UNIVERSITY OF MINES AND TECHNOLOGY (UMaT),

TARKWA
FACULTY OF MINERAL RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERING

APPLIED GEOPHYSICS
PE 276

LECTURER: J. SEIDU

JANUARY, 2020
 Organisational Aspects

Geological Engineering Department

Email: jseidu@umat.edu.gh
Office hours: Tuesdays and Wednesday 12-16hrs
Assessment
Class attendance (10 marks)
Continues Assessment: Assignments+ Exercise + Mini Projects (30 marks)
End of semester exams (60 marks)

Others
NB: Marks will be allocated for class participation
 OUTLINE

Introduction
Seismic methods
The Electrical Resistivity Methods
Gravitational Method
Magnetic Methods
Course content
• Overview of seismic methods, electrical resistivity,
gravitational method and magnetic method.
• The course will review the basic physical principles
underlying the various exploration techniques and will
show how the field data are acquired and interpreted.

Aim
• Understanding the fundamental concepts of geophysical
exploration techniques and being able to put these concepts
into practice.

What are your expectations for course?

Reading Materials
Burger, H. R., Sheehan, A. F., and Jones, C. H. “An introduction to Geophysical Exploration” by Keary,
(2006), Introduction to Applied Geophysics Brooks and Hill. Blackwell, 2002.

“An introduction to Applied and Environmental “Applied Geophysics” by Telford,

Geophysics” by Robinson. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Geldart and Sheriff. Cambridge UP,
1990.
INTRODUCTION
 INTRODUCTION

• Geophysics is the application of physical principles and methods

to problems in Earth Sciences.

• There is no clear distinction between general and applied

geophysics…

• …but in general geophysics methods are typically applied to solve

academic questions.
• applied geophysics can be characterized by the application of
geophysical methods for commercial purposes (“making money”).

• Examples:
 oil, gas, coal, minerals, …
 groundwater
 geo-engineering (tunnels, dams, …)
 archeology
 pollution
 …
 INTRODUCTION

• The objectives of a geophysical survey are to detect and locate

subsurface geological structures and if possible to measure
their dimensions.

• The properties of rocks of which most use is made in

geophysical prospecting are;
• Density
• Magnetic susceptibility
• Elasticity
• Electrical conductivity

• These physical properties can be measured only if there exists a contrast

between the rocks.

• Density contrast = Gravity method

• Electrical conductivity = Electrical and electromagnetic methods
• Elastic properties = Seismic methods
• Magnetic susceptibility = magnetic methods.
 INTRODUCTION

• Two classes of methods are identified.

(a) Static (b) Dynamic methods.

• The static methods make use of existing or natural fields of force.

eg. the gravity method makes use of the earth's gravitational field and the
magnetic method makes use of the earth's magnetic field.

• Dynamic methods make use of energy generation.

eg. seismic method makes use of the elastic properties of the rocks,
necessitate introducing energy into the ground.

Electromagnetic to generate electromagnetic fields. Resistivity generates

currents in the earth.

• Since the energies of these methods are artificially produced, the distance
between its source and detector can be varied. As a result, of this,
interpretation of the measurements in terms of structure can often be made
unambiguously and more precisely than is possible by methods utilising natural
fields of force.
 INTRODUCTION

• To select the most appropriate geophysical method to investigate a certain

task/problem, following aspects need to be considered:

What are the relevant physical properties? (porosity, pemeability, seismic velocity,
density, …)

What spatial scales are relevant?

What are the field conditions? (e.g. urban, offshore, …)

Which acquisition geometries are optimal? (e.g. 2D vs 3D seismics)

Is there useful a priori information?

Is there a cheaper alternative?

The answer to these questions will depend strongly on the particular

task/problem
 INTRODUCTION

Figure 1: Inter-relationships between the various subdisciplines of

applied geophysics
INTRODUCTION
SEISMIC METHODS
 SEISMIC METHODS

• Seismology - originates with the propagation of elastic waves within the

earth.

• Seismic prospecting has as its main objective, the mapping of geological

structures almost invariably in the uppermost part of the earth's crust.

• In common with electrical methods, the depth of investigation in seismic

exploration may be controlled by varying the spacing between
transmission and reception points.

In seismic prospecting, the basic procedure is to:

• Generate seismic waves by a near-surface explosion,

• Record the resulting waves which reach the surface at various distances
through different paths, and

• Deduce the positions of reflecting and refracting interfaces by analysis of

the travel times of identifiable wave groups.
 SEISMIC METHODS

• The techniques using reflected waves differ considerably from

those based on refracted waves.

• Seismic Refraction have been used extensively in oil

exploration for mapping of structural traps.

• Seismic refraction shooting has attained great practical

significance in the location of salt domes because of the distinct
geometric disposition and elasticity contrast existing in such
domes.
SEISMIC METHODS
 WAVE TYPES

• Body waves
• Surface waves

• Body waves conform to the laws of geometrical optics, being

reflected and refracted at interfaces where the velocity changes.
• Compressional waves (P-waves)
• Shear waves (S-waves)

Compressional Waves
• The motion of the particle is always in the direction of wave
propagation.

• The velocity of compressional waves is usually denoted by the

symbol Vp.
 WAVE TYPES (BODY WAVES)

k  (4 / 3)u (1   ) E
Vp  Vp 
 (1   )(1  2 ) 

=density of rock, k=bulk modulus = [(F/A)/V] and =Poissons ratio, =shear or rigidity
modulus.

Elastic deformations and ground particle motions associated with the passage of
body waves: P-wave
 WAVE TYPES (BODY WAVES)

Shear Waves
• In secondary waves, the motion of the particles of the medium is
perpendicular (transverse) to the direction of travel of the wave.
• Only rigid (solid) materials can transmit shear waves.
 

Elastic deformations and ground particle motions associated with the

passage of body waves: S-wave.
 WAVE TYPES (BODY WAVES)

The velocity of shear wave is given by:

u E
 
Vs  Vp 
 2(1   ) 

Primary waves is always greater than Shear waves

• Since  does not usually vary by as much as a factor of 2 in rocks

and  = 0.25, it follows that E is the most important variable
controlling the velocity of seismic waves in rocks.

• Body waves are non dispersive i.e. all frequency components

in a wave train travel through any material at the same velocity,
• …..determined only by the elastic modulus and density of the
material.
 WAVE TYPES (SURFACE WAVES)
• These are waves which travel along the free surface of an elastic
solid.
• Rayleigh Waves
• Love Waves

Rayleigh Waves
• These travel on the surface or along the boundary between 2
dissimilar solid media.
• The particle motion is more or less a combination of
longitudinal and transverse vibration, giving rise to an
elliptical retrograde motion in the vertical plane along the
direction of travel.
• The velocity of Rayleigh waves is about 0.9Vs. Rayleigh waves
involve shear strain and are the restricted to solid media.
 WAVE TYPES (SURFACE WAVES)

Love
 
Waves
Love waves travel horizontally in a surface layer, the particle motion being
horizontal and transverse to the direction of wave travel.

• An important characteristic of surface waves is their dispersion - the

dependence of velocity on wavelength.

• Because their particle motion is always horizontal, Love Waves are seldom
recorded in the course of seismic prospecting operations, for which the
detectors respond to vertical ground motion only.
 VELOCITIES OF SEISMIC WAVES IN ROCKS
• Most igneous and metamorphic rocks have little or no
porosity and the velocities of their waves depend mainly on the
elastic properties of the minerals making up the rock itself.
• This is also, the case for massive limestones, dolomites, and
evaporites.

• Sandstone and shale, on the other hand have more complex

microstructure with pore spaces between grains which may
contain fluid or softer types of solid materials such as clay.
• For such rocks, velocity is very much dependent on porosity
and materials filling pore spaces.
• In general, denser rocks have higher body wave velocities since E increase
with increasing  more rapidly than  itself does.
• Also in general, igneous rocks have seismic velocities which show a narrower
range of variation than sedimentary or metamorphic rocks.
Compressional wave velocities in Earth materials