Estimating the location of a tunnel using correlation and inversion of Rayleigh wave scattering

Abstract

The investigation of near-surface scatterers, such as cavities, tunnels, abandoned mine shafts, and buried objects, is important to mitigate geohazards and environmental hazards. By inversion of travel times of cross-correlated scattered waves, due to the incident Rayleigh waves, we estimate the location of a near-surface tunnel from seismic field data. The cross correlation eliminates the travel path between a source and a scatterer, thus eliminating the need to know the position of the source, making the estimation of the scatterers' locations dependent only on properties between the receivers and the scatterer. First time using a numerically verified method on seismic field data, we show the potential of the method for estimating the location of a buried scatterer. Key Points Tunnel location estimated accurately by correlation and inversion Ghost arrivals retrieval by seismic interferometry of scattered waves First time application of a numerically verified method on seismic field data ©2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.