Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock

Seismic imaging in hard rock environments is gaining wider acceptance as an exploration technique and as a mine-planning tool. To date, 13 successful case studies have been acquired in Australia. The images generated from hard rock targets exhibit large levels of complexity and their interpretations...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Greenwood, Andrew, Dupuis, Christian, Urosevic, Milovan, Kepic, Anton
Format: Journal Article
Published: Society of Exploration Geophysics 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27571
_version_ 1848752300820004864
author Greenwood, Andrew
Dupuis, Christian
Urosevic, Milovan
Kepic, Anton
author_facet Greenwood, Andrew
Dupuis, Christian
Urosevic, Milovan
Kepic, Anton
author_sort Greenwood, Andrew
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Seismic imaging in hard rock environments is gaining wider acceptance as an exploration technique and as a mine-planning tool. To date, 13 successful case studies have been acquired in Australia. The images generated from hard rock targets exhibit large levels of complexity and their interpretations remain an active area of study. To assist the imaging and better understand the source of the reflections observed, vertical seismic profiling (VSP) can be employed. This technique is not readily applied to hard rock environments because cost and operational issues often prove prohibitive. We propose the use of hydrophone arrays as a cost effective solution to VSP acquisition. We highlight the key challenges in using these receivers and propose solutions to overcome them. By careful acquisition methodologies and refined signal processing techniques, the tube waves that have up to now compromised the use of hydrophones for VSP acquisition can be effectively mitigated. We show that the data acquired with hydrophones compare favorably to that acquired with conventional 3C geophones. The data acquired with hydrophones come at a fraction of the cost and deployment time required for conventional acquisition procedures. Our results show that hydrophone vertical seismic acquisition is a viable, cost effective, and efficient solution that should be employed more routinely in hard rock environments to enhance the value of the surface data sets being acquired.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T08:06:26Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-27571
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:06:26Z
publishDate 2012
publisher Society of Exploration Geophysics
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-275712017-09-13T15:55:04Z Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock Greenwood, Andrew Dupuis, Christian Urosevic, Milovan Kepic, Anton mining vertical seismic profile (VPS) hydrophones Seismic imaging in hard rock environments is gaining wider acceptance as an exploration technique and as a mine-planning tool. To date, 13 successful case studies have been acquired in Australia. The images generated from hard rock targets exhibit large levels of complexity and their interpretations remain an active area of study. To assist the imaging and better understand the source of the reflections observed, vertical seismic profiling (VSP) can be employed. This technique is not readily applied to hard rock environments because cost and operational issues often prove prohibitive. We propose the use of hydrophone arrays as a cost effective solution to VSP acquisition. We highlight the key challenges in using these receivers and propose solutions to overcome them. By careful acquisition methodologies and refined signal processing techniques, the tube waves that have up to now compromised the use of hydrophones for VSP acquisition can be effectively mitigated. We show that the data acquired with hydrophones compare favorably to that acquired with conventional 3C geophones. The data acquired with hydrophones come at a fraction of the cost and deployment time required for conventional acquisition procedures. Our results show that hydrophone vertical seismic acquisition is a viable, cost effective, and efficient solution that should be employed more routinely in hard rock environments to enhance the value of the surface data sets being acquired. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27571 10.1190/geo2011-0490.1 Society of Exploration Geophysics fulltext
spellingShingle mining
vertical seismic profile (VPS)
hydrophones
Greenwood, Andrew
Dupuis, Christian
Urosevic, Milovan
Kepic, Anton
Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock
title Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock
title_full Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock
title_fullStr Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock
title_full_unstemmed Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock
title_short Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock
title_sort hydrophone vsp surveys in hard rock
topic mining
vertical seismic profile (VPS)
hydrophones
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27571