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Space-time monitoring of seafloor velocity changes using seismic ambient noise
  • Peng Guo,
  • Erdinc Saygin,
  • Brian L. N. Kennett
Peng Guo
CSIRO

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Erdinc Saygin
CSIRO
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Brian L. N. Kennett
Earth Physics - Seismology Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University
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Abstract

We use seismic ambient noise recorded by dense ocean bottom nodes (OBNs) in the Gorgon gas field, Western Australia, to compute time-lapse seafloor models of shear-wave velocity. The extracted hourly cross-correlation (CC) functions in the frequency band 0.1 – 1 Hz contain mainly Scholte waves with very high signal to noise ratio. We observe temporal velocity variations (dv/v) at the order of 0.1% with a peak velocity change of 0.8% averaged from all station pairs, from the conventional time-lapse analysis with the assumption of a spatially homogeneous dv/v. With a high-resolution reference (baseline) model from full waveform inversion of Scholte waves, we present an elastic wave equation based double-difference inversion (EW-DD) method, using arrival time differences between the reference and time-lapsed Scholte waves, for mapping temporally varying dv/v in the heterogeneous subsurface. The time-lapse velocity models reveal increasing/decreasing patterns of shear-wave velocity in agreement with those from the conventional analysis. The velocity variation exhibits a ~24-hour cycling pattern, which appears to be inversely correlated with sea level height, possibly associated with dilatant effects for porous, low-velocity shallow seafloor and rising pore pressure with higher sea level. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using dense passive seismic surveys for quantitative monitoring of subsurface property changes in the horizontal and depth domain.
28 Sep 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
28 Sep 2023Published in ESS Open Archive