutions computed using the hybrid MTI with a median correction displayed a distinct improvement after the iterative residual correction procedure was applied, in contrast to the solutions obtained from the absolute method. The radiation patterns and fault-plane solutions from the hybrid method showed a high degree of similarity, and were probably more accurate reflections of reality. These observations are very encouraging and point towards the potential for using the hybrid MTI method with a median correction as a standard processing tool for mine seismicity. The implications of this work are that a robust method for calculating the focal mechanisms of clusters of seismic events induced by mining activities has been developed. Regular application will lead to a better understanding of rock fracture processes and to improved safety underground.