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Computational Seismology: A Practical Introduction

Book · October 2016

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Heiner Igel
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Contents

1 About Computational Seismology 1

1.1 What Is Computational Seismology? 1
1.2 What Is Computational Seismology Good For? 2
1.3 Target Audience and Level 4
1.4 How To Read This Book? 6
Further reading 7

I Elastic Waves in the Earth 9

2 Seismic Waves and Sources 11
2.1 Elastic Wave Equations 13
2.2 Rheologies 15
2.2.1 Viscoelasticity and Attenuation 16
2.2.2 Seismic Anisotropy 16
2.2.3 Poroelasticity 18
2.3 Boundary and Initial Conditions 18
2.3.1 Initial Conditions 18
2.3.2 Free Surface 19
2.3.3 Internal Boundaries 19
2.3.4 Absorbing Boundary Conditions 20
2.4 Fundamental Solutions 20
2.4.1 Body Waves 20
2.4.2 Gradient, Divergence, Curl 21
2.4.3 Surface Waves 22
2.5 Seismic Sources 23
2.5.1 Forces and Moments 23
2.5.2 Seismic Wavefield of a Double-Couple Point Source 26
2.5.3 Superposition Principle, Finite Sources 28
2.5.4 Reciprocity, Time Reversal 30
2.6 Scattering 31
2.7 Seismic Wave Problems As Linear Systems 33
2.8 Some Final Thoughts 35
Further reading 36
Exercises 37

3 Waves in a Discrete World 39

3.1 Classification of Partial Differential Equations 39
3.2 Strategies for Computational Wave Propagation 41
Contents

3.3 Physical Domains and Computational Meshes 43

3.3.1 Dimensionality: 1D, 2D, 2.5D, 3D 43
3.3.2 Computational Meshes 44
3.3.3 Structured (Regular) Grids 45
3.3.4 Unstructured (Irregular) Grids 45
3.3.5 Other Meshing Concepts 46
3.4 The Curse Of Mesh Generation 47
3.5 Parallel Computing 49
3.5.1 Physics and Parallelism 51
3.5.2 Domain Decomposition, Partitioning 51
3.5.3 Hardware and Software for Parallel Algorithms 52
3.5.4 Basic Hardware Architectures 53
3.5.5 Parallel Programming 54
3.5.6 Parallel I/O, Data Formats, Provenance 56
3.6 The Impact of Parallel Computing on Earth Sciences 58
Further reading 59
Exercises 59

II Numerical Methods 61
4 The Finite-Difference Method 63
4.1 History 64
4.2 Finite Differences in a Nutshell 65
4.3 Finite Differences and Taylor Series 66
4.3.1 Higher Derivatives 67
4.3.2 High-Order Operators 68
4.4 Acoustic Wave Propagation in 1D 70
4.4.1 Stability 73
4.4.2 Numerical Dispersion 75
4.4.3 Convergence 76
4.5 Acoustic Wave Propagation in 2D 76
4.5.1 Numerical Anisotropy 77
4.5.2 Choosing the Right Simulation Parameters 78
4.6 Elastic Wave Propagation in 1D 81
4.6.1 Displacement Formulation 81
4.6.2 Velocity - Stress Formulation 82
4.6.3 Velocity - Stress Algorithm: Example 83
4.6.4 Velocity - Stress: Dispersion 85
4.7 Elastic Wave Propagation in 2D 86
4.7.1 Grid Staggering 86
4.7.2 Free Surface Boundary Condition 87
4.8 The Road to 3D 87
4.8.1 High-Order Extrapolation Schemes 88
4.8.2 Optimizing Operators 89
4.8.3 Minimal, Triangular, Unstructured Grids 90
4.8.4 Other Coordinate Systems 91
Further reading 92
 Contents

Exercises 93

5 The Pseudospectral Method 97

5.1 History 98
5.2 The Pseudospectral Method in a Nutshell 99
5.3 Ingredients 100
5.3.1 Orthogonal Functions, Interpolation, Derivative 100
5.3.2 Fourier Series and Transforms 102
5.4 The Fourier Pseudospectral Method 107
5.4.1 Acoustic Waves in 1D 108
5.4.2 Stability, Convergence, Dispersion 110
5.4.3 Acoustic Waves in 2D 111
5.4.4 Numerical Anisotropy 113
5.4.5 Elastic Waves in 1D 113
5.5 Infinite Order Finite Differences 115
5.6 The Chebyshev Pseudospectral Method 118
5.6.1 Chebyshev Polynomials 119
5.6.2 Chebyshev Derivatives, Differentiation Matrices 122
5.6.3 Elastic Waves in 1D 124
5.7 The Road to 3D 126
Further reading 129
Exercises 129

6 The Finite-Element Method 131

6.1 History 132
6.2 Finite Elements in a Nutshell 133
6.3 Static Elasticity 134
6.3.1 Boundary conditions 138
6.3.2 Reference Element, Mapping, Stiffness Matrix 138
6.3.3 Simulation Example 140
6.4 1D Elastic Wave Equation 142
6.4.1 The System Matrices 144
6.4.2 Simulation Example 146
6.5 Shape Functions in 1D 150
6.6 Shape Functions in 2D 152
6.7 The Road to 3D 153
Further reading 155
Exercises 156

7 The Spectral-Element Method 159

7.1 History 160
7.2 Spectral Elements in a Nutshell 161
7.3 Weak Form of the Elastic Equation 162
7.4 Getting Down to the Element Level 164
7.4.1 Interpolation with Lagrange Polynomials 167
7.4.2 Numerical Integration 169
7.4.3 Derivatives of Lagrange Polynomials 171
7.5 Global Assembly and Solution 173
Contents

7.6 Source Injection 174

7.7 The Spectral-Element Method in Action 175
7.7.1 Homogeneous Example 175
7.7.2 Heterogeneous Example 179
7.8 The Road to 3D 180
Further reading 182
Exercises 183

8 The Finite-Volume Method 185

8.1 History 186
8.2 Finite Volumes in a Nutshell 187
8.3 The Finite-Volume Method via Conservation Laws 188
8.4 Scalar Advection in 1D 193
8.5 Elastic Waves in 1D 196
8.5.1 Homogenous Case 198
8.5.2 Heterogeneous Case 200
8.6 Derivation via Gauss’ Theorem 203
8.7 The Road to 3D 206
Further reading 207
Exercises 208

9 The Discontinuous Galerkin Method 211

9.1 History 212
9.2 The Discontinuous Galerkin Method in a Nutshell 214
9.3 Scalar Advection Equation 215
9.3.1 Weak formulation 217
9.3.2 Elemental Mass and Stiffness Matrices 219
9.3.3 The Flux Scheme 221
9.3.4 Scalar Advection in Action 223
9.4 Elastic Case in 1D 227
9.4.1 Fluxes in the Elastic Case 230
9.4.2 Simulation Example 231
9.5 The Road to 3D 234
Further reading 235
Exercises 236

III Applications 239

10 Applications in Earth Sciences 241
10.1 Geophysical Exploration 243
10.2 Regional Wave Propagation 245
10.3 Global and Planetary Seismology 247
10.4 Strong Ground Motion and Dynamic Rupture 250
10.5 Seismic Tomography - Waveform Inversion 253
10.6 Volcanology 257

11 Current Challenges in Computational Seismology 259

11.1 Community Solutions 259
 Contents

11.2 Structured vs. Unstructured: Homogenization 260

11.3 Meshing 261
11.4 Nonlinear Inversion, Uncertainties 261

A Community Software and Platforms in Seismology 263

A.1 Wave Propagation and Inversion 263
A.2 Data Processing, Visualization 265
A.3 Benchmarking 265
A.4 Ipython Notebooks 266

References 267

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