Advancing Waveform Tomography of Crosswell Data with Applications in the Sulphide Environment

Crosswell seismic tomography is a geophysical survey method in which the propagation of sound waves through the Earth’s crust is used to infer geological structure. An array of acoustic sources and receivers are placed into separate boreholes, and full waveform recordings are made of the response to each source, measured at each receivers, the objective being a “cross-section” of the geology between the two boreholes. Traveltime tomography is used initially to image cross-sectional structure by examining the times at which the receivers first detect seismic waves generated by the sources. Waveform tomography then uses the frequency domain components to improve the model resolution by taking into account the scattering and distortion of seismic waves at different frequencies. Software developed by the University of Western Ontario is used to create these models, which are useful in commercial geophysical exploration. For this project, data from Vale’s Voisey’s Bay property will be examined.

Faculty Supervisor:

Gerhard Pratt

Student:

Partner:

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate