Investigation of structural heterogeneity at the SPE site using combined P–wave travel times and Rg phase velocities

Rowe, Charlotte A.; Patton, Howard J.

doi:10.1785/0120150022

Title: Investigation of structural heterogeneity at the SPE site using combined P–wave travel times and Rg phase velocities

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Abstract

Here, we present analyses of the 2D seismic structure beneath Source Physics Experiments (SPE) geophone lines that extended radially at 100 m spacing from 100 to 2000 m from the source borehole. With seismic sources at only one end of the geophone lines, standard refraction profiling methods cannot resolve seismic velocity structures unambiguously. In previous work, we demonstrated overall agreement between body-wave refraction modeling and Rg dispersion curves for the least complex of the five lines. A more detailed inspection supports a 2D reinterpretation of the structure. We obtained Rg phase velocity measurements in both the time and frequency domains, then used iterative adjustment of the initial 1D body-wave model to predict Rg dispersion curves to fit the observed values. Our method applied to the most topographically severe of the geophone lines is supplemented with a 2D ray-tracing approach, whose application to P-wave arrivals supports the Rg analysis. In addition, midline sources will allow us to refine our characterization in future work.

Authors:

Rowe, Charlotte A. ^[1]; Patton, Howard J. ^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Publication Date:: Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015

Research Org.:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1258636

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-14-29206
Journal ID: ISSN 0037-1106

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 105; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0037-1106

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 58 GEOSCIENCES; Source Physics Experiment, seismic refraction, seismic surface wave, velocity modeling

Citation Formats


                    Rowe, Charlotte A., and Patton, Howard J. Investigation of structural heterogeneity at the SPE site using combined P–wave travel times and Rg phase velocities.  United States: N. p., 2015. 
Web.  doi:10.1785/0120150022.

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                    Rowe, Charlotte A., & Patton, Howard J. Investigation of structural heterogeneity at the SPE site using combined P–wave travel times and Rg phase velocities.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1785/0120150022

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                    Rowe, Charlotte A., and Patton, Howard J. Thu .  
"Investigation of structural heterogeneity at the SPE site using combined P–wave travel times and Rg phase velocities".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1785/0120150022.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1258636.

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@article{osti_1258636,

  title        = {Investigation of structural heterogeneity at the SPE site using combined P–wave travel times and Rg phase velocities},

  author       = {Rowe, Charlotte A. and Patton, Howard J.},

  abstractNote = {Here, we present analyses of the 2D seismic structure beneath Source Physics Experiments (SPE) geophone lines that extended radially at 100 m spacing from 100 to 2000 m from the source borehole. With seismic sources at only one end of the geophone lines, standard refraction profiling methods cannot resolve seismic velocity structures unambiguously. In previous work, we demonstrated overall agreement between body-wave refraction modeling and Rg dispersion curves for the least complex of the five lines. A more detailed inspection supports a 2D reinterpretation of the structure. We obtained Rg phase velocity measurements in both the time and frequency domains, then used iterative adjustment of the initial 1D body-wave model to predict Rg dispersion curves to fit the observed values. Our method applied to the most topographically severe of the geophone lines is supplemented with a 2D ray-tracing approach, whose application to P-wave arrivals supports the Rg analysis. In addition, midline sources will allow us to refine our characterization in future work.},

  doi          = {10.1785/0120150022},

  journal      = {Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America},

  number       = 5,

  volume       = 105,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015},

  month        = {Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015}

}

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