Charlotte M. Krawczyk

Near-surface fault detection using high-resolution shear wave reflection seismics at the CO2CRC Otway Project site, Australia

High-resolution, near-surface, shear wave reflection seismic measurements were carried out in November 2013 at the CO2CRC Otway Project site, Victoria, Australia with the aim to determine, and if so, where deeper faults reach the near subsurface. From a previous P wave 3-D reflection seismic data set that was concentrated on a reservoir at 2 km depth, we can only interpret faults up to 400 m below sea level. For the future monitoring in the overburden of the CO2 reservoir it is important to know whether and how the faults continue in the subsurface. We prove that two regional fault zones do in fact reach the surface instead of dying out at depth. Individual first break signatures in the shot gathers along the profiles support this interpretation. However, this finding does not imply perforce communication between the reservoir and the surface in the framework of CO2 injection. The shear wave seismic sections image with high resolution (better than 3 m vertically), and complementary to existing P wave volumes different tectonic structures. Similar structures also outcrop on the southern coast of the Otway Basin. Both the seismic and the outcrops evidence the complex youngest structural history of the area.

Fault‐controlled lithospheric detachment of the volcanic southern South Atlantic rift

We present structural models of two exemplary conjugate seismic lines of the southernmost South Atlantic margins to examine their initial evolution, especially the seaward-dipping reflectors (SDRs). Modeling illustrates the different structure and inclination angles of the SDRs, which therefore require different subsidence histories. Since typical symmetrical subsidence models are not applicable, we suggest a model with a westward-dipping detachment fault that offsets the SDRs on the South American margin and we speculate on passively subsided SDRs on the South African margin. We propose a simple-shear rifting mechanism to explain the initial break-up of the South Atlantic.

Multi-station Analysis of Surface Wave Dispersion Using Distributed Acoustic Fiber Optic Sensing

Multi-station analysis of surface wave dispersion to evaluate the near subsurface has been used in geotechnical applications for more than 15 years. A fiber optic cable used as array of distributed horizontal component seismic receivers for the analysis of surface wave dispersion is used in an extended setup here by the recording of active hammer blows. Their first analyses reveal low-frequency signal recordings with good continuity that can be used for further processing.

Dynamic strain determination using fibre-optic cables allows imaging of seismological and structural features

Natural hazard prediction and efficient crust exploration require dense seismic observations both in time and space. Seismological techniques provide ground-motion data, whose accuracy depends on sensor characteristics and spatial distribution. Here we demonstrate that dynamic strain determination is possible with conventional fibre-optic cables deployed for telecommunication. Extending recently distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) studies, we present high resolution spatially un-aliased broadband strain data. We recorded seismic signals from natural and man-made sources with 4-m spacing along a 15-km-long fibre-optic cable layout on Reykjanes Peninsula, SW-Iceland. We identify with unprecedented resolution structural features such as normal faults and volcanic dykes in the Reykjanes Oblique Rift, allowing us to infer new dynamic fault processes. Conventional seismometer recordings, acquired simultaneously, validate the spectral amplitude DAS response between 0.1 and 100 Hz bandwidth. We suggest that the networks of fibre-optic telecommunication lines worldwide could be used as seismometers opening a new window for Earth hazard assessment and exploration.Imaging the internal structure of faults remains challenging using conventional seismometers. Here, the authors use fibre-optic cables used for telecommunications to obtain strain data and identify faults and volcanic dykes in Iceland and suggest that fibre-optic cables could be used for hazard assessment.

Shear wave reflection seismics yields subsurfacedissolution and subrosion patterns: application to theGhor Al-Haditha sinkhole site, Dead Sea, Jordan

Near-surface geophysical imaging of alluvial fan settings is a challenging task but crucial for understating geological processes in such settings. The alluvial fan of Ghor Al-Haditha at the southeast shore of the Dead Sea is strongly affected by localized subsidence and destructive sinkhole collapses, with a significantly increasing sinkhole formation rate since ca. 1983. A similar increase is observed also on the western shore of the Dead Sea, in correlation with an ongoing decline in the Dead Sea level. Since different structural models of the upper 50 m of the alluvial fan and varying hypothetical sinkhole processes have been suggested for the Ghor Al-Haditha area in the past, this study aimed to clarify the subsurface characteristics responsible for sinkhole development. For this purpose, high-frequency shear wave reflection vibratory seismic surveys were carried out in the Ghor AlHaditha area along several crossing and parallel profiles with a total length of 1.8 and 2.1 km in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The sedimentary architecture of the alluvial fan at Ghor Al-Haditha is resolved down to a depth of nearly 200 m at a high resolution and is calibrated with the stratigraphic profiles of two boreholes located inside the survey area. The most surprising result of the survey is the absence of evidence of a thick (> 2–10 m) compacted salt layer formerly suggested to lie at ca. 35–40 m depth. Instead, seismic reflection amplitudes and velocities image with good continuity a complex interlocking of alluvial fan deposits and lacustrine sediments of the Dead Sea between 0 and 200 m depth. Furthermore, the underground section of areas affected by sinkholes is characterized by highly scattering wave fields and reduced seismic interval velocities. We propose that the Dead Sea mud layers, which comprise distributed inclusions or lenses of evaporitic chloride, sulfate, and carbonate minerals as well as clay silicates, become increasingly exposed to unsaturated water as the sea level declines and are consequently destabilized and mobilized by both dissolution and physical erosion in the subsurface. This new interpretation of the underlying cause of sinkhole development is supported by surface observations in nearby channel systems. Overall, this study shows that shear wave seismic reflection technique is a promising method for enhanced near-surface imaging in such challenging alluvial fan settings.