Study of earthquake mechanism by a method of phase equalization applied to Rayleigh and Love waves

Rayleigh waves and Love waves are used for the study of the earthquake mechanism by the application of a method of phase equalization. In this method, an impulse response is computed from known phase-velocity data and instrument characteristics, and is cross-correlated with an actual record. A comparative study of Love waves from Kern County aftershocks of 1952 and those from Nevada shocks of 1954 strongly supports the hypothesis of a pair of couples rather than a single couple for the earthquake source. Source functions for five Kern County aftershocks are derived from the Rayleigh waves recorded at Weston and Palisades. It was found that the sense of principal motion in the source function is in agreement with the fault-plane solution obtained from the P-wave data. Mantle Rayleigh waves are found to be useful for this purpose also.