Seismic exploration. Volume 1. Basic theory of exploration seismology / Сейсморазведка. Том 1. Основы теории разведочной сейсмологии

The material in this volume provides the basic theory necessary to understand the principles behind imaging the subsurface of the Earth using reflection and refraction seismology. The end products are a "record section" such as that shown in Figure 1.1 and, from a collection of "wiggly traces" that are recorded in the field (see Figure 3.1 on page 40 for an example of a wiggly 42-trace seismogram), derived information about subsurface structure and rock properties. For the most part, the principles of imaging are the same regardless of the depth to the target; i.e., the same mathematical background is necessary for targeting a shallow water table as for investigating the deep Mohorovichic discontinuity (the "Moho"), which marks the bottom of the earth's "crust" at a depth of 30-50 km.
It is generally accepted that of all the geophysical techniques reflection seismology provides the best resolution and the most information about the subsurface. It is also the most expensive method, and for this reason has not yet been widely applied to help define the geometry of near-surface aquifer systems; however, the potential is there. This method of exploring the subsurface has been developed and highly refined by the petroleum industry in the search for hydrocarbons onshore and offshore. The images of the subsurface obtained by reflection seismology must generally be refined and sharpened before a geologic interpretation can be made, especially for data acquired on land. In this regard, Fourier theory is important in order to understand the physical meaning of the seismic "wiggly trace", and the collections of these that we refer to as a "record section". <...>