• Seismic methods are those that rely on the

transmission of elastic waves through the subsurface.

• These waves are generated by an energy source and
are detected by an array of geophones.
• The raw data consists of the time-series response
(‘wiggle trace’) at each geophone, which is processed
to give the underground structure.
• The term shallow seismics is used for the detection
of structures at less than ~100m depth. Arrival times
are typically measured in milliseconds (mS).

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THEORY OF THE SEISMIC METHOD

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• There are two types of elastic body wave in a solid:
– P-Waves: compression waves
– S-waves: shear waves
• P-waves are the faster and are usually the ones
studied in simple seismic methods.
• Other waves (surface waves) also exist but are much
slower. It is these waves that do the damage in
earthquakes.
• We will focus our attention on P-waves from now on.

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P-waves in an elastic solid 4
S-waves in an elastic solid 5
Surface waves in an elastic solid 6
• Elastic waves behave in an analogous way to light
rays in optics.
• At an underground interface (an elastic contrast), a
wave is refracted and/or reflected.
• Both events may occur. Their relative importance is
determined by the elastic contrast, measured by the
change of elastic impedance (z).

Z = elastic velocity x density

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• To measure the strength of the impedance contrast we
use a coefficient R, termed the coefficient of reflection.

z 2  z1
R
z1  z 2
• The larger is R, the more energy is reflected and the
less refracted.

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• The progress of a seismic wave is followed by a ray-
path. This is analogous to a light ray.
• At an elastic contrast a ray-path will obey the laws of
geometrical optics.
– The refracted ray obeys Snell’s Law.
– This leads to the concept of a critical angle of refraction and a
critical distance.
– The reflected ray obeys the law of reflection.
• This leads to a division into refraction surveys and
reflection surveys, depending on which ray is studied.

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10
REFRACTION SURVEYS

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• Refraction surveys study the critical refracted ray.
• Such a ray can only exist if, at an interface, the lower
layer has a higher impedance than the overlying layer,
which usually implies a higher velocity.
• In practice this is often the case, for example if
unconsolidated sediment overlies bedrock.
• If it is not true, then there is no critical ray and any
layer beneath the interface is hidden. It can then only
be revealed by a reflection survey.

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13
Seismic method using
multi-channel geophone array

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• The critical ray follows the line of the interface and
sends a return ray back to the surface. This is
detected by the geophones.
• The critical ray (or head wave) moves in layer 2 at
the (higher) layer 2 velocity. It thus sends a
progressive series of return rays along its path.
• These are detected in turn by each geophone.
• Both the downgoing and return rays meet the
interface at the critical angle of refraction.

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 INTERPRETATION OF
REFRACTION RESULTS

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• The interpretation of underground structure from
refraction results relies on ray-path analysis.

• The ray path is identified from a travel-time graph of

arrival times vs distance from source. This sometimes
called a T-X diagram.

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• The technique is basically to inspect the T-X diagram
and identify (?guess) the most likely underground
structure from which it arises.

• Values are then picked off the T-X diagram and

converted into structure parameters such as depth, etc
using the assumed geometry of the ray path.

• Thus we need to know how T-X diagrams arise.

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• A refraction T-X diagram is based on the first arrival
at each geophone.
• This is either picked off the geophone output
(manually or in software) or is automatically recorded
by a cut-off timer.

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 Geophone positions

Time (mSecs)

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• The T-X diagram is thus a graph of first arrival times
against distance from source.

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Horizontal Interfaces

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• Horizontal interfaces provide a simple introduction to
the construction of T-X diagrams.
• Close to the source, the first arrival is due to the
direct ray travelling in layer 1.
• This plots as a straight line on the T-X diagram.
• The slope of the line is the reciprocal of the layer 1
velocity (assuming distance is on the X-axis).
• The intercept is zero.

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• When the critical distance is exceeded, refraction
occurs and some energy enters layer 2. A refracted
ray then travels at V2 sending return rays back to the
surface as it does so.
• At some point (the cross-over distance) the
refracted ray (being the faster) will overtake the direct
ray and the return rays will become the first arrivals,
despite their longer travel distance.
• It is these that are now plotted on the T-X diagram

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• The T-X diagram thus develops an upper branch due to
the refracted ray.
• This is again a straight line, whose slope is the reciprocal
of V2 .
• There is now an intercept time (T1) whose value is
determined by the layer 1 thickness and the two velocities
• The intercept time is an example of a delay time sum,
composed of the separate times taken by the signal to
descend to the interface and then to return to the surface.

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• The intercept time is given by

V V 2 2
T  2z 2 1

V2V1
• Since, in this case, the ray path is symmetrical, the
intercept time is the sum of two equal delay times

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• By a similar argument, a third layer introduces a third
branch into the T-X diagram.
• The slope is the reciprocal of V3 and the intercept is a
composite of the layer 1 and layer 2 delay times.

V V
2 2
V V 2 2
T2  2 z1 3
 2 z2
1 2 1

V3V1 V2V1

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Dipping Interfaces

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• The presence of a dipping interface is recognised if
the reversed profile is not the mirror image of the
forward profile
• The analysis of a dipping interface introduces three
new issues:
– There is an additional unknown (the dip angle)
– The T-X diagram is no longer symmetrical and so the updip
and downdip intercepts are not equal
– The updip and downdip velocities in layer 2 are not equal

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• The asymmetry arises because the return ray has a
successively shorter (updip) or longer (downdip) path
as the distance from the shot point increases.
• This is expressed by saying that the apparent velocity
in layer 2 (the reciprocal slope of the upper branch) is
greater (flatter slope) in the updip than than in the
downdip directions.
• It is necessary to analyse both the forward and the
reverse profiles to solve for V1, V2, Z and  (dip angle)

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• Since it is not known in advance whether or not an
interface is dipping - and most usually are! - the
procedure is always to shoot a profile in both forward
and reverse directions (i.e. interchange the shot
position with the last geophone and leave the rest in
place).
• The dip will very probably be an apparent dip in the
geological sense, since the profile is unlikely to follow
the line of true dip. Thus a second, perpendicular,
profile is required to allow the true dip to be found.

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Irregular Interfaces

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• The T-X method smooths off interfaces by fitting a
straight line through the data and so irregularies are
not analysed.
• They are however visible as deviations from the best
fit line and can be analysed using a different method.

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• It is possible to analyse these deviations by using the
so-called plus-minus method. This simply uses the
previously-measured arrival times: a new survey is
not required.

• We return to the idea of a delay time.

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 The delay time is the time
taken to reach the lower layer
minus the time taken to travel
the horizontal distance

V V 2 2
Z
DZ 2 1

V1V2

Hence if we know the delay time

at a given station, we can find Z

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• We now state that the arrival time between any two
stations (say A and B) is the horizontal transit time at
the fastest velocity plus the sum of all the delay times
along the ray path
• For the simple two-layer example

x AB
TAB  DA  DB 
V2
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• If we now take the sum of the forward and reverse
times to any intermediate geophone and subtract the
overall travel time, we can find the delay time at the
intermediate geophone and hence the local depth.

• Since we have used both the forward and reverse

profiles, the value obtained is an average depth
around the position (approx smoothed over a distance
of one-third depth)

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 x AI
TAI  DA  DI 
V2
xBI The method takes each intermediate
TBI  DB  DI  position in turn and forms the sum
V2 of the forward time plus the reverse
x AB time minus the overall time.
TAB  DA  DB 
V2 Hence it is called the
plus-minus method.
Thus
TAI  TBI  TAB  2 DI It is also known as the
intermediate geophone method
because
x AI  xBI  x AB
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• Seismic refraction is a useful tool for the general
investigation of bedrock structure, particularly at depth.
• The T-X method averages out depth variations,
although the plus-minus method will show them from
the same data
• It is incapable of fine detail, especially if the bedrock is
irregular or lacks internal elastic contrasts.
• It assumes that the velocity increases in each
successive layer. If it doesn’t, the lower velocity layer
is missed.
• The velocity can be obtained from the T-X plot but is
often measured in the field.
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