• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.52-61
• /
• 2023

The use of ultra-high-resolution (UHR) seismic surveys to preceisly characterize coastal and shallow structures have increased recently. UHR surveys derive a spatial resolution of 3.125 m using a high-frequency source (80 Hz to 1 kHz). A digital streamer system is an essential module for acquiring high-quality UHR seismic data. Localization studies have focused on reducing purchase costs and decreasing maintenance periods. Basic performance verification and application tests of the developed streamer have been successfully carried out; however, a comparative analysis with the existing benchmark model was not conducted. In this study, we characterized data obtained by using a developed streamer and a benchmark model simultaneously. Tamhae 2 and auxiliary equipment of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources were used to acquire 2D seismic data, which were analyzed from different perspectives. The data obtained using the developed streamer differed in sensitivity from that obtained using benchmark model by frequency band.However, both type of data had a very high level of similarity in the range corresponding to the central frequency band of the seismic source. However, in the low frequency band below 60 Hz, data obtained using the developed streamer showed a lower signal-to-noise ratio than that obtained using the benchmark model.This lower ratio can hinder the quality in data acquisition using low-frequency sound sources such as cluster air guns. Three causes for this difference were, and streamers developed in future will attempt to reflect on these improvements.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2010

Seismic reflection surveying is one of the most widely used and effective techniques for coal seam structure delineation and risk mitigation for underground longwall mining. However, the ability of the method can be compromised by the presence of volcanic cover. This problem arises within parts of the Bowen and Sydney Basins of Australia and seismic surveying can be unsuccessful. As a consequence, such areas are less attractive for coal mining. Techniques to improve the success of seismic surveying over basalt flows are needed. In this paper, we use elastic wave-equation-based forward modelling techniques to investigate the effects and characteristics of seismic wave propagation under different settings involving changes in basalt properties, its thickness, lateral extent, relative position to the shot position and various forms of inhomogeneity. The modelling results suggests that: 1) basalts with high impedance contrasts and multiple flows generate strong multiples and weak reflectors; 2) thin basalts have less effect than thick basalts; 3) partial basalt cover has less effect than full basalt cover; 4) low frequency seismic waves (especially at large offsets) have better penetration through the basalt than high frequency waves; and 5) the deeper the coal seams are below basalts of limited extent, the less influence the basalts will have on the wave propagation. In addition to providing insights into the issues that arise when seismic surveying under basalts, these observations suggest that careful management of seismic noise and the acquisition of long-offset seismic data with low-frequency geophones have the potential to improve the seismic results.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.69-79
• /
• 2018

The Korean government attempts to reduce $CO_2$ emissions by 37% to 314.7 Mt $CO_2$, down from the estimated 850.6 Mt $CO_2$ until 2030 in order to confront green house effect. In this context, in 2014, Korean government launched $CO_2$ Storage Environmental Management Research (K-COSEM) Center for carrying out pilot-scale research on $CO_2$ leakage from underground $CO_2$ storage facilities. For the detection of $CO_2$ leakage, it is necessary to identify hydrologeological and geophysical characteristics of the subject area. In the study site of Naesan-ri, Daeso-myeon, Eumseong-gun, Chungbuk Province, two times injection tests (June 28-July 24, 2017 and August 07-September 11, 2017) of $CO_2$ and $SF_6$ dissolved waters, respectively, was conducted to understand the leakage behavior of $CO_2$ from underground. The injection well was drilled to a depth of 24 m with a 21-m casing and screen interval of 21~24 m depth. Two times resistivity surveys on August 18, 2017 and September 1, 2017, were conducted for revealing the flow of the injected water as well as the electrical properties of the study site. The study results have shown that the high-resistivity zone and the low-resistivity zone are clearly contrasted with each other and the flow direction of the injected water is similar to natural groundwater flow. Besides, the low resistivity zone is widely formed from the depth of injection to the shallow topsoil, indicating that the weathered zone of high permeability has high $CO_2$ leakage potential.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.80-87
• /
• 2011

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) present the important advantage of being able to approach the seafloor more closely than surface vessel surveys can. To collect bathymetric data, bottom material information, and sub-surface images, multibeam echosounder, sidescan sonar (SSS) and subbottom profiler (SBP) equipment mounted on an AUV are powerful tools. The 3000m class AUV URASHIMA was developed by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). After finishing the engineering development and examination phase of a fuel-cell system used for the vehicle's power supply system, a renovated lithium-ion battery power system was installed in URASHIMA. The AUV was redeployed from its prior engineering tasks to scientific use. Various scientific instruments were loaded on the vehicle, and experimental dives for science-oriented missions conducted from 2006. During the experimental cruise of 2007, high-resolution acoustic images were obtained by SSS and SBP on the URASHIMA around the northern Kumano Basin off Japan's Kii Peninsula. The map of backscatter intensity data revealed many debris objects, and SBP images revealed the subsurface structure around the north-eastern end of our study area. These features suggest a structure related to the formation of the latest submarine fan. However, a strong reflection layer exists below ~20 ms below the seafloor in the south-western area, which we interpret as a denudation feature, now covered with younger surface sediments. We continue to improve the vehicle's performance, and expect that many fruitful results will be obtained using URASHIMA.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2008

We present a method for interpreting seismic records with arrivals and waveforms having characteristics which could be generated by extremely inhomogeneous velocity structures, such as non-typical oceanic crust, decollement at subduction zones, and seamounts in oceanic regions, by comparing them with synthetic waveforms. Recent extensive refraction and wide-angle reflection surveys in oceanic regions have provided us with a huge number of high-resolution and high-quality seismic records containing characteristic arrivals and waveforms, besides first arrivals and major reflected phases such as PmP. Some characteristic waveforms, with significant later reflected phases or anomalous amplitude decay with offset distance, are difficult to interpret using only a conventional interpretation method such as the traveltime tomographic inversion method. We find the best process for investigating such characteristic phases is to use an interactive interpretation method to compare observed data with synthetic waveforms, and calculate raypaths and traveltimes. This approach enables us to construct a reasonable structural model that includes all of the major characteristics of the observed waveforms. We present results here with some actual observed examples that might be of great help in the interpretation of such problematic phases. Our approach to the analysis of waveform characteristics is endorsed as an innovative method for constructing high-resolution and high-quality crustal structure models, not only in oceanic regions, but also in the continental regions.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.3-17
• /
• 2002

Data analysis of groundwater monitoring wells and geostatistical methods are used to identify the local characteristics of sea water intrusion and the range of sea water intrusion at the southeastern coastal area of Busan, Korea. Rainfall and groundwater level of two monitoring wells show a linear correlation because of the direct groundwater recharge by the precipitation. However, rainfall and electric conductivity have the inverse relationship because of the increase of groundwater. Electric conductivity rapidly increased at 24m depth and exceeded 20,000$\mu\textrm{s}$/cm near 26m depth in the monitoring wells. The variations of groundwater level and electric conductivity show that the interface between sea water and fresh water tends to move upward when groundwater level goes down. In the cross correlation analysis, groundwater level versus rainfall represents the largest cross correlation coefficient in 0 time lag but the cross correlation coefficient of electric conductivity versus rainfall is the largest when the time lag is 9 days. This suggests that the fluctuations of groundwater level respond to rainfall in a short time, but the interface between sea water and fresh water respond very slow to rainfall. Horizontal extents of sea water intrusion are estimated to 14 m from the east of Line 1, and 25 m from the southeast end of Line 2 in the inversion of dipole-dipole profiling data of two survey lines. The data of VES by the Schulumberger array in May and July show lognormal distributions. In the kriged apparent resistivity and earth resistivity distributions, the resistivities of July are increased comparing to those of May. This reflects that the concentration of sea water in aquifer is reduced due to the increased groundwater recharge from the rainfall in June and July. In analyzing the vertical and horizontal apparent resistivities and earth resistivity distributions, the geostatistical methods are very useful to identify the variations of earth resistivity distributions at the coastal area.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.699-708
• /
• 2009

Recently as the interest in the development of domestic ore deposits has increased, we can easily find some studies on exploration geophysics-based ore-deposit survey in literature. Based on the fact that mineralized zone are generally more conductive than surrounding media, electrical resistivity survey among several geophysical surveys has been applied to investigate metallic ore deposits. Most of them are grounded on 2-D survey. However, 2-D inversion may lead to some misinterpretation for 3-D geological structures. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of the 3-D electrical resistivity survey to 3-D vein-type ore deposits. We first simulate 2-D dipole-dipole survey data for survey lines normal to the strike and 3-D pole-pole survey data, and then perform 3-D inversion. For 3-D ore-body structures, we assume a width-varying dyke, a wedge-shaped, and a fault model. The 3-D inversion results are compared to 2-D inversion results. By comparing 3-D inversion results for 2-D dipole-dipole survey data to 3-D inversion results for 3-D pole-pole survey data, we could note that the 2-D dipole-dipole survey data yield better inversion results than the 3-D pole-pole data, which is due to the main characteristic of the pole-pole array. From these results, we are convinced that if we have certain information on the direction of the strike, it would be desirable to apply 2-D dipole-diple survey for the survey lines normal to the strike. However, in most cases, we do not have any information on the direction of the strike, because we already developed the ore deposit with the outcrops and the remaining ore deposits are buried under the surface. In that case, performing 3-D pole-pole electrical resistivity survey would be a reasonable choice to obtain more accurate interpretation on ore body structure in spite of low resolution of pole-pole array.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.126-133
• /
• 2003

High-resolution shallow marine seismic surveys have been carried out for the resources exploration, engineering applications and Quaternary mapping. To improve the resolution of subsurface structure image, multichannel digital technique has been applied. The quality of the image depends on the vertical and horizontal resolution and signal to noise (S/N) ratio which are associated with the data acquisition parameters such as sample interval, common midpoint (CMP) interval and CMP fold. To understand the effect of the acquisition parameters, a test survey was carried out off Yeosu and the acquired data were analyzed. A 30 $in^3$ small air gun was used as a seismic source and 8 channel streamer cable with a 5 m group interval was used as a receiver. The data were digitally recorded with a shot interval of 2 s and sample interval of 0.1 ms. The acquired data were resampled with various sample intervals, CMP intervals and CMP folds. The resampled data were processed, plotted as seismic sections and compared each other. The analysis results show that thin bed structure with ${\~}1m$ thickness and ${\~}6^{\circ}$ slope can be imaged with good resolution and continuity and low noise using the acquisition parameters with a sample interval shorter than 0.2 ms, CMP interval shorter than 2.5 m and CMP fold more than 4. Because seismic resolution is associated with the acquisition parameters, the quality of the subsurface structure can be imaged successfully using suitable and optimum acquisition parameters.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.127-136
• /
• 2008

To identify the potential area of gas hydrate in the Ulleung Basin, 2-D and 3-D seismic surveys using R/V Tamhae II were conducted in 2005 and 2006. Seismic survey equipment consisted of navigation system, recording system, streamer cable and air-gun source. For reliable velocity analysis in a deep sea area where water depths are mostly greater than 1,000 m and the target depth is up to about 500 msec interval below the seafloor, 3-km-long streamer and 1,035 $in^3$ tuned air-gun array were used. During the survey, a suite of quality control operations including source signature analysis, 2-D brute stack, RMS noise analysis and FK analysis were performed. The source signature was calculated to verify its conformity to quality specification and the gun dropout test was carried out to examine signature changes due to a single air gun's failure. From the online quality analysis, we could conclude that the overall data quality was very good even though some seismic data were affected by swell noise, parity error, spike noise and current rip noise. Especially, by checking the result of data quality enhancement using FK filtering and missing trace restoration technique for the 3-D seismic data inevitably contaminated with current rip noises, the acquired data were accepted and the field survey could be conducted continuously. Even in survey areas where the acquired data would be unsuitable for quality specification, the marine seismic survey efficiency could be improved by showing the possibility of noise suppression through onboard data processing.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
• /
• v.2 no.2 s.3
• /
• pp.43-50
• /
• 1994

The geologic structure of Gongju Basin, which is a Cretaceous sedimentary basin located on the boundary of Gyeonggi Massif and Ogcheon Belt, is modeled by using gravity data and interpreted in relation with basin forming tectonism. The electrical survey with dipole-dipole array was also conducted to uncover the development of fractures in the two fault zones which form the boundaries of the basin. In the process of gravity data reduction, the terrain correction was performed by using the conic prism model, which showed better results specially for topography having a steep slope. The gravity model of the geologic structure of Gongju basin is obtained by forward modeling based on the surface geology and density inversion. It reveals that the width of the basin at its central part is about $4{\cal}km$ and about $2.5{\cal}km$ at the southern part. The depth of crystalline basement beneath sedimentary rocks of the basin is about $700{\~}400{\cal}m$ below the sea level and it is thinner in the center than in margin. The fault of the southeastern boundary appears more clearly than that of the northwestern boundary, and its fracture zone may extended to the depth of more than $1{\cal}km$. Therefore, it is thought that the tectonic movement along the fault in the southeastern boundary was much stronger. These results coincide with the appearance of broad low resistivity anomaly at the southeastern boundary of the basin in the resistivity section. The fracture zones having low density are also recognized inside the basin from the gravity model. The swelling feature of basement and the fractures in sedimentary rocks of the basin suggest that the compressional tectonic stress had also involved after the deposition of the Cretaceous sediments.