The earth's crust is divided into the granitic layer and intermediate layer on account of the distribution of seismic wave velocity, etc., and there is a mantle called the peridotite layer under them. These layers may have different physical properties one another, but very little is known thereof. The writer was able to see their properties, by taking the earth's crust as a visco-elastic body.
1. The damping in each layer was computed from the distributions of the amplitudes of initial motions of the seismic wave (P-wave) of near earthquakes.
The attenuation coefficients at different layers are as follows:
Granitic layer Kg=7.9×10
-7cm
-1Intermediate layer K*=1.3×10
-7cm
-1Peridotite layer Kn=2.9×10
-8cm
-12. The relaxation time was obtained, understanding this damping as due to the viscosity of the earth's crust. The relaxation times in the three layers are as follows:
Granitic layer τ
g=0.45sec.
Intermediate layer τ*=3.5sec.
Peridotite layer τ
n=16.5sec.
3. The fact that the distribution of velocity of P-wave in the earth's crust by the artificial explosion caried out recently at various places of the world is different from that of the seismic P-ware may be explained as a dispersion phenomena of the visco-elastic wave. It was revealed that the velocity Pgseis. caused by earthquake is about 5.4-5.75km/sec. as against Pgexpl. =6.0km/sec, of the velocity of P-wave caused by explosion of granitic layer. On the other hands the fact was revealed that there is almost no difference between P-wave velocities caused by such explosion or earthquake in the case of the intermediate layer or peridotite layer.
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