Stability of sparse station data inversion for deviatoric moment tensor solution of regional earthquakes

Observations from regional seismic network are used in studying deviatoric moment tensor for the MW5.4 earthquake of 26 Febuary2010 inTaiwanadjacent area. The smallest rotation angle defined by Kagan (1991) between our result and the Havard GCMT solution is 9.5deg;, and the focal depth we determined is41 km, which is close to USGS location result and possibly closer to the real source. The paper also discusses the effect of station distribution on deviatoric moment tensor inversion by selecting different station combinations. The result shows that, for the data sets from three 3-component stations, the solutions are mostly accurate. The better station coverage, the less departure from real solutions. In appropriate case, the data set from two 3-components stations may result in relatively reliable solution.