Seismic Sources

HOW TO GENERATE SEISMIC WAVES?

Exploration seismology – mostly artificial sources
à active technique
Natural sources can also be used (e.g. earthquakes) – usually
for tectonic studies (passive seismic exploration)
!
What is a good source?
- economical, efficient, convenient
- safe and environmentally acceptable
- sufficient energy over suitable frequency range
- repeatable
 Land seismic sources

Explosives: - usually detonated in boreholes or buried

PROS
- sharp, impulsive, high amplitude (mostly P-wave)
- reasonably cheap
CONS
- signal is not repeatable
- slow (borehole drilling)
- can be destructive
An impulsive signal can also be generated by:
- hammer on a metal plate (Lab 3)
- weight dropped from truck or helicopter
- firearms - shotguns, rifles
- building implosions
- nuclear explosion tests

(www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/pacnw/ Monitoring/News/nkorea_2006.html)
ships/nyt2001.html)
 Peaceful Nuclear and chemical
bomb tests were conducted by the
former Soviet Union
(1955-1988),some profiles have
produced prolific information on the
crust and upper mantle structures.

Ryberg et al., 1998

!4
www.Wiki.com
 Vibroseis Method (“Thumper trucks”)

ayer-1heavy truck that transmits low

amplitude vibrations
- sweep over a range of
frequencies (10-100Hz) for 10-20 s
0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
ayer 2

0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

2

0.8 1 1.2 1.4

us.jetpcb.com 1.6 1.8 2
(www.lithoprobe.ca)
 Vibroseis Method (“Thumper trucks” 10+ MPa)

PROS
- well-defined, repeatable
- little disturbance
- can also create S-waves
!
CONS
- need hard surface
- need accessible areas
- need to buy trucks ($$$)

(www.lithoprobe.ca)
 Processing Vibroseis Data

- signal is spread out over time – therefore reflections of

interest will also be spread out
n from base of layer 1
- can isolate reflections using cross-correlation
- works well even with lots of noise
0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
n from 2base of layer 2
Vibroseis signal
Amplitude

-2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0.4 2 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
signal + noise
Amplitude

n 1 + Reflection
0
2

-2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
2
 Marine seismic sources

Explosives - generally not used

Air gun - most common source
- bubble of compressed air 1 air gun

PROS:
- reliable, repeatable, inexpensive
CONS:
- bubble pulse oscillates
- only P-waves are created (why?)
7 air guns
- may be harmful to marine animals

(Kearey et al. 2002)

Air gun arrays: 1. minimize reverberation
2. Recover all frequencies (10s of MPa pressure). www.wikipedia.org
 Sparkers, Pingers, Boomers

- high frequency, electrically produced source

- order of increasing strength (pingers, sparkers, boomers,
airguns). sample ‘squid’ sparker
!
PROS:
ACD Technology
- well-defined, repeatable, inexpensive
!
CONS:
- high frequency (10-100,000 Hz) à rapid attenuation
!
- good for shallow seafloor mapping / surveying
 woodshole.er.usgs.gov

The sparker is a relatively higher powered sound source,

dependant on an electrical arc which momentarily vaporizes
water between positive and negative leads. The collapsing
bubbles produce a broad band (50Hz - 4 kHz) omni
directional pulse.
Seismic sources
cover a wide
frequency range

(Kearey et al., 2002)

 Seismic detectors (chapter 3)

- convert ground motion into an electrical signal (recorded)

- displacement, velocity, acceleration
- 3 components
- for seismic exploration
- source is usually a P-wave that arrives near-vertical
- in the past, record only vertical motion (fast changing)
- recording system – timing must be accurate (< 1 ms), gps is
being used for 3-component seismometers.
 Moving-Coil Geophone (most common)
- coil inside magnet
- relative motion of coil and
magnet due to ground motion
produces electric voltage
- voltage proportional to
velocity

Seismometers
- similar to geophones, more
sensitive to lower frequencies
- Usually 3 component
- earthquake/microseismic
studies
Deployment of our group: (CRANE seismic array)

Trillium 240
Temporary Seismometer Setup

Gu et al., 2011
 Marine detectors
Hydrophones
-detect a change in water pressure
-convert to electric signal
- only record P-waves
- usually towed behind a ship on a neutrally buoyant streamer
- pressure sensors, compasses, tail buoys
- adjust depth with fins
- often multiple streamers are used to get 3D coverage
!
Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS)
- seismometer/geophone in a metal
casing
- dropped overboard and sink to
seafloor
- recovered by releasing weights
- can contain 3 component
seismometers (http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/
operations/obs/)
- hard to position accurately
- limited life (battery, disk space)
- deep-sea fishing issues
- rotation induced direction uncertainty
(www.oceansatlas.org/unatlas)
Sample OBS system diagram

Release transducer
hydrophone

battery disk
Upper sphere
digitizer sensor

Lower sphere

hook

anchor
Seismic Reflection

We will focus P-waves in this class

but the same ideas apply to S-waves.
4.1 Reflection at Normal Incidence (section 2.3.3)

Reflection coefficient:
R = Ar/Ai
!
Transmission coefficient:
T = At/Ai
!
Note that these coefficients
(refracted give the relative amplitudes
wave) of all the waves
- usually assume that incident
wave amplitude is 1
Reflection at Normal Incidence

Partitioning of energy into

reflection and transmission
depends on:
• the angle of incidence
• the acoustic impedance of
each layer:
Z1 = ρ1v1

!
Z2 = ρ2v2
Zoeppritz Equations

For normal incidence, can show:

Z 2 − Z1 A r
R 12 = =
Z 2 + Z1 A i

2 Z1 At
T12 = =
Z 2 + Z1 A i
Note that: R12 + T12 = 1
 Z 2 − Z1 A r 2 Z1 At
R 12 = = T12 = =
Z 2 + Z1 A i Z 2 + Z1 A i
• Z1=Z2 à no reflection
(does NOT mean ρ1=ρ2 &
v1= v2)
• R: -1 to +1
• generally ±0.2 or less
• sign = polarity
• negative when Z1>Z2
• T is positive, can be >1
 CASE 1: Velocity increase with depth

Assume (unless otherwise

stated):
• initial amplitude is 1
• velocity and density are
constant in each layer
• no geometrical spreading,
attenuation, scattering

What are Ar and At?

What time does the reflected wave arrive
back at the surface?