Monitoring Subsurface Objects Using Resonant Seismic Emission

The numerical modeling results and field data indicate that some contrast subsurface objects (such as tunnels, caves, pipes, filled pits, and fluid-filled fractures) are capable to trap seismic energy and generate durable resonant oscillations. These oscillations are comprised of surface types of circumferential waves which multiply rotate around the object. Resonant emission of such trapped energy occurs primarily in form of shear body waves that can be detected by remotely placed receivers. Resonant emission reveals itself in form of sharp resonant peaks for the late parts of the records, when all strong direct and primary reflected waves are gone. These peaks are observed in the field data for a buried barrel filled with water, in 2D finite- difference modeling results and in exact canonical solution for a fluid-filled sphere. Computed movie for diffraction of a plane wave upon low-velocity elastic sphere confirms generation of resonances by durable surface waves. We show that resonant emission has characteristic quasi-hyperbolic travel-time patterns on shot-gathers. Inversion of these patterns can be performed in frequency domain after muting strong direct and primary scattered waves. Subsurface objects can be detected and imaged at a single resonance frequency without an accurate knowledge about source trigger time. Imaging of subsurface objects requires information about shear velocity distribution in an embedding medium, which can be done interactively during inversion. Resonant emission data processing is done using KinetiK Professional visualization and processing software.