• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.132-142
• /
• 2009

The Tamar rift valley runs through the City of Launceston, Tasmania. Damage has occurred to city buildings due to earthquake activity in Bass Strait. The presence of the ancient valley, the Tamar valley, in-filled with soft sediments that vary rapidly in thickness from 0 to 250mover a few hundreds metres, is thought to induce a 2D resonance pattern, amplifying the surface motions over the valley and in Launceston. Spatially averaged coherency (SPAC), frequency-wavenumber (FK) and horizontal to vertical spectrum ratio (HVSR) microtremor survey methods are combined to identify and characterise site effects over the Tamar valley. Passive seismic array measurements acquired at seven selected sites were analysed with SPAC to estimate shear wave velocity (slowness) depth profiles. SPAC was then combined with HVSR to improve the resolution of these profiles in the sediments to an approximate depth of 125 m. Results show that sediments thicknesses vary significantly throughout Launceston. The top layer is composed of as much as 20m of very soft Quaternary alluvial sediments with a velocity from 50 m/s to 125 m/s. Shear-wave velocities in the deeper Tertiary sediment fill of the Tamar valley, with thicknesses from 0 to 250m vary from 400 m/s to 750 m/s. Results obtained using SPAC are presented at two selected sites (GUN and KPK) that agree well with dispersion curves interpreted with FK analysis. FK interpretation is, however, limited to a narrower range of frequencies than SPAC and seems to overestimate the shear wave velocity at lower frequencies. Observed HVSR are also compared with the results obtained by SPAC, assuming a layered earth model, and provide additional constraints on the shear wave slowness profiles at these sites. The combined SPAC and HVSR analysis confirms the hypothesis of a layered geology at the GUN site and indicates the presence of a 2D resonance pattern across the Tamar valley at the KPK site.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.34 no.6_4
• /
• pp.1479-1488
• /
• 2018

On September 3rd 2017, strong artificial seismic signals from North Korea were detected in KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) seismic network. The location of the epicenter was estimated to be Punggye-ri nuclear test site and it was the most powerful to date. The event was not studied well due to accessibility and geodetic measurements. Therefore, we used remote sensing data to analyze surface changes around Mt. Mantap area. First of all, we tried to detect surface deformation using InSAR method with Advanced Land Observation Satellite-2 (ALOS-2). Even though ALOS-2 data used L-band long wavelength, it was not working well for this particular case because of decorrelation on interferogram. The main reason would be large deformation near the Mt. Mantap area. To overcome this limitation of decorrelation, we applied offset tracking method to measure deformation. However, this method is affected by window kernel size. So we applied various window sizes from 32 to 224 in 16 steps. We could retrieve 2D surface deformation of about 3 m in maximum in the west side of Mt. Mantap. Second, we used Pleiadas-A/B high resolution satellite optical images which were acquired before and after the 6th nuclear test. We detected widespread surface damage around the top of Mt. Mantap such as landslide and suspected collapse area. This phenomenon may be caused by a very strong underground nuclear explosion test. High-resolution satellite images could be used to analyze non-accessible area.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.12-17
• /
• 2017

We construct 3D SV-wave velocity structure of the crust and the upper mantle beneath East Asia from Rayleighwave group-velocity measurements. For the construction of the SV-wave velocity model at 10 ~ 100 km depth, we used seismic data recorded at 321 broadband stations in Korea, Japan, and China. Rayleigh-wave group-velocity dispersion curves were obtained by using the multiple filtering technique in the period range from 3 to 150 s. High SV-velocity anomalies are imaged beneath the East Sea from 10 km depth to deeper depth, implying that the Moho beneath the East Sea is between at 10 ~ 20 km depth. We estimated the Moho beneath the Korean peninsula to be around 35 km based on the depth where a high-velocity anomaly is observed. The SV-wave velocity model shows prominent fast S-velocity anomalies near northeastern Japan, associated with the subducting Pacific plate. Low-velocity anomalies are found beneath the east coast of the Korean peninsula at 100 km depth, which may play a role in the formation of the Ulleungdo and the Ulleung basin. We observed low-velocity anomalies beneath the Yamato basin at 100 km depth as well, which may indicate the upwelling of fluid from the Pacific plate via dehydration at deeper depth.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.37-43
• /
• 2006

In 2006, the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) plans to undertake (subject to receiving the necessary approvals) a Pilot program for $CO_2$ storage within a depleted gas reservoir. The Otway Basin Pilot Program (OBPP) aims to demonstrate that subsurface $CO_2$ storage is both economically and environmentally sustainable in Australia. This will be the first $CO_2$ storage program in the world to utilise a depleted gas reservoir and, hence, the experience gained will be a valuable addition to the range of international $CO_2$ storage programs that are underway or being planned. A key component of the OBPP is the design of an appropriate geophysical monitoring strategy that will allow the subsurface migration of the $CO_2$ plume to be tracked and to verify that containment has been successful. This paper presents the results from modelling the predicted gravity response to $CO_2$ injection into the Otway Basin reservoir, where the goal was to determine minimum volumes of $CO_2$ that may be detectable using non-seismic geophysical techniques. Modelling results indicate that gravity measurements at 10 m spacing within the existing observation well and the planned $CO_2$ injection well would provide excellent vertical resolution, even for the smallest $CO_2$ volume modelled (10000 tonnes), but resolving the lateral extent of the plume would not be possible without additional wells at closer spacing.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.273-283
• /
• 2003

Fissured rock and soft ground always suggest, problems in the construction of the underground space. The stress release of the weak underground material by opening the underground space with a soft ground, fissures and joints can lead to the failure of the opening. Grouting of the weak rock and the soft ground, which is a process of injecting some bonding agents into the soft ground, is one of the measures to reinforce the soft ground and to prohibit the failure of the underground construction due to the stress release. The proper installation of the grouting is essential to ensuring the safety of the tunneling operation, so that the evaluation of the grouting performance is very significant. The general procedure of evaluating the grouting is coring the grouted section and measuring the compression strength of the core. However, sometimes when the grouted section is at the crown of the tunnel and the grouting is installed at a wide section, the coring is not good enough. This study is oriented to propose a new and a non-destructive procedure of evaluating the grouting performance. The proposed method is based on the wave propagation of elastic waves, and evaluates the shear stiffness of the ground and investigates the anomalies such as voids and cracks. The SASW ( Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface-Waves) method is one of the candidate s to make the inspection of the pouting performance, and is adopted in this study. The practical grouting activity was monitored by SASW method, and the proposed method was applied to the inspection of the grouting performance to check the verification of the proposed method.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.41-51
• /
• 2008

To construct in situ velocity-porosity relationships for oceanic basalt, considering crack features, P- and S-wave velocity measurements on basaltic samples obtained from the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge were carried out under confining pressures up to 40 MPa. Assuming that the changes in velocities with confining pressures are originated by micro-crack closure, we estimated micro-crack aspect ratio spectra using the Kuster-$Toks{\ddot{o}}z$ theory. The result demonstrates that the normalised aspect ratio spectra of the different samples have similar characteristics. From the normalised aspect ratio spectrum, we then constructed theoretical velocity-porosity relationships by calculating an aspect ratio spectrum for each porosity. In addition, by considering micro-crack closure due to confining pressure, a velocity-porosity relationship as a function of confining pressure could be obtained. The theoretical relationships that take into account the aspect ratio spectra are consistent with the observed relationships for over 100 discrete samples measured at atmospheric pressure, and the commonly observed pressure dependent relationships for a wide porosity range. The agreement between the laboratory-derived data and theoretically estimated values demonstrates that the velocity-porosity relationships of the basaltic samples obtained from the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and their pressure dependence, can be described by the crack features (i.e. normalised aspect ratio spectra) and crack closure.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.15-25
• /
• 2008

Ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) positions are one of the key parameters in an OBS-airgun seismic survey for crustal structure study. To improve the quality of these parameters, we have developed a new method of determining OBS positions, using airgun shot data and bathymetric data in addition to available distance measurements by acoustic transponders. The traveltimes of direct water waves emitted by airgun shots and recorded by OBSs are used as important information for determining OBS locations, in cases where there are few acoustic transponder data (<3 sites). The new method consists of two steps. A global search is performed as the first step, to find nodes of the bathymetric grid that are the closest to explaining the observed direct water-wave traveltimes from airgun shots, and acoustic ranging using a transponder system. The use of precise 2D bathymetric data is most important if the bottom topography near the OBS is extremely rough. The locations of the nodes obtained by the first step are used as initial values for the second step, to avoid falling into local convergence minima. In the second step, a non-linear inverse method is executed. If the OBS internal clock shows large drift, a secondary correction for the OBS internal clock is obtained, as well as the OBS location, as final results by this method. We discuss the error and the influence of each measurement used in the determination of OBS location.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2001.03a
• /
• pp.167-174
• /
• 2001

Reflection method using ultrasonic source has been attempted to obtain the information about tunnel lining structures composed of lining, shotcrete, water barrier and voids at the back of lining. In this work, two different types of sources, i.e. single-pulse source and sweep source, can be used. Single-pulse source with short time duration has the frequency content whose amplitudes tend to be concentrated around the dominant frequency, whereas sweep source with long time duration denotes a flat distribution of relatively larger amplitude over a broad frequency band, although the peak to peak amplitude of single-pulse source wavelet is equivalent to that of sweep source one. In traditional seismic application, a single-pulse source(weight drop, dynamite) is typically used. However, to investigate the fine structure, as it is the case in the tunnel lining structure, the sweep wavelet can be also a desirable source waveform primarily due to the higher energy over a broad frequency band. For the investigation purposes of sweep source, a physical modeling is a useful tool, especially to study problems of wave propagation in the fine layered media. The main purpose of this work was using a physical modeling technique to explore the applicability of sweep source to the delineation of inner layer boundaries. To this end, a two-dimensional physical model analogous to the lining structure was built and a special ultrasonic sweep source was devised. The measurements were carried out in the sweep frequency range 10 ∼ 60 KHz, as peformed in the regular reflection survey(e.g. roll-along technique). The measured data were further rearranged with a proper software (cross-correlation). The resulting seismograms(raw data) showed quitely similar features to those from a single-pulse source, in which high frequency content of reflection events could be considerably emphasized, as expected. The data were further processed by using a regular data processing system "FOCUS" and the results(stack section) were well associated with the known model structure. In this context, it is worthy to note that in view of measuring condition the sweep source would be applied to benefit the penetration of high frequency energy into the media and to enhance the resolution of reflection events.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.523-531
• /
• 2008

In hole type CPTu equipment which combines the concepts of inhole test method and piezocone test method was newly developed in order to evaluate the dynamic properties of marine soils. It is possible to perform inhole type CPTu without any additional source device because the source and receiver are contained inside the cone rod, which is different from the conventional seismic cone system. In this study, laboratory tests using kaolinite as soft soil and numerical simulations using finite element method were carried out to investigate the effects of several parameters including test methods and soil conditions on the test results from inhole type CPTu and to find out the optimum test method. It was found that it is necessary to maintain the length of swing arm as well as the distance between source and receiver consistently to obtain the rigorous test results. The laboratory test and numerical results also reveal that contrary to the input wave frequency, the water content of soil layer and the disturbance due to the installation of swing arm apparently affect the shear wave velocity.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.121-131
• /
• 2009

In recent years, microtremor array observations have been used for estimation of shear-wave velocity structures. One of the methods is the conventional spatial autocorrelation (SPAC) method, which requires simultaneous recording at least with three or four sensors. Modified SPAC methods such as 2sSPAC, and linear array methods, allow estimating shear-wave structures by using only two sensors, but suffer from instability of the spatial autocorrelation coefficient for frequency ranges higher than 1.0 Hz. Based on microtremor measurements from four different size triangular arrays and four same-size triangular and linear arrays, we have demonstrated the stability of SPAC coefficient for the frequency range from 2 to 4 or 5 Hz. The phase velocities, obtained by fitting the SPAC coefficients to the Bessel function, are also consistent up to the frequency 5 Hz. All data were processed by the SPAC method, with the exception of the spatial averaging for the linear array cases. The arrays were deployed sequentially at different times, near a site having existing Parallel Seismic (PS) borehole logging data. We also used the imaginary part of the SPAC coefficients as a data-quality indicator. Based on perturbations of the autocorrelation spectrum (and in some cases on visual examination of the record waveforms) we divided data into so-called 'reliable' and 'unreliable' categories. We then calculated the imaginary part of the SPAC spectrum for 'reliable', 'unreliable', and complete (i.e. 'reliable' and 'unreliable' datasets combined) datasets for each array, and compared the results. In the case of insufficient azimuthal distribution of the stations (the linear array) the imaginary curve shows some instability and can therefore be regarded as an indicator of insufficient spatial averaging. However, in the case of low coherency of the wavefield the imaginary curve does not show any significant instability.