• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2017

In order to improve the accuracy of microseismic epicenter location through the inversion techniques using P and S wave first arrivals, field experiments of microseismic monitoring were performed using borehole 3-component geophones. The direction of epicenter was estimated from the hodograms of P-wave first arrivals through the weight drop experiments in which the $\times$ component of 3-component geophone was aligned to the magnetic north. The picking of S wave first arrival was possible in the polarization filtered data even if S waves are difficult to be identified in raw data. The inversion technique using only P wave first arrival times can often converge to the local minimum when the initial values for epicenter are largely apart from the true epicenter, so that the correct solution can not be found. To solve this problem, the epicenter determination method using differences between P and S wave arrival times was used to estimate proper initial values of epicenter. The inversion result using only P-wave first arrival times which started from the estimated initial values showed the improved accuracy of the epicenter location.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.150-156
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• 2002

In this study, a software for crosswell seismic tomography is developed. The software consists of first arrival picking and adjusting module, crosswell traveltime tomography module, and imaging module. This software allows saying the picked first arrival times into the header of seismic data, and using this data directly to the input of crosswell seismic tomography. With an imaging module, velocity structures and ray path can be imaged directly from the output of the tomography module. Because it is developed on the basis of the SU under the Linux and the GUI environment for user, this software can be carried out directly the first arrival picking, inversion and tomogram for crosswell tomography data in the field. Therefore, this software can be improved the applicability of site investigation by tomography method.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2011

In order to analyze the influence of the noise on a cross-well traveltime tomography to detect a small scale low velocity body in a homogeneous medium, the first arrival travel times were computed one a tunnel model by a finite-difference ray tracing scheme. Three different types and four different intensity levels of white noises were added to the computed first arrival travel times, and velocity tomograms were constructed using an iterative inversion method (SIRT). Tomograms with the noise intensity up to 10% of the maximum traveltime delay in the tunnel model, showed the exact location of the tunnel. However, the velocity shown at the tunnel location was not close to air velocity but only slightly less than the velocity of the background medium. The additive random noise showed significantly less degree of influence on the resulting tomogram than the source- and receiver consistent noise.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.64-73
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• 2015

Recently, hydraulic fracturing is used in various fields and microseismic monitoring is one of the best methods for judging where hydraulic fractures exist and how they are developing. When locating microseismic events using single vertical well data, distances from the vertical array and depths from the surface are generally decided using time differences between compressional (P) wave and shear (S) wave arrivals and azimuths are calculated using P wave hodogram analysis. However, in field data, it is sometimes hard to acquire P wave data which has smaller amplitude than S wave because microseismic data often have very low signal to noise (S/N) ratio. To overcome this problem, in this study, we developed a grid search algorithm which can find event location using all combinations of arrival times recorded at receivers. In addition, we introduced and analyzed the method which calculates azimuths using S wave. The tests of synthetic data show the inversion method using all combinations of arrival times and receivers can locate events without considering the origin time even using only single phase. In addition, the method can locate events with higher accuracy and has lower sensitivity on first arrival picking errors than conventional method. The method which calculates azimuths using S wave can provide reliable results when the dip between event and receiver is relatively small. However, this method shows the limitation when dip is greater than about $20^{\circ}$ in our model test.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.42-49
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• 2011

To locate anomalous features including seepage pathways through the Daeryong earth-fill dam, P and Rayleigh waves were recorded along a 250-m profile on the crest of the dam. Seismic energy was generated using a 5-kg sledgehammer and detected by 24 4.5-Hz vertical-axis geophones installed at 3-m intervals. P-wave and apparent S-wave velocities of the reservoir dam and underlying bedrock were then inverted from first-arrival traveltimes and dispersion curves of Rayleigh waves, respectively. Apparent dynamic Poisson's ratios as high as 0.46 were obtained at the base of the dam near its north-east end, where an outlet conduit occurs, and in the clay core body near the south-west end of the profile where the dam was repeatedly grouted to abate seepage before our survey. These anomalies of higher Poisson's ratios in the upper part of clay core were also associated with effusion of grout on the downstream slope of the dam during post-survey grouting to abate leakage. Combining P-wave traveltime tomography and inversion of Rayleigh wave velocities was very effective in detecting potential pathways for seepage and previous grouted zones in this earthen dam.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.75-79
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• 2007

To investigate the shear-wave velocity structures of the Korean peninsula, exploded seismic signals were recorded for 120 s along a 294-km WNW-ESE line and 150 s along a 335-km NNW-SSE line in 2002 and 2004, respectively. First arrival times of shear wave were inverted to derive the velocity tomograms. Initial shear-wave 1-D models were built using the initial P-wave velocity models used by Kim et al. and $V_p/V_s$ ratios of the IASP91 model. The raypaths indicate existence of mid-crust interfaces at the depth of 2-3 km and 16 km. The deepest significant interface corresponding to the Moho discontinuity varies in depth from 32 km to 36 km. The refraction velocity along the interface varies from 4.4 km/s to 4.6 km/s. The velocity tomograms also indicate existence of a low-velocity zone at the depth of 7.8 km under the Okchon fold belt.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.125-130
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• 2006

Both surface seismic and far-offset VSP data were recorded alongtwo mutually perpendicular profiles in the Pungam basin. The first-arrival times were simultaneously inverted using the tomography method. For the surface data, seismic energy was generated by a 5-kg sledgehammer at 48 stations and detected by 21 surface geophones at 3 m intervals and one 3-component geophone in test borehole for the purpose of static corrections. For the VSP data, seismic waves generated by the sledgehammer on the ground were detected by a 3-component borehole geophone in a depth range of $9{\sim}99\;m$. Delay times of the hammer data were corrected using the seisgun data before the inversion to yield velocity tomograms. The tomograms indicates that the soil layer with velocities less than 750 m/s averages 1.8 m thick. The velocity varies from 5353 m/s at the depth range of $31{\sim}40\;m$ to 4262 m/s at the depth range of $65{\sim}73\;m$. Compared with core samples, the relatively large variation in velocity may due to lithology changes and fracture effects with depth.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.241-249
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• 2006

Due to the long tectonic history and the very complex geologic formations in Korea, the anisotropic characteristics of subsurface material may often change very greatly and locally. The algorithms commonly used, however, may not give sufficiently precise computational results of traveltime data particularly for the complex and strong anisotropic model, since they are based on the two-dimensional (2D) earth and/or weak anisotropy assumptions. This study is intended to develope a three-dimensional (3D) modeling algorithm to precisely calculate the first arrival time in the complex anisotropic media. Considering the complex geology of Korea, we assume 3D TTI (tilted transversely isotropy) medium having the arbitrary symmetry axis. The algorithm includes the 2D non-linear interpolation scheme to calculate the traveltimes inside the grid and the 3D traveltime mapping to fill the 3D model with first arrival times. The weak anisotropy assumption, moreover, can be overcome through devising a numerical approach of the steepest descent method in the calculation of minimum traveltime, instead of using approximate solution. The performance of the algorithm developed in this study is demonstrated by the comparison of the analytic and numerical solutions for the homogeneous anisotropic earth as well as through the numerical experiment for the two layer model whose anisotropic properties are greatly different each other. We expect that the developed modeling algorithm can be used in the development of processing and inversion schemes of seismic data acquired in strongly anisotropic environment, such as migration, velocity analysis, cross-well tomography and so on.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.153-158
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• 2010

To investigate the velocity structure in the central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula, a 299-km NW-SE seismic refraction profile KCRT-2008was obtained across major tectonic boundaries. Seismic waves were generated by detonating 250 ~ 1500 kg explosives at depths of 50 ~ 100 m in eight drill holes located at intervals of 21 ~ 113 km. The seismic signals were detected by 4.5 Hz geophones at a nominal interval of 500 m. The first-arrival times were inverted to derive a velocity tomogram. The raypaths indicate several mid-crust interfaces including those at approximate depths of 2 ~ 3, 11 ~ 13, and 20 km. The Moho discontinuity with refraction velocity of 7.7 to 8.1 km/s has a maximum depth of 34.5 km under the central portion of the peninsula. The Moho becomes shallower as the Yellow Sea and the East Sea are approached on the west and east coasts of the peninsula, respectively. The depth of the 7.6 km/s velocity contour varies from 31.3 km to 34.4 km. The velocity tomogram shows the existence of a 129 km wide low-velocity zone centered at 7.2 km depth under the Okchon fold belt and Gyeonggi massif and low-velocity(< 5.4 km/s) rocks in the Gyeongsang sedimentary basin with a maximum thickness of 2.6 km