An Example of the Iterative Approach to Time-Term Analysis

Abstract

Many criticisms of the time-term approach to the interpretation of crustal refraction data have referred to examples of the method in which there was a failure to adopt the necessary iterative process of solution; it has been suggested that this failure is due to a lack of attention to the definitions of the method. In this paper, these definitions are reviewed and the iteration process is first described, and then applied to data obtained during the 1963 Lake Superior seismic experiment. As a result of this re-interpretation, the suggestion that the time-term method is not appropriate for studies of the mantle beneath continents is refuted.