Markov chain Monte Carlo methods applied to the stochastic inversion of 1D viscoelastic parameters

The characterization of the subsurface profile properties that are susceptible to liquefaction during earthquakes is of great importance in accident prevention. Field data can be used in a stochastic inverse problem to estimate the material properties using Markov chain Monte Carlo Methods (McMC) that incorporates prior knowledge about the unknown parameters as well as the data available. Here, we numerically study the Random Walk (RW) and Differential Evolution (DE) variations of the Metropolis algorithm in the context of seismic modeling considering the viscoelastic wave equation. The algorithms are tested with data from the 1987 Superstition Hills earthquake recorded at the Wildlife Site. The results show the effectiveness and accuracy of these algorithms, with emphasis to DE which reached convergence earlier compared to RW.