CONDUCTING A SEISMIC REFRACTION SURVEY

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Example used:

Number of channels: 24
Depth of investigation: 10 meters
Seismic Source: hammer and plate

1. Attach the hammer switch to the hammer handle.

a. It should be placed just below the hammer head, with the black dot against the handle.

b. Wrap with stretchy electrician’s tape several times to secure it tightly.

c. Wrap the cable to the handle at the half-way point and again near the end of the hammer.

2. Lay out the geophone spread

a. The length of the geophone spread should be approximately 5 x the depth of

investigation.

b. Twenty-four channels = 23 geophone spacings. Five times the depth = 5x10m, and
50m/23 = 2.17m between geophones. Round up to 2.5m for actual geophone spacing.

c. Lay out 23x2.5m or 57.5m of tape.

d. Insert a geophone into the ground at 1.25m on the tape, then every 2.5m starting at 2.5m
on the tape. Insert as vertically as possible, and make sure each is in the ground tight.
Place your finger on the top of the geophone and try to wiggle it. If you can, it is not in
the ground tight enough. If necessary, it can be stomped in with your boot.

e. Lay out the geophone cable and connect up the geophones.

3. Place the hammer and plate at the first shot point location, which is at 0m on the tape.

4. Place the seismograph and battery near the end of the geophone spread FARTHEST from the first
shot point, within reach of end of the geophone cable.

5. Walk to this point and begin paying out trigger cable as you walk to the first shot point location.

6. Connect the trigger cable to the seismograph.

7. Connect the geophone cable to the seismograph.

8. Connect the battery cable to the seismograph.

9. You spread should look like the following. Channel 1 is on the left, and Channel 24 is on the
right.

10. If you are using a Geode, connect the seismograph to your field PC using the Network Interface
Box (NIB). If you are using an ES-3000, no NIB is necessary. The PC can be up to 100m (cable
length) from the Geode or ES-3000. It is best to find shade if it is available.

11. Power up the system.

a. Geode: Set the switch on the Network Interface Box to “Enable Power-up”, then start
SCS on the laptop.

b. ES-3000: Start SCS on the laptop

c. SmartSeis: Turn on the seismograph with the power switch

12. Set up the acquisition software by opening and filling out the following dialog boxes as shown
below:

a. Survey >>New Survey

b. Geom>>Survey Mode
c. Geom>>Geophone Interval

d. Geom>>Group/Shot locations

i. Set the Shot coordinate to 0

ii. Set the first Interval to 1.25

iii. Set the first Geophone coordinate to 1.25

e. Acquisition>>Sample Interval/Record Length

f. Click on Acquisition>>Acquisition Filters and set both to “Filter Out”

g. File>>Storage Parameters
h. Acquisition>>Stack Options

i. Acquisition>>Specify Channels (highlight first box in row labled “Use” and press “1” to
set all to DATA).
j. Acquisition>>Preamp Gains

k. Acquistion>>Trigger Options
l. Display>>Shot Parameters>>Display Boundary

m. Display>>Shot Parameters>>Gain Style

 n. Display>>Shot Parameters>>Display Filters

13. Activate the Noise Monitor by clicking on it or by pressing the Tab key until it becomes the
active window. Adjust sensitivity using the up/down arrow keys so that the traces do not overlap.
Make sure all geophones are responding by having your partner tap lightly on each geophone.

14. Disarm the system, if necessary, by pressing the “1” key. The status bar at the bottom should be
red:

15. Make sure it says “MEMORY CLEAR.” If not, press “2” to clear the memory.

16. Proceed to the first shot point at 1.25m on the tape.

17. IMPORTANT: PUT ON HEARING PROTECTION!!!

18. Pick up the hammer; run the trigger wire around behind your body to keep it from swinging in
front of you when you swing the hammer. Strike the plate a few times to get the feel of things,
and to compress the ground beneath it.

19. Arm the system by pressing the “1” key. The status bar at the bottom should be green:

20. Now strike the plate HARD. The seismograph should trigger, and you should hear a beep. It
should now say “STACK 1” in the task bar, and you should see data in the Shot window.

21. Press the “6” key to automatically scale the traces. You should see something like this:
22. Swing the hammer seven more times. You should see the stack count increment with each shot.
You can press “6” to autoscale whenever necessary. You should see the signal-to-noise ratio
improve with the number of stacks; the rate of improvement is proportional to the square root of
the stack count. When the stack count reaches eight, press the “7” key to save the shot record.
The status bar should now look like the following:

23. Press “2” to clear the memory.

24. Move the hammer and plate 10 geophone intervals to -25m.

25. Move the geophone at 1.25m to 0m.

26. Click on Geom>>Group Shot locations.

a. Set the Shot coordinate to -25

b. Set the first Interval to 2.5

c. Set the first Geophone coordinate to 0

27. Repeat steps 19-22.

28. Move the hammer and plate to 28.75m.

29. Press “3” and update the Shot coordinate.

30. Repeat steps 19-22.

31. Move the hammer and plate to 57.5m.

32. Move the geophone at 57.5m to 56.25m.

33. Press “3” and update the Shot coordinate.

34. Change the Interval between geophones 23 and 24 to 1.25m. The new coordinate for geophone
24 should be 56.25m.
35. Repeat steps 19-22.

36. Move the hammer and plate to 82.5m.

37. Press “3” and update the Shot coordinate.

38. Change the Interval between geophones 23 and 24 back to 2.5m. The new coordinate for
geophone 24 should be 57.5m.
39. Repeat steps 19-21. Congratulations! You have completed the survey!