Seismology Basics: Physical Understanding
- Basic wave properties: amplitude, wavelength, frequency
- Elasticity, stress, and strain
- Math & Physics of Ray Propagation:
- Wave solutions
- Snell’s Law
- Ray paths
- Travel times
- Group vs. phase velocity
- Decibels, signal-to-noise ratio, dynamic range
Measurements
- Seismic Sources & Waves: Active vs. Passive sources, P and S waves, Seismograms, Energy partitioning
- Differences between Earthquake Seismology and Exploration Seismology
- Instrumentation:
- Geophones
- Broadband seismometers
- Digitizers
Field Deployment
- Survey Design: Networks, arrays, channel grouping, shot spacing
- Geometry: Network geometry, station spacing, spatiotemporal resolution
- Design surveys starting from a geologic target
- Instrumentation:
- Source/Receiver Fundamentals
- Instrument mechanics and deployment
- Other field techniques: GPS, field note-taking, compass orientation
Processing/Modeling
- General workflows for both active and passive seismic data
- Data formats: SEG-Y, SEED
- Metadata handling
- Active Seismic Processing:
- Seismic Unix
- Shot record processing
- Static corrections
- NMO
- CDP stacking
- Passive Seismic Analysis:
- H/V spectral ratio
- Beamforming
- Earthquake signal detection
- Linking seismic data to subsurface geology
Interpretation
- Rock Properties: Velocity variations with lithology, porosity, and other factors
- Integration with geologic models to interpret seismic data meaningfully