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Ambient Seismic Noise Tomography of a Loess High Bank at Dunaszekcső (Hungary)

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An Erratum to this article was published on 22 July 2016

Abstract

Loess high banks along the right side of the Danube in Hungary are potential subjects of landslides. Small scale ambient seismic noise tomography was used at the Dunaszekcső high bank. The aim of the study was to map near surface velocity anomalies since we assume that the formation of tension cracks—which precede landslides—are represented by low velocities. Mapping Rayleigh wave group velocity distribution can help to image intact and creviced areas and identify the most vulnerable sections. The study area lies at the top of the Castle Hill of Dunaszekcső, which was named after Castellum Lugio, a fortress of Roman origin. The presently active head scarp was formed in April 2011, and our study area was chosen to be at its surroundings. Cross-correlation functions of ambient noise recordings were used to retrieve the dispersion curves, which served as the input of the group velocity tomography. Phase cross-correlation and time-frequency phase weighted stacking was applied to calculate the cross-correlation functions. The average Rayleigh wave group velocity at the loess high bank was found to be 171 ms\(^{-1}\). The group velocity map at a 0.1 s period revealed a low-velocity region, whose location coincides with a highly creviced area, where slope failure takes place along a several meter wide territory. Another low velocity region was found, which might indicate a previously unknown loosened domain. The highest velocities were observed at the supposed remnants of Castellum Lugio.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Prof. Zsolt Visy for his help in the archaeological characterisation of the investigated area and to Katalin Gribovszki for the site’s digital elevation model. We express our thanks to the colleagues who helped organising the measurements and participated in them. We thank Dr. Yannik Behr and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments on the manuscript, the quality of the revised paper has been improved significantly thanks to their remarks and suggestions. Processing of the measured data was carried out using the Python software package ObsPy (Beyreuther et al. 2010). Maps and plots were prepared using Generic Mapping Tools (Wessel et al. 2013). This study was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund under Grant OTKA K105399 and K81295. The travel of Zdeněk Kaláb and Markéta Lednická was supported by the bilateral project between the Institute of Geonics (Ostrava) and the MTA Kövesligethy Radó Seismological Observatory (Budapest) (NKM30/2015).

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  1. MTA CSFK GGI Kövesligethy Radó Seismological Observatory, Meredek st. 18., 1112, Budapest, Hungary

    Gyöngyvér Szanyi, Zoltán Gráczer & Erzsébet Győri

  2. Institute of Geonics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Studentská str. 1768, 708 00, Ostrava, Czech Republic

    Zdeněk Kaláb & Markéta Lednická

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  1. Gyöngyvér Szanyi
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  2. Zoltán Gráczer
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  3. Erzsébet Győri
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  4. Zdeněk Kaláb
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Correspondence to Gyöngyvér Szanyi.

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Szanyi, G., Gráczer, Z., Győri, E. et al. Ambient Seismic Noise Tomography of a Loess High Bank at Dunaszekcső (Hungary). Pure Appl. Geophys. 173, 2913–2928 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-016-1304-1

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