A study was undertaken to improve the signal quality and the resolution of the velocity profile for deep downhole seismic testing. Deep downhole testing is defined in this research as measurements below 225 m (750 ft). The study demonstrated that current testing procedures can be improved to result in higher signal quality by customizing the excitation frequency of the vibrator to local site conditions of the vibrator-earth system. The earth condition beneath the base plate can be an important factor in the signal quality subject to variations with time when tests are repetitive. This work proposes a convenient method to measure the site localized natural frequency and damping ratio, and recommends using different excitation frequencies for P- and S-wave generation. Properly increasing the excitation duration of the source signal also contributes to the quality of the receiver signal. The source signature of sinusoidal vibratory source is identified. Conventional travel time analysis using vibratory source generally focuses on chirp sweeps. After testing with impulsive sources and chirp sweeps and comparing the results with the durational sinusoidal source, the sinusoidal source was then chosen. This work develops an approach to identifying the source signature of the sinusoidal source and concludes that the normalized source signature is relevant only to four parameters: the fixed-sine excitation frequency, the duration of excitation, the damping ratio of the vibrator-earth system, and the damped natural frequency of the vibrator-earth system. Two of the parameters are designated input to the vibrator and the other two parameters are measured in the field test using the proposed method in this work. A new wavelet-response technique based on deconvolution and consideration of velocity dispersion is explored in travel-time analyses. The wavelet-response technique is also used for development of a new approach to correcting disorientation of receiver tool. The improved downhole procedures and analyses are then used in the analysis of deep downhole test data obtained at Hanford, WA. Downhole testing was performed to a depth of about 420 m (1400 ft) at Hanford site. Improvements in resolving the wave velocity profiles to depths below 300 m (1000) ft are clearly shown. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Les données de VSP multi-source/multi-offset acquises en 2007 sur le site géothermique de Soultz-sous-Forêts sont traitées et analysées. Des géophones placés dans les puits GPK3 et GPK4 entre 3 et 5 km de profondeur ont enregistré les ondes sismiques émises par deux vibrateurs placés en 24 positions de tir réparties dans un rayon de 5 km autour des puits. Après corrélation des enregistrements avec la source associée à chaque vibrateur, les différentes composantes du champ d'onde sont séparées par filtrage en vitesse apparente. La comparaison des résultats obtenus par filtrage médian ou dans le domaine FK montre des signaux similaires. Un modèle de vitesse est établi pour pouvoir calculer les temps d'arrivée. Il comporte deux couches sédimentaires sur le socle granitique et des interfaces planes pentées. Le champ d'onde descendant de forte vitesse apparente est interprété comme des réflexions sur des structures subverticales autour des puits. Leur pendage, azimut et extension latérale sont déterminés en ajustant les temps de trajet observés et calculés par tracé de rayons 3D. Les structures à pendage vers l'ouest connues par les observations en forage et la microsismicité sont retrouvées. Une structure antithétique nouvelle est déterminée. Nos résultats permettent de compléter le modèle structural de la fracturation dans le réservoir géothermique. / The vertical seismic profiles (VSP) acquired in 2007 with multi-component geophones placed at depths between 3 and 5 km in two wells at the Soultz-sous-Forêts geothermal site are processed and analyzed. The multi-offset, multi-azimuth VSP were acquired with two simultaneously vibrating sources located in 24 distinct shot positions. After correlation of the raw records with the proper sweep sequence, the different components of the wavefield are separated according to their apparent velocities. The results obtained by median or FK filtering are similar. A velocity model is created in order to compute traveltimes. Two layers in the sediments above the granitic basement are separated by plane dipping interfaces. The downgoing waves having a fast apparent velocity are interpreted as reflections on steeply dipping reflectors. The dip, the azimuth and the lateral extent of these structures away from the well are determined by fitting the observed traveltimes with those computed by 3D ray tracing. The west dipping structures already known from borehole logging and the trends of microseismicity are constrained. A new antithetic structure is determined. Our results improve the structural model of fracturation in the geothermal reservoir.

Two experimental seismic surveys were collected in the 1991 LITHOPROBE Trans-Hudson Orogen (THO) data acquisition program. The purpose of the coincident dynamite and vibroseis reflection surveys was to compare crustal images obtained using high-fold low-energy and low-fold high-energy sources. On single-fold field records, signal amplitudes from explosive sources are consistently 50 dB higher than on the corresponding vibroseis records. The vibroseis final stack exhibits better defined upper-crustal reflectivity due primarily to the higher fold. However, at lower-crustal and Moho levels, the dynamite data provides images which are equal or superior to those obtained from the vibroseis data. The dynamite source not only allowed deeper signal penetration but also succeeded in mapping of a number of subcrustal reflections not identified in previous vibroseis data. These new seismic images indicate that the crustal root is not simple depression on the upper-mantle as was inferred initially but a broad (3 s) zone of reflectivity that dips west and extends more than 10 km below the younger regional Moho. Moreover, the dynamite data also indicates that diffraction patterns, detected at lower crustal and Moho depths, have large apertures which permitted proper migration of these lower crustal events. Four vibroseis expanding spread profiles (ESP) were also acquired during the data acquisition program to obtain more detailed and accurate velocity structure. These profiles, with a maximum offset of 18 km, were centered on areas where prominent crustal reflectivity was detected by the regional vibroseis survey. The small source stepout distance (100 m) generated high-fold ($>$30) data. Extensive modeling was carried out to estimate the offset range within which each traveltime approximation and velocity analysis technique may be implemented. The results reveal that velocity estimation becomes more robust and accurate when crustal seismic surveys utilize longer offsets than commonly used. These larger source-receiver separations, however, must be generally limited to offset/depth ratios not exceeding 1.5 when conventional velocity analysis techniques, based on the hyperbolic moveout assumptions, are implemented. Besides the semblance method two velocity estimators adapted to crustal studies, namely the covariance and the $\tau$ - p techniques, were tried. The former yielded the highest resolution followed by the semblance and the $\tau$ - p methods. Resolution of the semblance estimator for a maximum offset of 36 km is equal to that of the covariance method with a corresponding offset of 18 km for mid-crustal reflectors. The advantages provided by the long-offset data acquisition include increased S/N ratio and a greater number of traces with sufficiently large moveouts whichimproved velocity resolution, especially below mid-crustal depths. To achieve similar advantages in a regional crustal reflection survey would require the adoption of longer spread lengths than those presently implemented in standard data acquisition procedures.

Les données de VSP multi-source/multi-offset acquises en 2007 sur le site géothermique de Soultz-sous-Forêts sont traitées et analysées. Des géophones placés dans les puits GPK3 et GPK4 entre 3 et 5 km de profondeur ont enregistré les ondes sismiques émises par deux vibrateurs placés en 24 positions de tir réparties dans un rayon de 5 km autour des puits. Après corrélation des enregistrements avec la source associée à chaque vibrateur, les différentes composantes du champ d'onde sont séparées par filtrage en vitesse apparente. La comparaison des résultats obtenus par filtrage médian ou dans le domaine FK montre des signaux similaires. Un modèle de vitesse est établi pour pouvoir calculer les temps d'arrivée. Il comporte deux couches sédimentaires sur le socle granitique et des interfaces planes pentées. Le champ d'onde descendant de forte vitesse apparente est interprété comme des réflexions sur des structures subverticales autour des puits. Leur pendage, azimut et extension latérale sont déterminés en ajustant les temps de trajet observés et calculés par tracé de rayons 3D. Les structures à pendage vers l'ouest connues par les observations en forage et la microsismicité sont retrouvées. Une structure antithétique nouvelle est déterminée. Nos résultats permettent de compléter le modèle structural de la fracturation dans le réservoir géothermique.

Development of homes, roads, and commercial buildings in northern Utah has grown significantly during the last several decades. Construction has expanded from the valley floor to higher elevations of benches, foothills, and other elevated regions of the Wasatch Mountain Front. Construction in the higher elevation areas are a concern due to potential for landslides, both new and reactivated. Landslides have been identified in this region and are dated as Pleistocene to historical in age. A possible landslide of about 0.5 km2 on the south slope of Traverse Mountain has been mapped by the Utah Geological Survey in 2005. Its surface exhibits hummocky topography and is comprised of Oligocene-age volcanic ash, block and ash flow tuffs, and andesite lava. Landslides along the Wasatch Mountain Front are complex features usually characterized by dense vegetation and poor outcrop and require a combination geological and geophysical methods to study their thickness, slope, lateral extent, and style of emplacement. Our study incorporates trenching, boreholes, and LiDAR aerial imagery. Unique to the study of landslides is our use of seismic reflection with a vibroseis source over the mapped landslide deposit. The seismic parameters of source, station spacing, and processing method provide a coherent, albeit low-resolution, image of the upper 500 m of the subsurface beneath the landslide. A major reflector boundary in our seismic profiles has an apparent dip of 4° to the south, approximately parallel with the surface topography. Its elevation and seismic character are indicative of a contact between the Oligocene-age volcanic rocks on top of a portion of the Pennsylvanian-age Bingham Mine Formation, a mixed carbonate and siliciclastic sequence. The reflector defines an asymmetric graben-like structure bounded by a north-northwest-trending normal fault system. Analysis of trenches, boreholes and local geology reveals a faulted, chaotic body of block and ash flow tuffs, surrounded by andesite lavas. Using LiDAR and surface geological reconnaissance, a possible toe or margin of a landslide has been interpreted in the north-west portion of the study area. The combination weakened block and ash flow tuffs and abundant clay production from this unit contribute to the likelihood of a coalescence of landslides in this mapped landslide area. The integration of LiDAR, trenching, boreholes and reflection seismology provides the range and resolution of data needed to assess the complex geology of landslides.