You are currently viewing the abstract.
View Full TextLog in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
Register for free to read this article
As a service to the community, this article is available for free. Existing users log in.
More options
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
Abstract
Earth's free oscillations were considered to be transient phenomena occurring after large earthquakes. An analysis of records of the IDA (International Deployment of Accelerometers) gravimeter network shows that Earth is freely oscillating at an observable level even in seismically inactive periods. The observed oscillations are the fundamental spheroidal modes at frequencies between 2 and 7 millihertz. Numerical modeling indicates that these incessant excitations cannot be explained by stacked effects of a large number of small earthquakes. The observed “background” free oscillations represent some unknown dynamic process of Earth.
↵* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: suda{at}eps.nagoya-u.ac.jp
