Loosely speaking, the principle of Green's function reciprocity means that the source and receiver positions in a seismic experiment can be exchanged without affecting the observed seismograms. Consequently, the seismograms observed at a single observation location o and caused by a cluster of microearthquakes at locations {ei} are identical to the time series that would be measured by an array of stress meters emplaced at positions {ei}, recording waves generated by a source acting at o. By applying array analysis techniques like slant stacking and frequency-wave number analysis to these seismograms, we can determine the directions and velocities of the component waves as they travel in the earthquake focal region rather than at the surface. We have developed a computationally rapid plane-wave decomposition which we have applied to single-station recordings of aftershocks of the 1984 Morgan Hill, California, earthquake. The analysis is applied to data from three seismic stations having considerably different site geologies. One is a relatively hard rock station situated on Franciscan metamorphics, one is within the Calaveras fault zone, and one is on semiconsolidated sand and gravels. We define the early coda to be the part of the coda initiating immediately after the direct S wave and ending at twice the S wave lapse time.

The character of the S wave and early coda varies from being impulsive at the first station to highly reverberative at the last. We examine waves in sequential time windows starting at the S wave and continuing through the early part of the coda. At all seismic stations the early coda is dominated by a persistent signal that must be caused by multiple scattering, probably within 2 km of each seismic station. Despite clear station-to-station differences in the character of the early coda, coda Q values measured in the late coda (greater than twice the S lapse time) agree well among stations, implying that the mechanisms causing the varying behavior of the early coda do not control the coda decay rate at the statons we have considered. Coda Q values measured on horizontal components of motion agree within a factor of 2 with those measured on vertical components. We have not been able to determine the composition of the late coda because of a low signal-to-noise ratio. Our analysis technique, however, is quite appropriate for such a task. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1987