Wide-scale detection of earthquake waveform doublets and further evidence for inner core super-rotation

Abstract

We report on more than 100 earthquake waveform doublets in five subduction zones, including an earthquake nest in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Each doublet is presumed to be a pair of earthquakes that repeat at essentially the same location. These doublets are important for studying earthquake physics, as well as temporal changes of the inner core. Particularly, our observation from one South Sandwich Islands (SSI) doublet recorded at station INK in Canada shows an inner core traveltime change of ∼0.1 s over ∼6 yr, confirming the inner-core differential motion occurring beneath Central America. Observations from one Aleutian Islands doublet, recorded at station BOSA in South Africa, and from one Kuril Islands doublet, recorded at station BDFB in Brazil, show an apparent inner core traveltime change of ∼0.1 s over ∼7 yr and ∼6 yr, respectively, providing evidence for the temporal change of inner core properties beneath Central Asia and Canada, respectively. On the other hand, observations from one Tonga-Fiji-Solomon Islands doublet, recorded at station PTGA in Brazil, and from one Bucaramanga doublet, recorded at station WRAB in Australia and station CHTO in Thailand, show no/little temporal change (no more than 0.005 syr-1, if any) of inner core traveltimes for the three corresponding ray paths for which the path in the inner core is nearly parallel to the equatorial plane. Such a pattern of observations showing both presence and possible absence of inner-core traveltime change can be explained by the geometry and relative directions of ray path, lateral velocity gradient and inner-core particle motion due to an eastward super-rotation of a few tenths of a degree per year. © 2008 The Authors Journal compilation © 2008 RAS.