R. Dematteis et al., P-WAVE ARRIVAL TIME INVERSION BY USING THE TAU-P METHOD - APPLICATIONTO THE MT-VESUVIUS VOLCANO, SOUTHERN ITALY, Geophysical research letters, 24(5), 1997, pp. 515-518
In this paper we have applied a tau - p inversion method based on a no
n linear approach to a set of first P-arrival times from a 2-D active
seismic experiment performed at Mt. Vesuvius in 1994. The initial seis
mic investigation is devoted to the study of the shallow structure and
the tau - p method has been used for modelling velocity variations of
a spherically concentric medium which is a better approximation than
a flat layer of the Vesuvius geometry. We are able to obtain detailed
1-D velocity models along different specified sections of the recorded
seismic line. These sections span different depth ranges and indicate
strong lateral and vertical P-velocity variations in the first 1 km o
f the volcano structure with values ranging from about 1.5 km/s at the
surface to 3.5-4.0 km/s at depth. The average 1-D concentric model ob
tained in this study call be used as a reasonable starting model for i
terative high-resolution tomographies of Vesuvius velocity structures.