The no-maths guide to Geophysics 2
together. Each trace starts with zero time, which means that
Dr Vincent C H Tong
Birkbeck, University of London
Data, modelling and interpretation: name of the game. Let’s
start playing the game, shall we? Let’s see what seismic data
we can get. And how to get them.
In simple words and no equations please
This session covers two main stories related to seismic
experiments. The first one is about the sort of seismic signals
that are actually recorded in seismic experiments. The second
one is about hmmm… (cough) We shall see.
Seismic signals come in groups
In a seismic experiment, we need sources and receivers. So
you need to have sources producing seismic waves going into
the Earth’s interior. Then you put some devices listening for
those seismic waves returning back to the surface. These
devices are your receivers, nearly always come in an array.
Now you have the sources and receivers, but you need to time
your sources and measure how long it takes for the seismic
echoes to come back up to the surface. So some timing
devices, say an accurate clock connecting the sources and
receivers to a computer for this purpose.
What are your records or data like from a seismic experiment?
They typically come as seismograms with those seismic wiggles
here and there. As you have an array of receivers lined up on
the surface at different distances away from your seismic source,
you can put these seismograms from these receivers nicely
exact moment when… when the seismic explosion WENT OFF!
Then it takes some time for the various seismic echoes to arrive
at the receivers. In many cases (not always though!), the
further away the receiver is from the source, the longer it takes
for the seismic energy to be picked up by the receiver. Simple.
If you put these seismograms nicely and carefully according to
the distance between the receivers and the source, you will
notice that the seismic wiggles in these seismic traces come in
groups! All these groups of seismic arrivals appear across your
newly nicely and carefully laid-out set of seismograms. If you
link up these groups of seismic wiggles, you will get time-
distance diagrams! These groups of seismic signals are
seismic arrivals. Awesome.
Awesome because these will be the bread and butter for you, a
newly converted seismologist. Data? Here you have it (or them,
if you are a linguistic purist).
OK, of course, the next step is to turn data into models through
modelling. No rush, we will deal with the modelling bits in the
next few weeks. For now, our focus is on what has actually
been recorded. Seismic wiggles and arrivals, I hear? Yes, but
there are different types of seismic wiggles and arrivals. In fact,
it’s vital to know the different types of seismic arrivals and what
they have gone through in the subsurface.
To put it in a simple way, all seismic arrivals correspond to
seismic waves that have the same “fate” in their short lives in
the Earth’s interior before being recorded by our array of
receivers. Seismic waves go in all kinds of directions (indicated
by seismic rays). But they come in groups as seismic arrivals
on time-distance diagrams and get recorded by our receivers as
well as going off elsewhere and not being recorded.

For instance, all seismic energy that has undergone reflection at
a particular interface in the subsurface belongs to the same
“reflected arrival”. If you have loads of interfaces in the
subsurface, you can get different reflected arrivals showing up
in your time-distance diagrams. But the thing is that each
reflected arrival corresponds to the group of seismic wiggles
picked up at different receivers on the surface, all having
undergone reflection at that particular interface. So that’s what
I call “same fate”.
So you may wonder how seismic reflection works? It is
basically seismic energy being bounced back after hitting an
interface, separating two media (or layers of rocks if you like).
Only one thing to remember: angle of incidence (the angle
between the seismic ray hitting the interface and the “normal”,
which is perpendicular to the interface) is the same as the angle
of reflection (angle of the bounced-back ray and the “normal”).
This is known as the Law of reflection.
So we get seismic reflections, what else do we get? We get
seismic refraction, too. Unlike seismic reflection, the seismic
energy hits an interface separating two layers with different
seismic velocities (different rocks, for example), and travels to
the second layer of rocks. But the direction of propagation
changes, which simply means that the seismic ray gets bent!
So seismic reflection is bouncing back, and seismic refraction is
bending across an interface. Now how much does it bend? You
get Snell’s Law to work that out for you. So without writing
down the equation (hey, I am now allowed to do that here in
No-maths guide, you know!), Snell told us that the angles of
incidence and refraction (and hence you can work out how
much the ray has bent) are related to the seismic velocities of
the two layers. Very very logical, really.
You get a specific case of seismic refraction called “critical
refraction”. What that means is that the emerging ray got
bent so much that the angle of refraction is actually ninety
degrees. Well, that makes the bent ray travelling along and just
below the interface! The corresponding angle of incidence to
make this happen is called the critical angle, which can be
calculated by Snell’s Law (because you know the seismic
velocities of the layers, right?) The thing to remember here,
following calculations using Snell’s Law, is that you need the
lower layer with higher seismic velocities than the top layer to
get this critical refraction.
Now this critically refracted ray having bent so much that it is
travelling just below the interface actually continues to
experience its life to the full. Some of it continues along and
just below the interface, but part of it gets to return to the top
layer. This returning to the top layer happens at every point
along this journey. That means refraction is taking place at
every point for this ray as it travels beneath the interface.
Refraction? Yes, with an angle of incidence equals ninety
degrees and the angle of refraction equals the critical angle.
This is permitted by Snell’s Law at every point along this
journey just below the interface. Looks exactly like having a
symmetrical path returning to the surface (the interface is
horizontal in our simple case).
So its life story is this: the seismic energy is critically refracted
at the interface and then subsequently returns to the surface
having travelled different distances just below the interface.
They form one seismic arrival.
Critically refracted arrival is its name.
And apart from the reflected arrivals (reflection) and critically
refracted arrivals (refraction), what other arrivals? One very
simple one that has travelled just below the surface. Its name
is “direct arrival”.

So you can see that you get to record different arrivals at your
receiver array corresponding to different lives experienced by
seismic energy all emerging from the seismic source. And you
get seismic arrivals for P and S waves (and surface waves), too!

So by using the records of these different seismic arrivals (like

their amplitudes and time), we get to know a lot about the
subsurface by building seismic models! Yes, modelling and
models!

Getting your hands dirty

So you know that in a seismic experiment, we need seismic

sources and receivers plus some kind of timing. So the second
story is about what those seismic sources and receivers are like
in reality. They are not like a star and an inverted triangle as
represented in the figures in the course notes. They are real
instruments, not stars or inverted triangles!

A picture is worth a thousand words. You agree, yes? So save

my words, and please have a close look at the photos in the
course notes. I hope I don’t earn myself a grand title as a big
cheat by skipping the second story?

Oh well, I have to save my words for the next two weeks.

Things are getting more mathematical, more equations. Hard
work for me, even though I look forward to it. I am just going
to prepare myself for these two big sessions. Hope you are
ready for them by getting to know the life stories of direct,
critically refracted and reflected arrivals!