BASIC OF SEISMIC

REFRACTION

LESSON 4
Advantages and Disadvantages of Seismic
Methods
 Reflection vs Refraction Seismic
Refraction Seismology -Refraction experiments
are based on the times of arrival of the initial ground
movement generated by a source recorded at a
variety of distances. Later arriving complications in
the recorded ground motion are discarded. Thus, the
data set derived from refraction experiments consists
of a series of times versus distances. These are then
interpreted in terms of the depths to subsurface
interfaces and the speeds at which motion travels
through the subsurface within each layer. These
speeds are controlled by a set of physical constants,
called elastic parameters that describe the material.
Reflection Seismology - In reflection experiments,
analysis is concentrated on energy arriving after the
initial ground motion. Specifically, the analysis
concentrates on ground movement that has been
reflected off of subsurface interfaces. In this sense,
reflection seismology is a very sophisticated version of
the echo sounding used in submarines, ships, and radar
systems. In addition to examining the times of arrival of
these, reflection seismic processing extracts information
about the subsurface from the amplitude and shape of
the ground motion. Subsurface structures can be
complex in shape but like the refraction methods, are
interpreted in terms of boundaries separating material
with differing elastic parameters.
 Reflection
Refraction
Refraction vs Reflection
 sin i1 sin i2

Snell’s Law & Critical Refraction v1 v2

 Because seismic sources radiate

waves in all directions
 Some ray must hit interface at
exactly the critical angle, ic
 This critically oriented ray will
then travel along the interface sin ic sin 90

between the two layers v1 v2
 If more oblique than critical, all
v1
wave energy is reflected sin ic 
 The reflected energy is useful too!
v2

 v1 
ic  arcsin  
 v2 
 Critical Refraction and Wave Fronts
• When a ray meets a new layer at
the critical angle…
• The ray travels along the interface
• Rays, aren’t real, so consider
the wave fronts…
• Wave fronts travel in both layers
• Wave front in top continues on the
same trajectory
• Wave front in Bottom has to be
perpendicular to the ray
• But the layers have different
velocities
• This sets up wavelets and head
waves…
 Huygens’s Principle
 Waves have circular (spherical) wave fronts, these
interact constructively (destructively) and produce
the wave fronts that we plot as rays.
 Huygens’s wavelets explains…
 Each point along a material is acts like a point source of waves
 Like a pebble dropped into water
 Huygens’s Wavelets
 Huygens (a 17th century Dutch physicist) realized that:
 When any particle oscillates it is a tiny source of waves
 So, every point on a wave front acts as a small source that generates waves
 The waves have circular (spherical) wave fronts and are called wavelets
 Wavelets constructively interact (reinforcement) to produce the wave front
 Has important implications for diffraction and critical refraction
Final Wave Front

New Wave Front

Wavelets Trough

Planar wave front

 Wavelets and Diffraction
 If wavelets didn’t occur, we wouldn’t be able to hear around
corners.
 Light doesn’t travel around corners very well because of its very high frequency

If only there were

wavelets… then I could
hear you

What Up
Dr.
Kate??
 Wavelets and Diffraction
 Because of wavelets, a wave front that encounters an obstacle:
 Will travel through the open space
 The wave front after the barrier diffracts, or bends into an area that is predicted to be a
shadow by ray theory.
 But what about critical refraction??

Final Wave Front

Wasuuuu New Wave Front

p!
Wavelets

What Up
Dr.
Kate??
 Wavelets and Head Waves
 The wave front just above the interface produces a continual
stream of critically refracted rays
 The wave front just below the interface does the same
 These stream of critically refracted rays form wavelets
 The wavelets combine to form head waves
 The head waves propagate up to the surface and can be recorded.
 The recorded rays are called the refracted rays
 Potential Paths in a Refraction Survey
 When doing a seismic refraction survey, a recorded ray can
come from three main paths
 The direct ray
 The reflected ray
 The refracted ray
 Because these rays travel different distances and at different
speeds, they arrive at different times
 The direct ray and the refracted ray arrive in different order
depending on distance from source and the velocity structure
Shot Point (i.e. the Source) Receiver
Direct Ray

ic ic
v1
Layer 1
Layer 2
v2
The Time-Distance (t-x) Diagram
Direct Arrivals
Reflected Arrivals
Refracted Arrivals
 The Direct Ray
 The Direct Ray Arrival
Time:
 Simply a linear function of the

Time (t)
seismic velocity and the shot
point to receiver distance
x
t direct 
v1
Distance (x)
Shot Point Receiver
Direct Ray

v1
Layer 1
Layer 2
v2
 The Reflected Ray
2h1
 The Reflected Ray Arrival v1
Time:
 is never a first arrival

Time (t)
 Plots as a curved path on t-x
diagram
 Asymptotic with direct ray
 Y-intercept (time) gives
thickness
Distance (x)
Shot Point Receiver

Layer 1 v1

Layer 2 v2
 x 1 1
t  2h1 
The Refracted Ray
2 2
v2 v1 v2
 The Refracted Ray Arrival
Time: critical
distance
 Plots as a linear path on t-x diagram cross over

Time (t)
 Part travels in upper layer (constant) distance
 Part travels in lower layer (function of x)
 Only arrives after critical distance
1 1
 Is first arrival only after cross over 2h1 2
 2
distance v1 v2
 Travels long enough in the faster layer
Distance (x)

ic ic ic ic
v1
Layer 1
Layer 2
v2
 Making a t-x Diagram
Refracted Ray Arrival Time, tt x  2h1 1  1 or t  x sin ic  2h1 cos ic
2 2 v1 v1
v2 v1 v2
Y-intercept to find thickness, h1

v2 = 1/slope

v1 = 1/slope
 Refraction…What is it Good For?
 Seismic refraction surveys
reveal two main pieces of
information
 Velocity structure
 Used to infer rock type
 Depth to interface
 Lithology change
 Water table