SeBaSim

Abstract

Computational Seismology is becoming an increasingly important tool in order to understand the effects of complex 3D subsurface structures on the propagating seismic wave field. Therefore, highly accurate computer simulations are necessary to resolve the exact waveforms caused by the geometrical, rheological and site-specific properties of the material and by the spatial and temporal description of the seismic source. The creation of such reliable synthetic data sets in form of seismograms and their comparison to real observational data allows us in a further step to produce sharper tomographic images of the subsurface using full wave form inversion techniques. However, this approach relies heavily on the iterative re-calculation of the complete 3D forward problem after appropriate model adjustments and therefore increases the computational cost easily by orders of magnitude. Today, this approach still is hardly followed, as the required computational resources basically have been out of reach, and has led to a number of simplified and therefore much less accurate methodologies in the past. However, for a detailed and reliable simulation-driven seismic hazard assessment the available 3D model information has to be included into cutting-edge ground motion modelling. This is particularly important in specific areas, such as densely populated and industrialized sedimentary basins in order to generate accurate shake maps and well-defined geological subsurface models.