• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.30-36
• /
• 2006

Japan's first pilot-scale $CO_2$ sequestration experiment has been conducted in Nagaoka, where 10400 t of $CO_2$ have been injected in an onshore aquifer at a depth of about 1100 m. Among various measurements conducted at the site for monitoring the injected $CO_2$, we conducted time-lapse crosswell seismic tomography between two observation wells to determine the distribution of $CO_2$ in the aquifer by the change of P-wave velocities. This paper reports the results of the crosswell seismic tomography conducted at the site. The crosswell seismic tomography measurements were carried out three times; once before the injection as a baseline survey, and twice during the injection as monitoring surveys. The velocity tomograms resulting from the monitoring surveys were compared to the baseline survey tomogram, and velocity difference tomograms were generated. The velocity difference tomograms showed that velocity had decreased in a part of the aquifer around the injection well, where the injected $CO_2$ was supposed to be distributed. We also found that the area in which velocity had decreased was expanding in the formation up-dip direction, as increasing amounts of $CO_2$ were injected. The maximum velocity reductions observed were 3.0% after 3200 t of $CO_2$ had been injected, and 3.5% after injection of 6200 t of $CO_2$. Although seismic tomography could map the area of velocity decrease due to $CO_2$ injection, we observed some contradictions with the results of time-lapse sonic logging, and with the geological condition of the cap rock. To investigate these contradictions, we conducted numerical experiments simulating the test site. As a result, we found that part of the velocity distribution displayed in the tomograms was affected by artefacts or ghosts caused by the source-receiver geometry for the crosswell tomography in this particular site. The maximum velocity decrease obtained by tomography (3.5%) was much smaller than that observed by sonic logging (more than 20%). The numerical experiment results showed that only 5.5% velocity reduction might be observed, although the model was given a 20% velocity reduction zone. Judging from this result, the actual velocity reduction can be more than 3.5%, the value we obtained from the field data reconstruction. Further studies are needed to obtain more accurate velocity values that are comparable to those obtained by sonic logging.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.362-369
• /
• 2003

A infiltration experiment of river water has been conducted to evaluate the applicability of electrical resistivity monitoring methods in an area containing gravelly deposits in Nagaoka, Japan. Apparent resistivity data, which are inverted to obtain the resistivity distribution, are measured with a newly developed system. This system can collect 490 data in an hour and be controlled with PC to store the data. Subsurface resistivity sections, which are obtained from two-dimensional nonlinear inversion of time-lapse apparent resistivity data, enable us to estimate the direction of the flow and the rate of infiltration. The infiltration rate is estimated to be $4.4{\times}10^4m/s$ in the early stage of the experiment when the infiltration process is dominant.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.139-149
• /
• 2018

The resistivity monitoring is a practical method to resolve changes in resistivity of underground structures over time. With the advance of sophisticated automatic data acquisition system and rapid data communication technology, resistivity monitoring has been widely applied to understand spatio-temporal changes of subsurface. In this study, a new 4D inversion algorithm is developed, which can effectively emphasize significant changes of underground resistivity with time. To overcome the overly smoothing problem in 4D inversion, the Lagrangian multipliers in the space-domain and time-domain are determined automatically so that the proportion of the model constraints to the misfit roughness remains constant throughout entire inversion process. Furthermore, a focusing model constraint is added to emphasize significant spatio-temporal changes. The performance of the developed algorithm is demonstrated by the numerical experiments using the synthetic data set for a time-lapse model.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.73-78
• /
• 2001

Soundness evaluation of a structure being constructed under the sea is usually difficult. In this study, a cross-hole sonic logging(CSL) which have been used for non-destructive test of concrete piles is adopted for the integrity test and monitoring of DCM(deep cement mixing) treated soils. Chemical and physical characteristics of raw ground materials are analysed to delineate ground environmental effects on the strength of DCM treated soils. In order to convert cross-hole sonic logging data into compressive strength, correlations between compressive strengths and wave velocities of core samples have been obtained. It is found that there is little effect of ground environment on the strength of the DCM treated soils, and the density distribution of core samples and cross-hole logging data show that a defective zone may exist in the DCM treated soils. With the time lapse, however, the defective zone has been cured and consequently, compressive strength of the DCM treated soils increases and satisfies the design parameter. From this study it can be concluded that the cross-hole sonic logging can be used for the integrity test as well as monitoring the curing stage of the structures, successfully.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2007.06a
• /
• pp.87-92
• /
• 2007

This work describes the installation and preliminary measurements of an electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) system to monitor the injection of recycled water into a confined aquifer in the area of Sindos (Thessaloniki N. Greece). The aim is to provide, through time-lapse ERT measurements and processing, geoelectrical images of rather increased volumetric sampling around and between the holes and to obtain improved understanding of the flow and transport of the injected water. The details about the general setting, the construction and installation of the ERT cables into the boreholes are explained in full. Preliminary measurements involving single and cross-hole ERT measurements were obtained and processed with a 2D inversion algorithm to produce images of the subsurface. Results depict a very good correlation between ERT images and the lithology and resistivity logs; an indication of the reliability of the approach.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.383-392
• /
• 2007

Karstic features and mining-related cavities not only lead to severe restrictions in land utilizations, but also constitute serious concern about geohazard and groundwater contamination. A microgravity survey was applied for detecting, mapping and monitoring karstic cavities in the test site at Muan prepared by KIGAM. The gravity data were collected using an AutoGrav CG-3 gravimeter at about 800 stations by 5 m interval along paddy paths. The density distribution beneath the profiles was drawn by two dimensional inversion based on the minimum support stabilizing functional, which generated better focused images of density discontinuities. We also imaged three dimensional density distribution by growing body inversion with solution from Euler deconvolution as a priori information. The density image showed that the cavities were dissolved, enlarged and connected into a cavity network system, which was supported by drill hole logs. A time-lapse microgravity was executed on the road in the test site for monitoring the change of the subsurface density distribution before and after grouting. The data were adjusted for reducing the effects due to the different condition of each survey, and inverted to density distributions. They show the change of density structure during the lapsed time, which implies the effects of grouting. This case history at the Muan test site showed that the microgravity with accuracy and precision of ${\mu}Gal$ is an effective and practical tool for detecting, mapping and monitoring the subsurface cavities.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.19-29
• /
• 2006

The first Japanese pilot-scale $CO_2$ sequestration project has been undertaken in an onshore saline aquifer, near Nagaoka in Niigata prefecture, and time-lapse well logs were carried out in observation wells to detect the arrival of injected $CO_2$ and to evaluate $CO_2$ saturation in the reservoir. $CO_2$ was injected into a thin permeable zone at the depth of 1110m at a rate of 20-40 tonnes per day. The total amount of injected $CO_2$ was 10400 tonnes, during the injection period from July 2003 to January 2005. The pilot-scale demonstration allowed an improved understanding of the $CO_2$ movement in a porous sandstone reservoir, by conducting time-lapse geophysical well logs at three observation wells. Comparison between neutron well logging before and after the insertion of fibreglass casing in observation well OB-2 showed good agreement within the target formation, and the higher concentration of shale volume in the reservoir results in a bigger difference between the two well logging results. $CO_2$ breakthrough was identified by induction, sonic, and neutron logs. By sonic logging, we confirmed P-wave velocity reduction that agreed fairly well with a laboratory measurement on drilled core samples from the Nagaoka site. We successfully matched the history changes of sonic P-wave velocity and estimated $CO_2$ saturation a(ter breakthrough in two observation wells out of three. The sonic-velocity history matching result suggested that the sweep efficiency was about 40%. Small effects of $CO_2$ saturation on resistivity resulted in small changes in induction logs when the reservoir was partially saturated. We also found that $CO_2$ saturation in the $CO_2$-bearing zone responded to suspension of $CO_2$ injection.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.117-122
• /
• 2006

In the geophysical monitoring to understand the change of subsurface material properties with time, the time-invariant static subsurface model is commonly adopted to reconstruct a time-lapse image. This assumption of static model, however, can be invalid particularly when fluid migrates very quickly in highly permeable medium in the brine injection experiment. In such case, the resultant subsurface images may be severely distorted. In order to alleviate this problem, we develop a new least-squares inversion algorithm under the assumption that the subsurface model will change continuously in time. Instead of sampling a time-space model into numerous space models with a regular time interval, a few reference models in space domain at different times pre-selected are used to describe the subsurface structure continuously changing in time; the material property at a certain space coordinate are assumed to change linearly in time. Consequently, finding a space-time model can be simplified into obtaining several reference space models. In order to stabilize iterative inversion and to calculate meaningful subsurface images varying with time, the regularization along time axis is introduced assuming that the subsurface model will not change significantly during the data acquisition. The performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by the numerical experiments using the synthetic data of crosshole dc resistivity tomography.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.321-327
• /
• 2003

[ $CO_2$ ] sequestration in oil reservoirs can be one of the most effective strategies for long-term removal of greenhouse gas from atmosphere. This paper presents an advantage of the localized nonlinear approximation of integral equation solutions for inverting crosswell electromagnetic data, which are observed as a part of pilot project of $CO_2$ flooding at the Lost Hills oil field in central California, U.S.A. To monitor the migration of $CO_2$, we have used 2-D cylindrically symmetric and 2.5-D tomographic inversion methods. These two schemes produce nearly the same images if the borehole separation is large compared with the skin depth. However, since the borehole separation is much less than five skin depths in this $CO_2$ injection experiment, the 2.5-D model seems to be more reliable than the 2-D model. In fact, the pre-injection 2.5-D image is more successfully compared with induction logs observed in the two wells than the 2-D model. From the time-lapse crosswell imaging, we can confirm the replacement of brine with $CO_2$ makes a decrease of conductivity.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.232-240
• /
• 2015

Magnetotelluric (MT) survey investigates electrical structure of subsurface by measuring natural electromagnetic fields on the earth surface. For the accurate interpretation of MT data, the precise three-dimensional (3-D) modeling algorithm is prerequisite. Since MT responses are affected by electrical anisotropy of medium, the modeling algorithm has to incorporate the electrical anisotropy especially when analyzing time-lapse MT data sets, for monitoring engineered geothermal system (EGS) reservoir, because changes in different-vintage MT-data sets are small. This study developed a MT modeling algorithm for the simulation MT responses in the presence of electrical anisotropy by improving a pre-existing staggered-grid finite-difference MT modeling algorithm. After verifying the developed algorithm, we analyzed the effect of vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) anisotropy on MT responses. In addition, we are planning to extend the applicability of the developed algorithm which can simulate not only the horizontal transversely isotropic (HTI) anisotropy, but also the tiled transversely isotropic (TTI) anisotropy.