• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.39 no.4 s.179
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• pp.417-426
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• 2006

Data acquisition is as important as data processing and interpretation in the field of marine geophysical exploration. Marine geophysicist, however, may not have enough information in this field because data acquisition method has been mainly developed by the commercial companies manufacturing the equipment. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the general data acquisition method and information to help to construct the systematic and effective survey plan. When a survey plan is set up, the most important thing is to select the seismic equipment based on required penetration depth and resolution, and then construct the survey line intervals. Although a line interval varies from the research purposes, it should be narrower than the expected subsurface structures. Also, if 100% coverage of multibeam data is required, line intervals need to be adjusted based on the equipment characteristics. In case of merging with the preexisting dataset like bathymetry, gravity and magnetic, cross-over errors occurred at the each cross point should be removed to avoid any kinds of misinterpretation.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.119-125
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• 2003

The small-loop electromagnetic (EM) technique has been used successfully for many geophysical investigations, particularly for shallow engineering and environmental surveys. In conventional small loop EM operating at small induction numbers, geometric sounding has been widely used because the depth of penetration of EM energy depends only on the source-receiver separation. Recently developed small loop EM system, however, measures the secondary magnetic field, $H^S$, at multiple frequencies with a fixed source-receiver separation and frequency sounding is tried actively. In this study, we analyzed the behavior of in-phase and quadrature components of ${H^S}_z$, for horizonal coplanar (HCP) configuration over two-layer models. Through this theoretical analysis, it was found that the in-phase component of ${H^S}_z$ is more suitable for frequency sounding than the quadrature component. But, the in-phase component of ${H^S}_z$ is too small to measure, especially in resistive and noisy environment like Korea. Using the fact that the quadrature component is much greater than the in-phase component and the difference of quadrature component of ${H^S}_z$ measured at two frequencies shows the same behavoir as the in-phase component, we suggested an alternative frequency sounding technique. Also, we defined an apparent conductivity, which reflects well the conductivity of subsurface layers.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.105-108
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• 2004

Immersive virtual reality has been used in areas of oil and gas exploration for visualization and analysis of various spatial data, such as wireline logs, 3-dimensional seismic data volume, formational boundaries, fault, and some other reservoir characteristics. Although virtual reality is a valuable tool in this area, in most cases, it requires a large budget. This paper describes the construction of a single screen, passive stereo, virtual reality, display system based on commodity, or otherwise, low-cost components. The core elements of the system are a PC with a two-channel 3-D graphics, two projects, and a polarized stereo. There are many options available for the major elements of such a system, and the basic system can be modified or adapted to many different styles of use.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 1999

A traveltime tomography has been carried out by transforming electromagnetic data in frequency domain to wave-like domain. The transform uniquely relates a field satisfying a diffusion equation to an integral of the corresponding wavefield. But direct transform of frequency domain magnetic fields to wave-field domain is ill-posed problem because the kernel of the integral transform is highly damped. In this study, instead of solving such an unstable problem, it is assumed that wave-fields in transformed domain can be approximated by sum of ray series. And for further simplicity, reflection and refraction energy compared to that of direct wave is weak enough to be neglected. Then first arrival can be approximated by calculating the traveltime of direct wave only. But these assumptions are valid when the conductivity contrast between background medium and the target anomalous body is low enough. So this approach can only be applied to the models with low conductivity contrast. To verify the algorithm, traveltime calculated by this approach was compared to that of direct transform method and exact traveltime, calculated analytically, for homogeneous whole space. The error in first arrival picked by this study was less than that of direct transformation method, especially when the number of frequency samples is less than 10, or when the data are noisy. Layered earth model with varying conductivity contrasts and inclined dyke model have been successfully imaged by applying nonlinear traveltime tomography in 30 iterations within three CPU minutes on a IBM Pentium Pro 200 MHz.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.217-224
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• 1999

Although faults can be found by geological surveys, the surface traces of faults are not easily discovered by traditional geological surveys due to alluvia. In and around faults and fracture zones, the electrical resistivity appears to be lower than that of the surroundings due to the content of groundwater and clay minerals. Therefore, electrical resistivity surveys are effective to search buried faults and fracture zones. The dipole-dipole array electrical resistivity surveys, which could show the two dimensional subsurface electrical resistivity structure, were carried out in two areas, Yongdang-ri, Woongsang-eup, Yangsan-si, Kyungsangnam-do and Malbang-ri, Woedong-eup, Kyungju-si, Kyungsangpook-do. The one was next to the Dongrae Fault and the other near the Ulsan Fault was close to the region in which debatable quaternary fault traces had been found recently. From each measured data set, the electrical resistivity cross-section was obtained using the inversion program the reliability of which was analyzed using analytic solutions. A low resistivity zone was found in the inverted cross-section from the Yongdang-ri area survey data, and two low resistivity zones were found in that from the Malbang-ri area survey data. They were almost vertical and were 15∼20 m wide. Accounting the shape and the very low resistivity values of those zones (<100 Ωm)in the inverted section, they were interpreted as fracture zones although they should be proven by trenching. The reliability of the interpretation might be improved by adding some more parallel resistivity survey lines and interpreting the results in 3 and/or adding other geophysical survey.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.27 no.B
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• pp.115-119
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• 2007

Currently, geophysical method is applied for understanding the subsurface geologic structure economically and systematically, but there exists some limitations on recognizing complex subsurface structures precisely by a single geophysical method. In order to understand the complex subsurface structures, we applied various geophysical methods including seismic refraction survey, two-dimensional resistivity survey, seismic tomography survey, suspension-ps log, and understood distribution of low velocity, low resistivity range of resistivity survey and correlation of an intersecting point, velocity distribution of seismic tomography survey.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.78-84
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• 2008

Recent earthquakes near nuclear power plants in Korea have triggered public concerns about possible seismicity of the Ulsan Fault Zone in the south-eastern part of the Korean peninsula. To reveal subsurface structures of this fault zone, we conducted high-resolution seismic refraction and reflection surveys, and closely spaced gravity measurements in the Dongchon River valley north of Ulsan, Korea. Here alluvium covers the north-south trending fault zone in a 1-km wide valley. Both source points and receivers were spaced at 5-m intervals for the 24-channel seismic refraction and reflection methods, along two profiles of 835 m and 415 m length. Gravity data were also measured along these profiles at 131 stations using a 10-m interval. Synergetic interpretation of seismic refraction, high-resolution seismic reflection, and gravity surveys across the valley indicates that the Ulsan Fault Zone was formed by apparent north-south strike-slip motions during the Cretaceous, and that some faults may have been reactivated by east-west compressional or transpressional stresses during the Tertiary or Quaternary.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.163-170
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• 2014

Development of a modeling technique for accurately interpreting electromagnetic (EM) data is increasingly required. We introduce finite difference (FD) and finite-element (FE) methods for three-dimensional (3D) frequency-domain EM modeling. In the controlled-source EM methods, formulating the governing equations into a secondary electric field enables us to avoid a singularity problem at the source point. The secondary electric field is discretized using the FD or FE methods for the model region. We represent iterative and direct methods to solve the system of equations resulting from the FD or FE schemes. By applying the static divergence correction in the iterative method, the rate of convergence is dramatically improved, and it is particularly useful to compute a model including surface topography in the FD method. Finally, as an example of an airborne EM survey, we present 3D modeling using the FD method.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.178-184
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• 2002

For economy and convenience, seismic refraction survey is widely used in surveying for large civil engineering work. The purpose of this study is to obtain the numerical responses of various models using Kirchhoff migration, and to analyze its application to the real data processing. Synthetic traveltime curve was calculated by vidale's algorithm, and various models such as 2 or 3 layer model and irregular topography model are tested to simulate the response of real structure. In order to compare the effect of initial velocity model, true velocity models, inversion results by tomography, smooth velocity models are used as an initial guess. The responses of model data show that the algorithm of this study is more sensitive to initial velocity model than the reflection survey, so choosing a suitable initial velocity model will be the most important thing in real data processing.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.232-240
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• 2015

Magnetotelluric (MT) survey investigates electrical structure of subsurface by measuring natural electromagnetic fields on the earth surface. For the accurate interpretation of MT data, the precise three-dimensional (3-D) modeling algorithm is prerequisite. Since MT responses are affected by electrical anisotropy of medium, the modeling algorithm has to incorporate the electrical anisotropy especially when analyzing time-lapse MT data sets, for monitoring engineered geothermal system (EGS) reservoir, because changes in different-vintage MT-data sets are small. This study developed a MT modeling algorithm for the simulation MT responses in the presence of electrical anisotropy by improving a pre-existing staggered-grid finite-difference MT modeling algorithm. After verifying the developed algorithm, we analyzed the effect of vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) anisotropy on MT responses. In addition, we are planning to extend the applicability of the developed algorithm which can simulate not only the horizontal transversely isotropic (HTI) anisotropy, but also the tiled transversely isotropic (TTI) anisotropy.