GEOPHYSICS, VOL. 63, NO. 3 (MAY-JUNE 1998); P. 1041-1052, 16 FIGS., 1 TABLE.
3-D seismic imaging of complex structures
in glacial deposits
Hamid R. Siahkoohi* and Gordon F. West*
ABSTRACT
A small-scale, shallow-penetration 3-D reflection seis-
mic survey has been carried out over stratified glacial
formations to test the method’s potential for delineating
fine structural details with a reasonable field effort and
cost. Recording was carried out with a 96-channel en-
gineering seismograph. Blank shotgun shells were used
as the energy source. Field records were obtained with
usable reflection energy up to 500 Hz, exploring approx-
imately a 220-m cubical volume. Although special pro-
cessing was required to attenuate strongly dispersed and
scattered surface waves, a stacked data volume of good
quality has been assembled. More than 15 reflecting hori-
zons with vertical resolution of about 1.5 m were clearly
delineated within the Wisconsin sediments. Results are
in good agreement with local outcrops and core infor-
mation. The identified reflectors (interbeds) within the
Late Wisconsin tills are extremely important. These re-
flectors may provide potential “hydraulic channels” for
the movement of surface contaminants through the till
into underlying aquifers.
INTRODUCTION
The Greater Toronto area (GTA) in southern Ontario,
Canada, is a large urban center on Pleistocene glaciated ter-
rain (Figure 1). Physiographically, most of the region is a gently
rolling till plain dissected by postglacial stream valleys flowing
to Lake Ontario. In some places, morainal deposits and drum-
lins lie on the tills. The Pleistocene sequence, which usually is
less than 100 m thick, rests disconformably on a glacially eroded
sequence of nearly flat-lying Paleozoic sediments that overly a
Precambrian igneous-metamorphic basement at a depth of at
least several hundred meters.
Although heavily forested after the glacial retreat, much
of the GTA has been active farm land for some 150 years.
Presented at the 66th Annual International Meeting, Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Manuscript received by the Editor February 3, 1997;
revised manuscript received October 1, 1997.
*University of Toronto, Geophysics Laboratory, Department of Physics, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S lA7 Canada. E-mail: hamid
@geophy.physics.utoronto.ca; west@physics.utoronto.ca.
© 1998 Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.
1041
However, intense urban and suburban expansion is now chang-
ing the environment rapidly. Water supply, sewage, and solid
waste disposal have become major issues. Although Lake
Ontario offers a copious supply of fresh water for the fully
developed areas, water wells are widely used in the lesser de-
veloped regions because good aquifers are often present in the
glacial beds. Water pollution is a serious concern.
In most places, the Pleistocene sequence is very well strat-
ified and consists of Wisconsin-age till layers a few meters to
some tens of meters thick that overlie sequences of glacio-
lacustrine sediments (sand-silt-clay) that themselves may over-
lie older tills. According to physical property measurements
at the meter and submeter scale, most of the tills are imper-
meable enough to protect aquifers in underlying sands from
contamination by surface activities such as municipal waste
landfills. However, other field evidence points to some inter-
connection between surface and deeper waters (Gerber and
Howard, 1996). Thus, in the vicinity of any prospective land-
fill or other potential source of contaminated water, there is a
need to detect any possible pathways through the till aquitards
(for example, such features as permeable crossbeds, glacially
induced faults, etc).
In recent years, 2-D multifold high-resolution reflection seis-
mology has proven itself to be a highly practical tool for tracing
the main features of near-surface strata in many geological en-
vironments (e.g., Steeples and Miller, 1990). It has been used
with considerable success in the GTA region for several years
to map the general aspects of the glacial stratigraphy (Pullan
et al., 1994; Boyce et al., 1995).
However, the resolution of very local structures by the 2-D
seismic surveys has been insufficient to identify geologic char-
acteristics that might control hydrogeological problems. Since
3-D seismic survey methods developed in petroleum explo-
ration generally provide a much higher resolution than com-
parable 2-D surveys, it is natural to consider whether 3-D sur-
veying might yield similarly beneficial results in the shallow
environment.
1042 Siahkoohi and West

We therefore decided to test the imaging capability of 3-D Thorncliffe glacio-lacustrine sediments overlying Sunnybrook
seismic surveying in the GTA geological environment. How- Till and early Wisconsin Scarborough glacio-lacustrine sedi-
ever, 3-D seismic surveys for petroleum exploration are ex- ments arrow 1967; Boyce et al., 1995).
pensive, and seismology for environmental applications has The Late Wisconsin till layers correspond to two different
to be carried out in a more restricted economic regime than directions of late-stage ice motion in the area. The younger
petroleum exploration. For instance, near-surface geophysics till (Halton Till, up to 15 m thick) was deposited by a short-
has to compete with alternative methods (such as drilling) that lived north-directed flow of ice from the Lake Ontario basin
are an order of magnitude less costly than the corresponding about 13 000 years ago. The older and more heavily compacted
item in petroleum exploration. Thus, any proposed 3-D method
for near-surface studies must be practical to carry out with en-
gineering seismic methods and crews.
Our experimental 3-D survey was carried out east of Toronto
in a region where we had already conducted 2-D seismic sur-
veys along roads. It is located near the community of Whitevale
in Durham Region (Figure 1), in an area considered for a possi-
ble large municipal landfill. The site, known as P1, covers about
3 km2 and is one of several that has been investigated by drilling
and other studies (M. M. Dillon Ltd., 1990). Agricultural land
use still predominates in the area.

GEOLOGY

The geology of the site consists of about 90 m of Quaternary

(Pleistocene) sediments deposited during the last full cycle of
continental glaciation and deglaciation (Wisconsin, <125 ka).
In this area, the sediments rest unconformably on Upper Or-
dovician (460-440 Ma) Whitby Shale bedrock. No remanents
of earlier glacial cycles have been found in this region.
As shown in Figure 2, the Pleistocene deposits can be divided
into two main depositional sets. The upper deposits (-50 m
thick) are a pair of late Wisconsin tills: the Halton and Northern FIG. 2. A summary of the Pleistocene geological sequence in
Tills. A lower set (-40 m thick) consists of middle Wisconsin the survey site.

FIG. 1. Map of the study area showing location of site P1, where the 3-D survey was carried out.
 Engineering Scale 3-D Seismic Survey
Northern Till was deposited by southerly flowing ice during
most of the late Wisconsin deglaciation in the interval 25-
13.5 ka. The two tills are separated by a thin layer (2-10 m)
of silt, sand, and gravel, which records a short-lived intersta-
dial period (possibly the Mackinaw Interstadial; Karrow and
Occhietti, 1989). The tills frequently contain lenses and thin
layers of sandy material, presumably marking temporary flota-
tions of the ice. The Northern Till rests disconformably on the
Thorncliffe Formation of the underlying middle and lower Wis-
consin deposits.
The Thorncliffe Formation comprises deltaic sands and la-
custrine silt and clay. It was deposited during the middle part of
the Wisconsin glaciation, presumably in a period of temporary
regression of the ice.
Underlying the Thorncliffe Formation is the Sunnybrook
Till. It is a distinctive dark gray, fine-grained, clayey-silt till.
It records the earliest (and main) Wisconsin ice advance into
the area.
The basal Scarborough Formation is deltaic sediment de-
posited at about 90 ka in glacial lake Scarborough. It is the
earliest Wisconsin deposit in the Toronto area.
Although the various glacial formations are occasionally
well exposed in outcrops along the Rouge River and West
Duffins Creek (Figure 1), most information about the Pleis-
tocene stratigraphy in our area comes from drilling in and near
the P1 site. Core and outcrop allow detailed comparison and
correlation of seismofacies with lithofacies.
The 3-D test survey was carried out in a nearly flat farm field.
The soil is a well-plowed and relatively uniform clayey loam
that appears to be developed directly on the Halton till.
THE 3-D SEISMIC SURVEY
Small-scale, multifold 2-D seismic surveys using a hammer
source have been successfully conducted along well-compacted
and paved roadbeds near the P1 area. Usable frequency con-
tent to 350 Hz was readily obtained. However, much poorer
frequency response was obtained in plowed fields. Thus, prior
to designing the 3-D seismic survey, a small-scale 2-D seis-
mic reflection profile (Figure 3) was carried out over the farm
field using a shotgun source device (“buffalo gun”; Pullan and
MacAulay, 1987) firing a 12-gauge blank shotgun shell in a l-m
FIG. 3. Unmigrated 2-D stacked section from the region where the test 3-D seismic survey was to be conducted.
1043
deep, waterfilled shot hole. The ability of the site to transmit
high frequencies was the prime concern, but analysis of the col-
lected 2-D seismic data also helped to determine the general
aspects of the subsurface.
The 3-D test survey covered a 220 x 220 m area and was
designed with a nominal 12-fold coverage in 3-m bins. It was
carried out in early December 1994, just at the onset of win-
ter, when water tables are highest and frost was hardening up
the topsoil and when agricultural activity would not be dis-
turbed. With a crew of only four persons, field operations in-
cluding gridding, leveling, drilling, and seismic data acquisition
were completed in 12 days. Short daylight hours (maximum
6 hours/day), slow field operation (due to about 10-15 inches
of snow on the ground), and inexperience with the equipment
limited productivity.
The survey geometry consisted of seven parallel shot lines at
36-m spacing orthogonal to ten parallel receiver lines with 24-m
spacing (Figure 4a). Shot spacing on the shot lines was 6 m; geo-
phone trace spacing on the recording lines was 3 m, with only
single shots and geophones at each point. This is a typical land
geometry for a minimum of field effort (Galbraith, 1994). The
recording seismic patch was a 72 x 72 m area consisting of four
receiver lines of 24 geophones and two shot lines with 12 shots
per line (see Figure 4a). To cover the entire survey as shown in
Figure 4b, the recording patch was rolled along the cross-line
direction with two receiver lines overlapped (48 m), and rolled
along the in-line direction with one shot line overlap (36 m).
The seismic recorder was an Oyo-Geospace DAS-1 digital
engineering seismograph with 24-bit A/D converter, used with
50-Hz geophones, a 140-Hz low-cut filter, and a sampling inter-
val of 0.125 ms. As seen in Figure 5, shot records with a usable
seismic signals up to about 500 Hz were obtained by shooting
in l-m deep, waterfilled shot holes and recording at stations
each with a single geophone buried to a depth of 50 cm.
The data set consisted of 550 shot records, each with 96 traces.
Fold, as seen in Figure 6a, was uniform at 12 in the inner parts of
the survey area, but ranged from 9 to 1 within 20 m of the edge.
Common midpoint (CMP) gathers for bins near the crossing
points of the shot and receiver lines contained a broad range of
shot-receiver offsets as well as a good distribution of azimuths.
In other areas, most shot-receiver offsets were in the middle
range and azimuths changing with bin location.
1044 Siahkoohi and West

As seen in Figure 6b, in some of the CMP bins (e.g., 27-30)

the traces have only two or three different azimuths. This is
due to the asymmetric distribution of the shot lines over the
seismic patch, in other words, by not including shot points along
the third shot line in the patch. Shot-receiver offsets in these
CMP bins are mostly in the near to middle range (20-60 m).
In hindsight, this probably was a false economy in the survey
procedures. Also, offset and azimuth distribution can be further
improved by shifting every other shot line about half a shot
spacing (i.e., 3 m) along the cross-line direction.
DATA PROCESSING
Data processing (outlined in Table 1) was carried out us-
ing the Landmark INSIGHT 2-D and 3-D software on a Sun

FIG. 4. Orthogonal line 3-D seismic survey geometry. (a) The

shaded rectangle indicates the recording seismic patch. It con-
tains two shot lines and four receiver lines. (b) Recording seis-
mic patches after rolling one unit along the in-line direction
and one unit in the cross-line direction.

FIG. 6. Fold, offset, and azimuth distributions over the 3-D

FIG. 5. Amplitude spectrum of a sample of the 3-D seismic
shot records [composite spectrum of all traces in time windows
ms) excluding surface and air waves]. Also shown is
the composite spectrum of ambient noise at the site.
seismic survey area. (a) Overall fold distribution over the CMP
bins. Most of the CMP bins have a uniform overall fold of 12.
(b) Offset-azimuth distribution over an area bounded by two
adjacent shot lines and two adjacent receiver lines [see (a) for
exact location]. For presentation purposes, the size of each line
is equal to the cube root of the shot-receiver offset normalized
by the cube root of maximum shot-receiver offset within the
CMP gather. Note that shorter lines may be hidden by longer
ones in the same direction.
 Engineering Scale 3-D Seismic Survey
10 workstation. INSIGHT is Unix-based software, but the re-
quired processing power is no more than that of a modern high-
level Pentium-style computer. The software, however, must be
capable of handling 3-D geometry.
Despite the fairly high dominant frequency in the records
(~300 Hz) and because no shot/receiver arrays were employed,
the records contained strong, dispersed, and scattered surface
waves which heavily obscure the reflection signal in parts of
the record. However, as shown in Figure 7, clear reflections
Table 1. Data processing steps applied on 3-D seismic
data set.
Basic Preparation
Editing/resampling
Data gaining and filtering
Prestack Processing
Short-wavelength refraction static correction
Air-wave attenuation
Surface-wave attenuation
Spectral balancing
Surface-consistent amplitude scaling
Velocity analysis and NMO correction
Long-wavelength refraction static correction
Residual static correction
Stacking
Poststack Processing
Coherency maximization
3-D time and depth migration
FIG. 7. Sample of a field record after (100-150-550-650 Hz) band-pass filtering. It contains 96 traces recorded by four receiver
cables, each with 24 geophones. Large portions of the reflection signals have been masked by the surface and air waves (pointed
out by arrows).
1045
are visible outside the surface-wave area. Before any filtering
began, time-offset weighted gain was applied on each individ-
ual trace within the data set to compensate for geometrical
spreading.
Static corrections were estimated from complete picks of
first arrival data with the Hampson-Russell GLI-3D software
package. The method uses 3-D generalized linear inversion
(Hampson and Russell, 1984) to develop a 3-D layered model
of the subsurface with curved interfaces. A two-layer near-
surface model consisting of a weathered layer underlain by
an unweathered subspace was found to predict the observed
first arrivals to within a misfit of 0.5 ms. The total shot and
receiver refraction statics ranged from -6.3 to 2.1 ms and from
-5.7 to -1.6 ms, respectively.
Special attention had to be given to the removal of source-
generated coherent noises. Surface waves and air waves were
strong and could not be sufficiently attenuated by any simple
stacking procedure, especially because the 3-D geometry gave a
less regular range of offsets at each CMP than a 2-D profile sur-
vey. It required the development of a technique that is capa-
ble of eliminating the source-generated coherent noises in the
shot/receiver domain (i.e., before stacking). Of several meth-
ods tested, the most effective were a Karhunen-Loeve (K-L)
decomposition technique (Levy et al., 1983; Ulrych et al., 1983;
Jones and Levy, 1987) to eliminate air waves and a 3-D local
slant stacking technique (3D-LSS) to attenuate surface waves.
The K-L decomposition technique computes a set of un-
correlated (orthogonal) principal component traces from
an eigenvalue decomposition of the matrix of zero lag
1046 Siahkoohi and West

cross-covariances of the given multitrace input data set. The
most coherent events in the input data can then be constructed
by summing the principal component traces corresponding to
a few of the strongest components.
We applied the K-L decomposition technique on 96 trace
shot records flattened on the air waves (330 m/s), then used
the first five of the 96 principal components to estimate the air-
wave component of the records. A windowed version of the
air waves was then subtracted from the original input record.
Figure 8 gives an example of the original and reconstructed air
waves. Figure 9 depicts the same shot record as in Figure 7 after
suppression of the air waves.
The K-L method was tested for removal of surface waves,
but was much less satisfactory than for air waves because the
surface wave train included substantially dispersed and back-
and side-scattered components. Thus, it could not be flattened
satisfactorily at any single velocity. A 3-D local slant stacking
technique was therefore used. The shot gather was first NMO
corrected with an approximate velocity model to make reflec-
tion events nearly flat. Then, a local slant stack was used to
remove all events with very different slopes.
The forward slant-stack transformation for a specified small
range of event slopes was successively applied to a small subset
(five traces) of adjacent traces in the input record. This was fol-
lowed by an inverse transformation to reconstruct the middle
trace of the selected subset. The trace window was slid for-
ward across the input record (gather) trace by trace until the
whole record had been processed. In the first pass, traces were

FIG. 8. A comparison between flattened versions of the air wave: (top) original air wave, (bottom) K-L reconstructed version.

FIG. 9. The same field record as in Figure 6 after elimination of the air waves with the K-L filter.
 Engineering Scale 3-D Seismic Survey
processed in shot-gather form. In a second pass, the procedure
was applied on common-receiver gathers where adjacent traces
corresponded to adjacent shots along the cross-line direction.
In this pass, only a three-trace filter was used.
As part of the local slant stack, a spectral adjustment was
made to compensate for the radon transform’s theoretical
spectral attenuation and also to improve the high/low-
frequency balance of the record. This was followed by a surface
consistent amplitude scaling that focussed purely on reflected
body waves to adjust for shot effectiveness. Figure 10 shows
the K-L and 3D-LSS filtered output after applying spectral ad-
justment and a surface-consistent amplitude scaling.
After the filtering steps, the velocity analysis was refined in
several successive steps, and a variety of bin stacks of the data
volume were computed. In the final stacked data volume, a 2-D
median filter was applied on a square patch of nine adjacent
CMP bins to rebuild the middle stacked trace. This further im-
proved trace-to-trace coherency, and especially removed occa-
sional bursts of surface wave noise that could not be suppressed
by the slant stacking because of unfortunate shot-receiver ge-
ometry or occasionally poor shot conditions.
Finally, a 3-D phase-shift depth migration (Gazdag, 1978;
Gazdag and Squazzero, 1984) employing a spectrum slicing ap-
proach was applied to the CMP stacked data using the velocity
model obtained from stacking velocities. According to Gazdag
(1978) this method is capable of migrating reflectors with a
dip of up to 75°. Initially, a laterally averaged velocity function
was used to perform phase-shift migration in a frequency-by-
frequency manner. Then, to achieve a 3-D depth migration,
a first-order phase correction was applied at each frequency
to account for lateral velocity variations. The whole migration
FIG. 10. The same field record as in Figure 9 after attenuation of surface waves using the 3-D local slant stack filter (3D-LSS). A
spectral adjustment and surface-consistent amplitude scaling were also applied to this data after 3D-LSS filtering.
1047
process took place in 222 depth steps, each with 66 frequency
intervals.
RESULTS
The final products of prestack processing sequences were a
set of synthetic zero-offset (CMP-stacked) seismograms and
the interval velocity model. Figure 11 presents an example 3-D
view of the pair.
The synthetic zero-offset stacked data volume is a
74 x 73 x 1001 matrix of seismic-reflection amplitudes cover-
ing a survey area of 220 x 220 m with a trace bin of 3 x 3 m to a
two-way traveltime of 250 ms. The seismograms in the data vol-
ume have a vertical half wavelength resolution of about 1.2 ms,
corresponding to about 1.5 m of depth. More than 15 horizons
can be identified within the Wisconsin sediments.
The velocity model data matrix has the same dimensions
as the seismogram matrix, but it has much lower intrinsic
resolution in time and space. One view of the cube of interval
velocity model is shown in Figure llb. For comparison, it is
selected from the same view point as the cube of time-stacked
data. The color range for the cube of interval velocities was
chosen so as to present velocity information within the till
deposits in more detail.
The interval velocity model was considered reliable enough
to permit poststack depth migration. Figure 12 shows a view
of the migrated data volume. Note that this cube has been ro-
tated 180” with respect to the cube of time-stacked data shown
in Figure lla. It covers approximately a 220-m cubical subsur-
face volume with a trace bin of 3 x 3 m. A sample section along
the in-line direction of the depth migrated data is indicated in
Figure 13 beside a geological interpretation of the formation
1048 Siahkoohi and West

FIG. 11. A view into (a) the cube of synthetic zero-offset data and (b) the cube of interval velocity model. The time slice at about
85 ms shows reflections from near the bedrock surface.

FIG. 12. A view into the cube of the depth-migrated data. The depth slice at 95 m shows reflections from at, and just beneath, the
bedrock surface. A sample of the depth-migrated section along the in-line direction together with its geological interpretation is
shown in Figure 13.
 Engineering Scale 3-D Seismic Survey
stratigraphy. Colors indicate different geological units, and val-
ues of average interval velocity are given.
Boyce et al. (1995) reported the results of various geophys-
ical, geotechnical, and hydrogeological investigations at site
P1. To compare our results with previous works at the area, a
natural gamma log and corresponding lithologic log are pre-
sented in Figure 13. The logs are from one of the nearby drilled
holes at site P1 (borehole 26, about 350 m north of the 3-D
survey site) and were adapted from Figure 5 of Boyce et al.
(1995).
The main geological sequences identified in Figure 13 corre-
late very well with units identified on the logs. The discrepancy
of about 2 m in depth (especially clear for the interstadial unit)
is easily explicable in view of typical geological undulations
seen by the 2-D surveys, but may also have been caused by
different elevation reference points.
The top 50 m of the depth section in Figure 13a corresponds
to late Wisconsin till (Halton Till at the top and Northern Till at
the bottom). A narrow reflection at a depth of about 13-20 m
correlates with sorted interstadial sediments between the two
tills. This is the uppermost aquifer in the study area and has an
average thickness about 7 m. A detailed 3-D geometry of this
unit is given in Figure 14.
Generally, tills are expected to be massive deposits lacking
internal stratification. However, strong, continuous reflectors
are seen within the Northern Till. Drilling often does reveal thin
sand-gravel beds in the Northern Till, and outcrops show them
to be laterally continuous for as much as 10 m. However, the
seismic sections show that they are of much greater continuity
and extent than has previously been realized.
A less continuous sand and gravel body is visible in the mid-
dle Northern Till on the northeastern side of the survey block.
This deposit is elongated in the direction of ice flow (northeast-
southwest) and likely represents a thin “wedge” of sand and
gravels that perhaps was deposited by meltwater flowing in
channels at the ice base. It covers about a fifth of the survey
area. Figure 15 shows cross-sections of the feature along several
in-line depth-migrated sections; Figure 16 displays constant-
depth slices near its top and bottom.
Middle and early Wisconsin sediments appear on the depth-
migrated section (Figure 13) between depths of about 50 and
85 m. The 3-D survey clearly shows a foreset bedding within
the Scarborough deltaic sediments in the depth range about 70
to 85 m. This suggests that similar but less regular patterns of
discontinuity and variation in the other reflections also are real
features, not data artifacts.
The reflecting horizons in the Paleozoic section (Figure 13a,
below ~90 m) are noticeably smoother than those in the
Quaternary section. This is to be expected from the known
geology, and indicates that the velocity model contains no
lateral errors that would lead to spurious “pull ups” and “push
downs” of reflectors.
DISCUSSION
The reduction in spatial scale (relative to standard petroleum
seismology) necessary to apply 3-D seismic techniques to shal-
low targets necessitates an increase in the frequencies em-
ployed. This might seem straightforward, but deleterious ef-
fects arising from the absorption properties and irregularity of
the superficial layers of aerated soil can make it difficult to work
1049
at the necessary frequencies. Thus, it is an essential prerequi-
site that a satisfactory shooting and detection methodology be
devised for the terrain in question
The following points arise from our experience with this
survey.
1) Preservation of high frequencies required us to employ
a single shot and geophone at each point because irreg-
ularity in the thickness and properties of the aerated soil
layer in the farm field (which had a very low airlike veloc-
ity) was enough to destroy the performance of arrays at
high frequency. The choice of seismic source, filling the
shot holes with water, use of high-frequency Hz)
geophones, and burying them about 0.5 m below surface
were all found to be beneficial in maintaining shot ampli-
tude and spectral consistency.
2) A simple orthogonal-line survey geometry together with
a straightforward data acquisition scheme made it possi-
ble to conduct the whole 3-D survey with a relatively low
budget, small field crew, and with standard engineering
seismic equipment. On the other hand, data processing
brought to light several problems related to the use of
such a simple geometry.
3) Generally, shooting at a single point generates strong sur-
face waves. These must be removed in processing. This
can be facilitated by use of straight lines of uniformly and
relatively closely spaced shots and detectors.
4) To obtain a uniform S/N ratio and trace character over
the 3-D volume of stacked data, the distribution of off-
sets and azimuths in the CMP bins should be as uniform
as possible. This could have been achieved with a less lin-
ear shot and receiver distribution, but that would have
conflicted with item 3 above. Some research should be
devoted to design an acquisition geometry that is an op-
timum compromise between items (3) and (4).
CONCLUSIONS
The survey provided a cube of stacked data covering a sub-
surface volume of 220 x 220 x 200 m with a trace bin of 3 x 3 m.
Results surpassed our expectations in several ways. The survey
was relatively easy to carry out using standard engineering-
scale seismic equipment and a four-person crew in about 80
crew-hours. The stacked sections have a fairly high dominant
frequency (-300 Hz) and display many clear reflection events.
The 3-D interval velocity model obtained from stacking veloci-
ties assisted greatly in geological identification of the reflectors
and was good enough to permit poststack depth migration. De-
tails of the stratigraphy are much more clearly revealed in the
3-D data than in nearby 2-D sections.
The results did not show any faulting within the till deposits
in this small area, but it identified fairly continuous reflectors
(interbeds) within the Northern Till and a possible sand wedge.
These units may facilitate the movement of surface contami-
nants through the till aquitards into underlying aquifers by
interconnecting occasional short transverse paths.
In summary, a 3-D shallow seismic survey is practical and
leads to a higher resolution subsurface image. The orthogo-
nal line geometry is operationally feasible, cost-effective, and
gives satisfactory results. We believe that high-resolution 3-D
seismic surveying can contribute substantially to the detailed
1050 Siahkoohi and West

FIG. 13. Seismofacies and corresponding Quaternary lithofacies. (a) A sample section through the cube of depth-migrated data
along the in-line direction (see little cube for approximate location). (b) Geological interpretation of the depth-migrated seismic
section with average interval velocities. For comparison, natural gamma and lithologic logs from a nearby borehole (-350 m north
of the survey area) are presented. HT = Halton Till, IS = interstadial sediments, UNT = Upper Northern Till, TC = Thorncliffe
Formation, SU = Sunnybrook Till, SC = Scarborough Formation, and W = Whitby Formation (shale). The logs have been adapted
from Boyce et al. (1995).

FIG. 14. A 3-D image of the boundaries of the uppermost aquifer, extracted from the cube of depth-migrated stacked data.
 Engineering Scale 3-D Seismic Survey 1051

FIG. 15. The top 50 m of four depth-migrated stacked sections along the in-line direction. They reveal a wedge of contrasting
material within the Northern Till (highlighted with green color).

FIG. 16. Two depth slices extracted from the cube of depth-migrated stacked data. They are located at the top (de th 32 m) and
bottom (depth 39 m) of the wedge material within the Northern Till. Light colors correspond to positive polarity.
 Siahkoohi and West
assessment of hydrogeological/engineering sites with complex
geology.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to the Memorial University of Newfound-
land for providing a 96-channel Oyo-Geospace DAS-1 digital
seismograph. HRS expresses his gratitude to the Iranian Min-
istry of Culture and Higher Education (IMCHE) for its finan-
cial support under scholarship No. 411/36645. The research was
also funded by an NSERC Research grant to GFW. We thank
the reviewers and Assistant Editor for their helpful comments
and suggestions.
REFERENCES
Boyce, J. I., Eyles, N., and Pugin, A., 1995, Seismic reflection, borehole
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