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Multi-hole joint acquisition of a 3D-RVSP in a karst area: Case study in the Wulunshan Coal Field, China

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Abstract

Conventional surface seismic exploration in areas with complex surfaces such as karst landforms has been faced with the problem of poor excitation and reception conditions. RVSP (reverse vertical seismic profile) seismic exploration adopts a geometry in which the sources are downhole and receivers are on the ground which can reduce the influence of complex surfaces on seismic wave propagation (to some extent). Through numerical simulations and real data analysis, it was noted that in areas with complex surfaces and large numbers of underground karst caves, seismic waves generated in shallow boreholes are easily affected by various surface and multiple waves as well as by scattering from karst bodies. Therefore, the quality of the reflected seismic data is extremely low. Also, it is difficult to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) with conventional noise filtering methods. However, when the source depth is increased, the quality of the reflected waves can be improved. This is exactly what the RVSP method accomplishes. Besides, for the RVSP method, due to its particular geometry, the apparent velocities of the reflected waves and most interference waves are quite different, which can help to filter most noise to further improve the SNR of the reflected signals. In this study, a 3D-RVSP exploration study using 8-hole joint acquisition was conducted in a typical karst landform. The results show that the 3D-RVSP method can obtain higher quality seismic data for complex surface conditions that have large numbers of underground karst caves. Furthermore, multi-hole joint acquisition for 3D-RVSP has higher data collection efficiency and better uniformity of underground coverage. Therefore, in this study, 38 faults were accurately revealed and at high resolution based on the 3D-RVSP imaging results.

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Acknowledgements

This study work was funded jointly by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0804105), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (2015XKMS036), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20160245), and a Project Funded by Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. The authors also express their sincere thanks to the reviewers and editors for their valuable suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resource and Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Ming-Shun Hu, Dong-Ming Pan & Yong-Zhong Xu

  2. Key Laboratory of Gas and Fire Control for Coal Mines, CUMT, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Ming-Shun Hu & Fu-Bao Zhou

  3. IoT Perception Mine Research Center, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Juan-Juan Li

  4. Institute of Applied Geophysics, Yankuang Group Company limited, Zoucheng, 273500, China

    Yang-Zhou Wang

  5. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, 28223, USA

    Shen-En Chen

Authors
  1. Ming-Shun Hu
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  2. Dong-Ming Pan
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  3. Fu-Bao Zhou
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  4. Juan-Juan Li
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  5. Yang-Zhou Wang
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  6. Shen-En Chen
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  7. Yong-Zhong Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dong-Ming Pan.

Additional information

Hu Mingshun received his PhD degree (2013) in Geological Resource and Geological Engineering from China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT). He studied in University of North Carolina at Charlotte from Aug. 2011 to Aug. 2013 as joint PhD student funded by CSC. Currently he is a lecture and master adviser in the department of geophysics in CUMT. His research interests focus on borehole seismic data acquisition, processing and imaging theory and its application. And he is the member of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and Chinese Geophysical Society (CGS). E-mail: mhu3@cumt.edu.cn

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Hu, MS., Pan, DM., Zhou, FB. et al. Multi-hole joint acquisition of a 3D-RVSP in a karst area: Case study in the Wulunshan Coal Field, China. Appl. Geophys. 17, 37–53 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11770-020-0808-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11770-020-0808-8

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