Active-Source Interferometry in Marine and Terrestrial Environments: Importance of Directionality and Stationary Phase

We utilize active-source seismic interferometry with dense seismic arrays both offshore and onland to explore the utility of this method to create virtual sources and reveal body-wave reflections in these two different environments. We first utilize data from an ocean-bottom cable (OBC) array in the Gulf of Mexico with equal numbers of sources (160 airgun shots) and receivers (160 ocean-bottom four-component sensors). We next use data from a geophone array across the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming with many receivers (1300 vertical-component geophones) but a small number of sources (14 borehole active-source shots). We find that the OBC virtual source results, which produce strong reflections from sub-seafloor structures, are far superior to the onland results which lack usable reflections, and we explore reasons for these differences through a set of selective stacking approaches. We present techniques to account for the direction the seismic waves travel (directionality) and stationary phase and show that improvements can be made when incorporating these corrections. Although interferometric methods are based on assumptions of large numbers of widely distributed actual sources, we find that selective exclusion of potentially problematic source-receiver pairs can yield improved results. These geometric adjustments to activesource interferometry methods have utility for dense-nodal-array surveys that are now common in academic studies, but that often suffer from sparse source geometry.

Automated summary

Through dense seismic arrays offshore and onland, researchers found that active-source seismic interferometry can create virtual sources and reveal body-wave reflections. Virtual sources offshore produced strong reflections, while onland sources lacked usable reflections, explored reasons for differences through selective stacking approaches. Incorporating seismic wave travel directionality and stationary phase corrections can lead to improvements, while selective exclusion of potentially problematic source-receiver pairs can yield better results. Geometric adjustments to active-source interferometry methods have utility for dense-nodal-array surveys common in academic studies.