<i>P</i> ‐Wave Reverberations in the Water Column of the Chilean Subduction Trench

Abstract P ‐waves generated by subduction earthquakes can get trapped within the submarine trench, where they reverberate and contaminate the initial seismic signals. We analyze the behavior of P ‐wave reverberations for 43 earthquakes of magnitude larger than 6.0 that occurred along the Chilean margin between 1995 and 2023. We compared the energy of the P ‐waves versus the Pcoda wave reverberations in order to estimate the proximity of the rupture to the trench. Additionally, we compared their spectra with the oscillation frequency of the water column and generate back‐projection images to locate the source of the reverberations. Our results show that P ‐wave reverberations are generated when P ‐waves become trapped in the water column formed in the trench, in front of the epicenter, regardless of the proximity of the rupture to the trench.