Body and surface wave ambient noise seismic interferometry across the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, California

dc.contributor.authorSabey, Lindsay Erinen
dc.contributor.committeechairHole, John A.en
dc.contributor.committeememberZhou, Yingen
dc.contributor.committeememberChapman, Martin C.en
dc.contributor.departmentGeosciencesen
dc.date.accessioned2015-01-14T09:01:01Zen
dc.date.available2015-01-14T09:01:01Zen
dc.date.issued2015-01-13en
dc.description.abstractVirtual source gathers were generated using the principles of seismic interferometry from 135 hours of ambient noise recorded during a controlled-source survey across the Salton Sea Geothermal Field in southern California. The non-uniform nature of the noise sources violated a primary assumption of the method and generated artifacts in the data. The artifacts generated by the high-energy impulsive sources (e.g. earthquakes, shots) were removable using traditional methods of amplitude normalization prior to cross-correlation. The continuous source artifacts generated by the geothermal wells and highways required an unconventional approach of utilizing only normalized impulsive sources to successfully reduce the artifacts. Virtual source gathers were produced successfully that contained strong surface waves at 0.4-2.5 Hz, an order of magnitude below the corner frequency of the geophones, and modest body waves at 22-30 Hz, which are generally more difficult to obtain due to the need for many large, well-distributed subsurface sources. The virtual source gathers compare well to nearby explosive shots and are more densely spaced, but have a much lower signal-to-noise ratio. Analysis of the surface waves was complicated by strong higher-order modes. Spectral analysis of virtual source gathers required utilization of the geothermal plant energy, which produced usable signal at offsets required for mode separation. The virtual source dispersion curve compared well to a dispersion curve from a nearby explosive shot. P-waves were observed on the virtual source gathers. Creation of a low-quality multichannel reflection stack revealed two weak reflectors in the upper 2 km.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:4147en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/51185en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectseismic interferometryen
dc.subjectambient noiseen
dc.subjectgeophysicsen
dc.subjectreflection seismologyen
dc.titleBody and surface wave ambient noise seismic interferometry across the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, Californiaen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineGeosciencesen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Sabey_LE_T_2015.pdf
Size:
19.72 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format

Collections