Federico Munch

University of California, Berkeley | UCB · Department of Earth and Planetary Science

We introduce a new approach to the computation of gravito-elastic free oscillations or normal modes of spherically symmetric bodies based on a spectral element discretization of the radial ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Our method avoids numerical instabilities often encountered in the classical method of radial integration and root findin...

We image the thermo‐chemical structure of crust and mantle underneath the North American continent by inverting recordings of P‐to‐s (Ps) and S‐to‐p (Sp) converted seismic body waves (receiver functions; RF). Through careful data selection and processing, we construct a multi‐frequency Ps (5, 8, 10 s) and Sp (10, 15 s) RF data set from USArray reco...

We present a novel approach to investigate variations in upper mantle and transition zone (MTZ) water content based on the joint analysis of electromagnetic (EM) signals originating in the ionosphere and magnetosphere. We invert EM signals (period range 6 hr to 85 days) to probe the electrical conductivity structure underneath 20 geomagnetic observ...

Earth's thermo-chemical structure exerts a fundamental control on mantle convection, plate tectonics, and surface volcanism. There are indications that mantle convection occurs as an intermittent-stage process between layered and whole mantle convection in interaction with a compositional stratification at 660 km depth. However, the presence and po...

We present a novel approach to investigate variations in upper mantle and transition zone (MTZ) water content based on the joint analysis of electromagnetic (EM) signals originating in the ionosphere and magnetosphere. We inverted EM signals (period range 6 hours--85 days) to probe the electrical conductivity structure underneath 20 geomagnetic obs...

P-to-S waves converted at the 410- and 660-km discontinuities have been widely used to map variations in velocity gradients associated with the mantle transition zone (TZ). These gradients reflect phase transitions of major mantle minerals providing valuable insight on mantle thermo-chemical structure. In this work, we estimate and invert P-to-S re...

We present a new methodology for inverting P-to-S receiver function (RF) waveforms directly for mantle temperature and composition. This is achieved by interfacing the geophysical inversion with self-consistent mineral phase equilibria calculations from which rock mineralogy and its elastic properties are predicted as a function of pressure, temper...

P-to-S waves converted at the 410-and 660-km discontinuities have been widely used to map variations in velocity gradients associated with the mantle transition zone. These gradients reflect phase transitions of major mantle minerals providing valuable insight on mantle thermo-chemical state. We present a methodology for stochastic inversion of P-t...

In this paper we estimate and invert local electromagnetic (EM) sounding data for 1D conductivity profiles in the presence of non-uniform oceans and continents to most rigorously account for the ocean induction effect that is known to strongly influence coastal observatories. We consider a new set of high-quality time series of geomagnetic observat...

We present a new global electrical conductivity model of Earth's mantle. The model was derived by using a novel methodology, which is based on inverting satellite magnetic field measurements from different sources simultaneously. Specifically, we estimated responses of magnetospheric origin and ocean tidal magnetic signals from the most recent Swar...

In this work we propose a one dimensional numerical study of the seismoelectric signals produced in a fresh water aquifer contaminated by either light or dense non-aqueous phase liquids ((L/D)NAPLs), considering a pure SH-wave seismic source. We investigate the nature of the electromagnetic response generated at media interfaces, the so called Inte...