First observation of the Earth's permanent free oscillations on Ocean Bottom Seismometers

The Earth's hum is the permanent free oscillations of the Earth recorded in the absence of earthquakes, at periods above 30 seconds. We present the first observations of its fundamental spheroidal eigenmodes on broadband Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) in the Indian Ocean. At the ocean bottom, the effects of ocean infragravity waves (compliance) and seafloor currents (tilt) overshadow the hum. In our experiment, data are also affected by electronic glitches. We remove these signals from the seismic trace by subtracting average glitch signals; performing a linear regression and using frequency-dependent response functions between pressure, horizontal and vertical seismic components. This reduces the long period noise on the OBS to the level of a good land station. Finally, by windowing the autocorrelation to include only the direct arrival, the first and second orbit around the Earth, and by calculating its Fourier transform, we clearly observe the eigenmodes at the ocean bottom.

Keyword(s)

hum, noise, continuous oscillations, broadband ocean bottom seismology, surface waves, glitch

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Deen M., Wielandt E., Stutzmann Eleonore, Crawford W., Barruol G., Sigloch K. (2017). First observation of the Earth's permanent free oscillations on Ocean Bottom Seismometers. Geophysical Research Letters. 44 (21). 10988-10996. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074892, https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00407/51841/

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