• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.91-103
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• 2021

In order to estimate the vertical and horizontal structural in the Yangsan fault core line (Naengsuri area, Pohang), we carried out gravity field measurements and interpretation procedures such as Euler deconvolution method and curvature analysis in addition to the forward modelling technique (i.e. IGMAS+). We found a prominent gravity difference of more than 1.5 mGal across the fault core. This indicates a distinct density difference between the western and eastern crustal area across the Yangsan fault line. Comparing this gravity field interpretation with other existent geologic and geophysical survey data (e.g. LiDAR, trenching, electric resistivity measurements), It is concluded that (1) the prominent gravity difference is caused by the density difference of about 0.1 g/㎤ between the Bulguksa Granite in the west and the Cretaceous Sandstone in the east side, (2) the fault core is elongated vertically into a depth of about 2,000 meters and extended horizontally 3,000 meters to the NNE direction from Naengsuri area. Our results present that the gravity field method is a very effective tool to estimate a three -dimensional image of the active fault core.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.341-353
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• 2022

Pipelines are buried in urban area, and the position (depth and orientation) of buried pipeline should be clearly identified before ground excavation. Although various geophysical methods can be used to detect the buried pipeline, it is not easy to identify the exact information of pipeline due to heterogeneous ground condition. Among various non-destructive geo-exploration methods, ground penetration radar (GPR) can explore the ground subsurface rapidly with relatively low cost compared to other exploration methods. However, the exploration data obtained from GPR requires considerable experiences because interpretation is not intuitive. Recently, researches on automated detection technology for GPR data using deep learning have been conducted. However, the lack of GPR data which is essential for training makes it difficult to build up the reliable detection model. To overcome this problem, we conducted a preliminary study to improve the performance of the detection model using finite difference time domain (FDTD)-based numerical analysis. Firstly, numerical analysis was performed with homogeneous soil media having single permittivity. In case of heterogeneous ground, numerical analysis was performed considering the ground heterogeneity using fractal technique. Secondly, deep learning was carried out using convolutional neural network. Detection Model-A is trained with data set obtained from homogeneous ground. And, detection Model-B is trained with data set obtained from homogeneous ground and heterogeneous ground. As a result, it is found that the detection Model-B which is trained including heterogeneous ground shows better performance than detection Model-A. It indicates the ground heterogeneity should be considered to increase the performance of automated detection model for GPR exploration.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.507-522
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• 2021

Specific survey objectives often cannot be met using only one geophysical method, as each method's results are influenced by the specific physical properties of subsurface materials. In particular, areas susceptible to geological hazards require investigation using more than one method in order to reduce risks to life and property. Instead of analyzing the results from each method separately, this work develops a four-quadrant criterion for classifying areas of levees as safe or weak. The assessment is based on statistically determined thresholds of seismic velocity (P-wave velocity from seismic refraction and S-wave velocity from multichannel analysis of surface waves) and electrical resistivity. Thresholds are determined by subtracting the standard deviation from the mean during performance testing of this correlation technique applied to model data of four horizontal and inclined fracture zones. Compared with results from the crossplot of resistivity and P-wave velocity, crossplot analysis using resistivity and S-wave velocity data provides more reliable information on the soil type, ground stiffness, and lithological characteristics of the levee system. A loose and sandy zone (represented by low S-wave velocity and high resistivity) falling within the second quadrant is interpreted to be a weak zone. This interpretation is well supported by the N values from standard penetrating test for the central core.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.120-128
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• 2022

There are 17,000 reservoir dams in Korea, of which more than 85% were built over 50 years ago. Old embankment dams are weakened by internal erosion and suffusion phenomena due to preferential leakage paths and this ongoing weakening can cause their failure. Therefore, early warning associated with leakage in an embankment dam is crucial to prevent its failure. An electrical resistivity survey is a non-destructive, real-time and in-situ technique for detecting the development of leakage zones and general conditions of embankment dams. Because of its advantages, the electrical resistivity survey is widely used for reservoir safety inspections. However, the electrical resistivity survey is still not officially included in the precise safety inspection of reservoir dams because it cannot present a quantitative index of dam safety. In this study, we propose a method for calculating the leak index according to the water content evaluated from the electrical resistivity survey and/or induced polarization survey. Particularly, by proposing a quantitative leak index calculation method from monitoring surveys and independent surveys, we provide a theoretical basis for including electrical resistivity and induced polarization surveys as components of the precise safety inspection of reservoirs dams.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.140-161
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• 2022

Seismic data with missing traces are often obtained regularly or irregularly due to environmental and economic constraints in their acquisition. Accordingly, seismic data interpolation is an essential step in seismic data processing. Recently, research activity on machine learning-based seismic data interpolation has been flourishing. In particular, convolutional neural network (CNN) and generative adversarial network (GAN), which are widely used algorithms for super-resolution problem solving in the image processing field, are also used for seismic data interpolation. In this study, CNN-based algorithm, U-Net and GAN-based algorithm, and conditional Wasserstein GAN (cWGAN) were used as seismic data interpolation methods. The results and performances of the methods were evaluated thoroughly to find an optimal interpolation method, which reconstructs with high accuracy missing seismic data. The work process for model training and performance evaluation was divided into two cases (i.e., Cases I and II). In Case I, we trained the model using only the regularly sampled data with 50% missing traces. We evaluated the model performance by applying the trained model to a total of six different test datasets, which consisted of a combination of regular, irregular, and sampling ratios. In Case II, six different models were generated using the training datasets sampled in the same way as the six test datasets. The models were applied to the same test datasets used in Case I to compare the results. We found that cWGAN showed better prediction performance than U-Net with higher PSNR and SSIM. However, cWGAN generated additional noise to the prediction results; thus, an ensemble technique was performed to remove the noise and improve the accuracy. The cWGAN ensemble model removed successfully the noise and showed improved PSNR and SSIM compared with existing individual models.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.84-93
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• 2023

The supervised learning-based deep-learning seismic inversion techniques have demonstrated successful performance in synthetic data examples targeting small-scale areas. The supervised learning-based deep-learning seismic inversion uses time-domain wavefields as input and subsurface velocity models as output. Because the time-domain wavefields contain various types of wave information, the data size is considerably large. Therefore, research applying supervised learning-based deep-learning seismic inversion trained with a significant amount of field-scale data has not yet been conducted. In this study, we predict subsurface velocity models using Laplace-domain wavefields as input instead of time-domain wavefields to apply a supervised learning-based deep-learning seismic inversion technique to field-scale data. Using Laplace-domain wavefields instead of time-domain wavefields significantly reduces the size of the input data, thereby accelerating the neural network training, although the resolution of the results is reduced. Additionally, a large grid interval can be used to efficiently predict the velocity model of the field data size, and the results obtained can be used as the initial model for subsequent inversions. The neural network is trained using only synthetic data by generating a massive synthetic velocity model and Laplace-domain wavefields of the same size as the field-scale data. In addition, we adopt a towed-streamer acquisition geometry to simulate a marine seismic survey. Testing the trained network on numerical examples using the test data and a benchmark model yielded appropriate background velocity models.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.214-216
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• 2022

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), an increasingly growing acquisition technique in the oil and gas exploration and seismology fields, has been used to record seismic signals using optical cables as receivers. With the development of imaging methods for DAS data, full waveform inversion (FWI) is been applied to DAS data to obtain high-resolution property models such as P- and S-velocity. However, because the DAS systems measure strain from the phase distortion between two points along optical cables, DAS data must be transformed from strain to particle velocity for FWI algorithms. In this study, a plane-wave FWI algorithm based on the relationship between strain and horizontal particle velocity in the plane-wave assumption is proposed to apply FWI to DAS data. Under the plane-wave assumption, strain equals the horizontal particle velocity, which is scaled by the velocity at the receiver position. This relationship was confirmed using a numerical experiment. Furthermore, 4-layer and modified Marmousi-2 velocity models were used to verify the applicability of the proposed FWI algorithm in various survey environments. The proposed FWI was implemented in land and marine survey environments and provided high-resolution P- and S-velocity models.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.227-241
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• 2022

Full waveform inversion (FWI) in the field of seismic data processing is an inversion technique that is used to estimate the velocity model of the subsurface for oil and gas exploration. Recently, deep learning (DL) technology has been increasingly used for seismic data processing, and its combination with FWI has attracted remarkable research efforts. For example, DL-based data processing techniques have been utilized for preprocessing input data for FWI, enabling the direct implementation of FWI through DL technology. DL-based FWI can be divided into the following methods: pure data-based, physics-based neural network, encoder-decoder, reparameterized FWI, and physics-informed neural network. In this review, we describe the theory and characteristics of the methods by systematizing them in the order of advancements. In the early days of DL-based FWI, the DL model predicted the velocity model by preparing a large training data set to adopt faithfully the basic principles of data science and apply a pure data-based prediction model. The current research trend is to supplement the shortcomings of the pure data-based approach using the loss function consisting of seismic data or physical information from the wave equation itself in deep neural networks. Based on these developments, DL-based FWI has evolved to not require a large amount of learning data, alleviating the cycle-skipping problem, which is an intrinsic limitation of FWI, and reducing computation times dramatically. The value of DL-based FWI is expected to increase continually in the processing of seismic data.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.171-184
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• 2023

Machine learning (ML)-based cavity detection using a large amount of survey data obtained from vehicle-mounted ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been actively studied to identify underground cavities. However, only simple image processing techniques have been used for preprocessing the ML input, and many conventional seismic and GPR data processing techniques, which have been used for decades, have not been fully exploited. In this study, based on the idea that a cavity can be identified using diffraction, we applied ML-based diffraction separation to GPR data to increase the accuracy of cavity detection using the YOLO v5 model. The original ML-based seismic diffraction separation technique was modified, and the separated diffraction image was used as the input to train the cavity detection model. The performance of the proposed method was verified using public GPR data released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Underground cavities and objects were more accurately detected using separated diffraction images. In the future, the proposed method can be useful in various fields in which GPR surveys are used.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 1999

Among the various seismic data processing sequences, the velocity analysis is the most time consuming and man-hour intensive processing steps. For the production seismic data processing, a good velocity analysis tool as well as the high performance computer is required. The tool must give fast and accurate velocity analysis. There are two different approches in the velocity analysis, batch and interactive. In the batch processing, a velocity plot is made at every analysis point. Generally, the plot consisted of a semblance contour, super gather, and a stack pannel. The interpreter chooses the velocity function by analyzing the velocity plot. The technique is highly dependent on the interpreters skill and requires human efforts. As the high speed graphic workstations are becoming more popular, various interactive velocity analysis programs are developed. Although, the programs enabled faster picking of the velocity nodes using mouse, the main improvement of these programs is simply the replacement of the paper plot by the graphic screen. The velocity spectrum is highly sensitive to the presence of the noise, especially the coherent noise often found in the shallow region of the marine seismic data. For the accurate velocity analysis, these noise must be removed before the spectrum is computed. Also, the velocity analysis must be carried out by carefully choosing the location of the analysis point and accuarate computation of the spectrum. The analyzed velocity function must be verified by the mute and stack, and the sequence must be repeated most time. Therefore an iterative, interactive, and unified velocity analysis tool is highly required. An interactive velocity analysis program, xva(X-Window based Velocity Analysis) was invented. The program handles all processes required in the velocity analysis such as composing the super gather, computing the velocity spectrum, NMO correction, mute, and stack. Most of the parameter changes give the final stack via a few mouse clicks thereby enabling the iterative and interactive processing. A simple trace indexing scheme is introduced and a program to nike the index of the Geobit seismic disk file was invented. The index is used to reference the original input, i.e., CDP sort, directly A transformation techinique of the mute function between the T-X domain and NMOC domain is introduced and adopted to the program. The result of the transform is simliar to the remove-NMO technique in suppressing the shallow noise such as direct wave and refracted wave. However, it has two improvements, i.e., no interpolation error and very high speed computing time. By the introduction of the technique, the mute times can be easily designed from the NMOC domain and applied to the super gather in the T-X domain, thereby producing more accurate velocity spectrum interactively. The xva program consists of 28 files, 12,029 lines, 34,990 words and 304,073 characters. The program references Geobit utility libraries and can be installed under Geobit preinstalled environment. The program runs on X-Window/Motif environment. The program menu is designed according to the Motif style guide. A brief usage of the program has been discussed. The program allows fast and accurate seismic velocity analysis, which is necessary computing the AVO (Amplitude Versus Offset) based DHI (Direct Hydrocarn Indicator), and making the high quality seismic sections.