Extraction of Moho‐Generated Phases from Vertical and Radial Receiver Functions of a Seismic Array

Abstract Receiver‐function analysis is an effective tool for investigating crustal seismological structure. Here, we present the extraction of the Moho‐reflected PpPp that emerges in teleseismic P coda via a deconvolution process. Using nonlinear waveform analysis (an approach using simulated annealing technique) we estimate the source wavelet of a teleseismic P wave from records of the vertical component observed at an array of seismometers. PpPp recorded on the vertical component can be extracted by deconvolving individual vertical components by the resulting source wavelet. By employing this technique in a case study in southwestern Japan, seismic images from PpPp , as well as from Ps and PpPs , successfully image the continental Moho, the oceanic Moho, and the top surface of the Philippine Sea slab. In addition, we found that the amplitude of PpPp is useful in precisely determining crustal properties, such as vertically averaged V P / V S and the crustal thickness, by grid‐search techniques. It is also important to take into account the variations of the conversion/reflection coefficients for decreasing errors of the parameters in the grid‐search technique. Moreover, we demonstrate that improved seismic images of horizontal discontinuities can be obtained by using a stacking technique.