Monitoring terrestrial water storage, drought and seasonal changes in
central Oklahoma with ambient seismic noise
Abstract
Significant imbalances in terrestrial water storage (TWS) and severe
drought have been observed around the world as a consequence of climate
changes. Improving our ability to monitor TWS and drought is critical
for water-resource management and water-deficit estimation. We use
continuous seismic ambient noise to monitor temporal evolution of
near-surface seismic velocity, dv/v, in central Oklahoma from 2013 to
2022. The derived dv/v is found to be negatively correlated with
gravitational measurements and groundwater depths, showing the impact of
groundwater storage on seismic velocities. Seasonal cycling of dv/v
follows atmospheric temperature changes with a phase shift, which can be
explained by thermo-elastic strain in the uppermost crust and
sedimentary cover. The occurrences of droughts appear simultaneously
with the local peaks of dv/v, demonstrating the sensitivity of
near-surface seismic velocities to droughts. The results illustrate the
potential of using seismic data for monitoring TWS and drought at
regional to local scales.