Continuous subsurface velocity measurement with coda wave interferometry

A 1-month field experiment was conducted near Kunming in Yunnan Province, China, to continuously monitor subsurface velocity variations along different baselines. The experiment site is located 10 km west to the seismically very active Xiaojiang fault zone. An electric hammer was used as a source to generate highly repeatable seismic waves, which were recorded by 5 short-period seismometers deployed at similar to 10 m to 1.2 km away from the source. Velocity variation was estimated by using coda wave interferometry technique. The technique measures changes in differential time between the coda and the first arrival, which is in principal insensitive to timing errors. We obtained a fractional velocity perturbation (delta v/v) of 10(-3) to 10(-2) with a precision of 10(-4). The measured velocity variation is consistent among different components and stations and appears to well correlate with deep water level. The velocity variation is featured by a long-term linear trend and well-developed daily cycles. The latter is interpreted as the velocity response to the barometric pressure. A multivariate linear regression analysis of the data indicates that the velocity change exhibits a negative correlation with barometric pressure, with a stress sensitivity of 10(-6)/Pa at the experimental site.