Discovering New Events Beyond the Catalog--Application of Matched Field Processing to Salton Sea Geothermal Field Seismicity

Abstract

We aim to detect and locate more microearthquakes using the empirical matched field processing (MFP) method than can be detected using only conventional earthquake detection techniques. We propose that empirical MFP can complement existing catalogs and techniques. In the Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEDC) earthquake catalog, 2972 events were identified in our study area during January 2008 and December 2010. We use this earthquake catalog to identify the best potential empirical master templates. We create 242 master templates with at least four stations with good quality. We test our method on continuous seismic data collected at the Salton Sea Geothermal Field during January 2010. The MFP method successfully identified 1115 events. Therefore, we believe that the empirical MFP method combined with conventional methods significantly improves network detection capabilities.