Investigating Rayleigh wave anisotropy in faulted media with three-component beamforming: insights from numerical models and applications for geothermal exploration

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Authors

Heather Kennedy , Claudia Finger, Katrin Löer, Amy Gilligan

Abstract

Rayleigh waves are prevalent in the ambient seismic noise wavefield and
are thus often exploited in passive seismic methods to characterise the near
subsurface. In fractured or faulted media, Rayleigh waves show azimuthal
anisotropy that could provide information on the fault properties. However,
the exact relationship between Rayleigh wave anisotropy and true anisotropic
structures is not well known. This study used a three-component (3C) beam-
forming toolbox to analyse numerical full waveform seismic wave propagation
from conceptual models of fractured media. We identify Rayleigh waves in
the synthetic data, compare observed Rayleigh wave anisotropy to structural
anisotropy, and assess the effect array design and source locations have on
Rayleigh wave analysis and observed anisotropy. Numerical analysis shows
that the smaller the velocity contrast between fault and surrounding rock,
the more complex the anisotropic response. We find that the slow directions
of Rayleigh wave propagation can be a better indicator of fault strike than
the fastest direction, when the velocity contrast between the two media are
small.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5DD7X

Subjects

Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Keywords

numerical modelling, fractured media, Three-component beamforming, geothermal application, Rayleigh wave anisotropy, fractured media, Three-component beamforming, geothermal application, Rayleigh wave anisotropy

Dates

Published: 2024-09-03 14:07

Last Updated: 2024-09-03 18:07

License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Conflict of interest statement:
None