Noise reduction in long-term self-potential monitoring with travelling electrode referencing

The long-term monitoring of the electric self-potential (SP) in geophysical systems is affected by electrode degradation and drift. This error contribution can be reduced if the electrodes of measuring dipoles are referenced to the same accessory electrode, moved in turn at each pole. The benefit of this travelling electrode referencing scheme (TER) has been evaluated in a dedicated experiment performed from March 2000 to March 2001 at Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Two prototype monitoring points separated by 55 m have been instrumented with pairs of lead-lead chloride Petiau electrodes, installed in buckets filled with salted bentonite at a depth of 1 and 2 meters. The electrical potential at 1 and 2 meters depth was also accessible from the surface by pipes filled with salted bentonite. Over one year, the measurement error, defined as the standard deviation of the difference between the measured potential and the true SP at a given time, is estimated to be 5 mV. This error value is reduced to less than 1 mV with TER. After correction, a smooth annual variation with amplitude of 10 to 15 mV is observed and is interpreted as streaming potentials associated with the monsoon and subsequent drying. These results provide significant guidelines for precision long-term SP monitoring, in particular in tropical volcanic or tectonically active regions.