Identification of seismic events based on stochastic properties of the short-period records

Abstract Discrimination between underground nuclear explosions and natural earthquakes is considered based on a nonstationary stochastic model which incorporates a well-known deterministic formulation. Using the relevant parameters in the model a discriminating procedure is described and its application is illustrated using available P-wave records. A formal definition is presented for a geophysical feature known as ‘complexity’ and its relationship to the best linear discriminant function is pointed out. Considering the possibility of a two-dimensional discriminant, a second discriminating method based on seismic moments is considered and reasons for its appropriateness are presented. Using number of zero-crossings, a simple and computationally convenient estimator is introduced for the second discriminant. Some discussion concerning application of these techniques together with a detailed explanation concerning relationship between crossings of the original continuous records and their digitized version is also included.