On the full-waveform inversion of seismic moment tensors

In this work, we propose a full-waveform technique for the spatial reconstruction and characterization of (micro-) seismic events via joint source location and moment tensor inversion. The approach is formulated in the frequency domain, and it allows for the simultaneous inversion of multiple point-like events. In the core of the proposed methodology is a grid search for the source locations that encapsulates the optimality condition on the respective moment tensors. The developments cater for compactly supported elastic bodies in R²; however our framework is directly extendable to inverse (seismic) source problems in R³ involving both bounded and unbounded elastic domains. A set of numerical results, targeting laboratory applications, is included to illustrate the performance of the inverse solution in situations involving: (i) reconstruction of multiple events, (ii) sparse (pointwise) boundary measurements, (iii) “off-grid” location of the micro-seismic events, and (iv) inexact knowledge of the medium's elastic properties.