2D and 3D elastic wave propagation by a pseudo-spectral domain decomposition method

A new numerical method is presented for propagating elastic waves in heterogeneous earth media, based on spectral approximations of the wavefield combined with domain decomposition techniques. The flexibility of finite element techniques in dealing with irregular geologic structures is preserved, together with the high accuracy of spectral methods. High computational efficiency can be achieved especially in 3D calculations, where the commonly used finite-difference approaches are limited both in the frequency range and in handling strongly irregular geometries. The treatment of the seismic source, introduced via a moment tensor distribution, is thoroughly discussed together with the aspects associated with its numerical implementation. The numerical results of the present method are successfully compared with analytical and numerical solutions, both in 2D and 3D.