Near-surface seismic reflection applications

Abstract

Nonintrusive methods of gaining knowledge about the Earth’s subsurface comprise several of the procedures used routinely in near-surface seismology, including reflection, refraction, and surface-wave analysis. During the early 1980s the advent of digital engineering seismographs designed for shallow, high-resolution surveys spurred significant improvements in engineering, mining, and environmental reflection seismology. Commonly, the reflection method is used in conjunction with other geophysical and geological tools and a well-planned drilling verification effort. To the extent that near-surface seismic methods can constrain shallow stratigraphy, geologic structure, engineering properties, and relative permeability, they are useful in groundwater, mining, environmental site characterization, and other civil engineering applications. Much of the improvement in shallow seismic surveys is related to advancements in instrumentation. Challenges remain, however, in developing ways to process near-surface seismic data sets that may contain attributes not seen in deeper petroleum surveys.