Directivity of seismic radiation from a series of line charges

A series of two-dimensional calculations describing the stress wave propagation from a row of line explosive sources, detonated sequentially at a supersonic phase velocity on the surface of various layered (half-space) crustal models, was carried out. Spectral ratios of the resulting free-surface velocities at a series of hypothetical seismic stations were used to calculate directivity functions. As in the case considered earlier by Ben-Menahem (where the source moved subsonically), strong enhancement of certain frequencies in the spectrum of the horizontal component of velocity was obtained. Directivity is especially prominent when the explosion-induced signals are generated in a medium in which the longitudinal elastic wave velocity is comparable to the detonation phase velocity and when the seismic signal being analyzed has been refracted from a higher-velocity, underlying layer. (author)