Seismic imaging at the cross-roads: Active, passive, exploration and solid Earth

Imaging the solid Earth with seismic noise

The correlation of ambient vibrations of the Earth yields the impulse response between two passive sensors as if one was a source. This provides the opportunity to image the Earth beneath regional seismic arrays. In this paper, we present imaging of the lithosphere in Europe based on surface Rayleigh waves extracted from continuous record of the seismic noise. We also recall a brief history of ...

Seismic imaging of continents and their margins: New research at the confluence of active and passive seismology

Now that the world has well and truly crossed the threshold to the 21st century, it seems timely to review the progress of lithospheric seismic imaging and comment on recent developments in the field. In the context of this special issue, lithospheric seismic imaging refers to any kind of seismic study that gives rise to multidimensional (2-D or 3-D) views of the Earth's interior, from the shal...

Neutrino Astrophysics at the Cross Roads

The indications for neutrino oscillations from the atmospheric and solar neutrino anomalies and from the LSND experiment are now so overwhelming that the discourse in neutrino physics has changed. One no longer asks if these particles indeed oscillate, one rather debates the most plausible pattern of masses and mixing angles, and if the existence of a sterile neutrino is required. Of course, al...

American Tropical Medicine at the Cross-roads

A closer look at rock physics models and their assisted interpretation in seismic exploration

Subsurface rocks and their fluid content along with their architecture affect reflected seismic waves through variations in their travel time, reflection amplitude, and phase within the field of exploration seismology. The combined effects of these factors make subsurface interpretation by using reflection waves very difficult. Therefore, assistance from other subsurface disciplines is needed i...