Detecting different water table levels in a shallow aquifer with combined P-, surface and SH-wave surveys: Insights from VP/VS or Poisson's ratios
Abstract
When applied to hydrogeology, seismic methods are generally confined to the characterisation of aquifers geometry. The joint study of pressure-(P) and shear-(S) wave velocities (V P and V S) can provide supplementary information and improve the understanding of aquifer systems. This approach is proposed here with the estimation of V P /V S ratios in a stratified aquifer system characterised by tabular layers, well-delineated thanks to electrical resistivity tomography, log and piezometer data. We carried out seismic surveys under two hydrological conditions (high and low flow regimes) to retrieve V S from both surface-wave dispersion inversion and SH-wave refraction interpretation, while V P were obtained from P-wave refraction interpretation. P-wave first arrivals provided 1D V P structures in very good agreement with the stratification and the water table level. Both V S models are similar and remain consistent with the stratification. The theoretical dispersion curves computed from both V S models present a good fit with the maxima of dispersion images, even in areas where dispersion curves could not be picked. Furthermore, V P /V S and Poisson's ratios computed with V S models obtained from both methods show a strong contrast for both flow regimes at depths consistent with the water table level, with distinct values corresponding to partially and fully saturated sediments.
Domains
Sciences of the Universe [physics] Earth Sciences Geophysics [physics.geo-ph] Sciences of the Universe [physics] Earth Sciences Hydrology Physics [physics] Condensed Matter [cond-mat] Strongly Correlated Electrons [cond-mat.str-el] Physics [physics] Physics [physics] Atomic Physics [physics.atom-ph]
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)