Journal of Applied Geophysics 59 (2006) 106 116 www.elsevier.

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Evaluation of MASW techniques to image steeply dipping cavities in laterally inhomogeneous terrain
Chaoqiang Xu *, Stephen D. Butt 1
Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, Dalhousie University, Sexton Campus, 1360 Barrington Street, P.O. Box 1000, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3J 3X4 Received 23 September 2004; accepted 18 August 2005

Abstract This study evaluated the potential of using Multi-channel Spectral Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW) seismic techniques to image steeply dipping cavities in laterally inhomogeneous geological terrain. The primary test site was the Montague District, a historical gold mining area in Nova Scotia, Canada with numerous narrow steeply dipping mine workings, actively subsiding or collapsed crown pillars, and laterally inhomogeneous bedrock. Seismic surveys were conducted at two test sites using portable components and an effective geophone spacing of 1 m. A complimentary gravity survey was also conducted at one of the sites. Pre-processing focused on techniques which highlighted and then isolated the direct Rayleigh Waves for each waveform. Two MASW techniques were applied to the resulting pre-processed seismic sections; time delay mapping and shear velocity imaging. Both techniques showed the presence of time-delay or velocity anomalies where mine workings were mapped or inferred from surface subsidence patterns. Time-delay mapping was effective at determining the lateral position of the cavities, however, velocity imaging was able to generate images in both lateral distance and depth and thus has the greater potential to image both the shape and position of the cavities. Reduced velocity regions on the shear velocity images were consistent with the relative thickness of overburden at both test sites and the weakening of crown pillars at one site. Gravity surveying agreed with both the time-delay and velocity images and highlighted the use complimentary geophysical techniques to image near-surface cavities. Recommended future work includes additional field trials with rigorous ground truthing, improvements in the waveform processing methodology to reduce the processing time and the accuracy of depth resolution, and continued work in a related research program to quantify the relationships between seismic attributes and rock mass quality, subsidence potential, etc. . . D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Seismic imaging; Rayleigh Wave; Cavity mapping; MASW; Abandoned mine workings; Data processing

1. Introduction Near surface cavities, such as naturally occurring karsts in carbonate bedrock and near-surface underground mine workings and tunnels, can pose several
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 902 489 4881; fax: +1 902 425 1037. E-mail address: cxu@dal.ca (C. Xu). 1 Fax: +1 902 425 1037. 0926-9851/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jappgeo.2005.08.003

problems for civil engineering. Ground subsidence or sinkhole development associated with these types of near-surface cavities poses public safety hazards and can endanger overlying infrastructure sometimes requiring expensive ground stabilization or abandonment. Several geophysical techniques have good potential for the non-destructive imaging of these cavities including ground penetrating radar (GPR) (Fenner, 1995; Momayez et al., 1996; Pipan et al., 2002), transient electromagnetic methods (TEM) (Xue et al., 2004),

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microgravity methods (Butler, 1984; Mussett and Khan, 2000) and seismic surface wave methods. Although GPR has been applied successfully in several studies, previous usage of GPR for shallow cavity imaging in Nova Scotia have been disappointing, presumably due to the high proportion of clay minerals in the overlying soils. TEM is a costly technique and may be better employed to confirm or deduce the dimensions of a known cavity. Microgravity method may be suitable for large-scale sites or small-scale sites where density contrast is significant. Recent investigations have reported good results for cavity imaging using surface seismic methods (e.g., Gucunski et al., 1996; Gucunski and Shokouhi, 2004; Luke, 1999; Avar and Luke, 1999; Leparoux et al., 2000; Vogelaar, 2001)). For many of these surface wave studies, the terrain was horizontally layered with each individual layer being laterally homogeneous, except for the cavities, with the distribution of shear velocity depending on depth only. In this type of terrain, researchers have been able to apply many traditional reflection processing methods to improve the image quality, such as common depth point (CDP), common receiver point (CRP) or common shot point (CSP) sorting, fk domain velocity pick-up, dynamic linear move-out and stacking. Using these methods, the distribution of shear velocities can be determined with high precision (Vogelaar, 2001; Grandjean and Leparoux, 2004) and the accuracy of near-surface images can be very good. Based on the relative advantages and disadvantages of the various geophysical techniques discussed above, the most prudent imaging approach is the use of two or more complimentary imaging techniques as feasible. In this investigation, the primary imaging technique utilized was a modified surface wave technique with conventional gravity methods used to provide comparative data. The majority of surface wave applications for civil engineering are for the characterization of laterally homogeneous soils and pavements (Forbriger, 2003) and utilize a technique called Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves (SASW) which detects Rayleigh Waves using a pair of sensors normally arranged in a common midpoint array. Multi-channel Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) is a variation of the technique that uses multi-sensor seismic lines to improve the lateral resolution of generated images (Foti, 2000). However, there are two major issues regarding the use of MASW techniques to image near-surface cavities which need to be addressed if these techniques are to be used under general site conditions. The first issue is the heterogeneity resulting from the presence of

the cavities i.e., variation in all directions around and near the cavities. MASW techniques are based primarily on velocity analysis and since the velocities identified in the fk domain are only average velocities of the whole shot line, it is difficult to evaluate the cavity effect through dispersion curves in a heterogeneous medium or even to localize a small-scale cavity accurately. In steeply dipping terrain, such as the site used in this investigation, the wave velocities can be considerably different in each geologic unit and therefore the wave velocities will be laterally inhomogeneous. The second issue is due to the interaction among seismic signals, cavities and surrounding complex geology resulting in mode conversion, back scattering etc. . . which can reduce the proportion of wave energy in the Rayleigh Waves, making it difficult to identify them in shot gathers, and even result in the computation of negative velocities. Even if high quality stacked time sections are available (measured as fold of coverage) each of these issues can contribute to reduced efficiency or failure of the MASW methods and result in poor quality images. It was recognized at the start of this investigation that accurate imaging of near-surface cavities in laterally inhomogeneous terrain requires clear identification of the primary Rayleigh Waves in the seismic sections. As well, the objective of the research was not limited to imaging the size and shape of the cavities but also identifying fractured zones which could indicate weakened crown pillars and increased subsidence risk. Therefore, the research focused on techniques for obtaining prominent Rayleigh Waves for further processing and development of methods for discriminating small-scale variations both in lateral and vertical directions. These techniques were first evaluated at a test site with varying overburden thickness and a buried pipe and then evaluated at the Montague District, the primary test location with numerous steeply dipping mine openings and laterally inhomogeneous bedrock. 2. Montague District test sites The Montague District is a historical gold mining region near Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. Fig. 1 shows the location of this field investigation site in Atlantic Canada. Small scale mines operated on the site during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The bedrock consists of low-grade metamorphosed greywacke and slates with steeply dipping beds and overburden thickness varies from 10 m to outcropping bedrock. Gold is hosted in thin quartz veins , which are normally contained within the slate beds but can crosscut bed-

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ding. Most mine workings at the site consist of vertical shafts spaced at ~30 m intervals along the strike of the quartz veins with narrow steeply dipping open stopes (typically less than 1 m wide) between the shafts. Stopes were typically developed to a maximum depth of 30 to 40 m for the 1800s mines and to depths of up to 200 m for the 1900s mines. Crown pillars at the top of these narrow stopes were often thin and many have collapsed or are actively subsiding. Fig. 2 sketches the typical geometry of the workings and geological conditions at the Montague test sites. A related publication (Butt et al., 2005) presents further information regarding conditions at the Montague District. Two test locations were selected for the main field trials at the Montague District, Site 1 and Site 10 (Fig. 3). At Site 1, two veins were mapped from historical records passing underneath a paved public road. It was assumed that mine workings on both of these veins were present under the road, and, in fact, subsidence was recorded at two locations on one of these veins on either side of the survey location. At Site 10, the presence of circular depressions and backfilled holes indicated the presence of at least two sets of mine workings passing beneath a narrow path in a wooded area. These sites were selected because i) the seismic lines could be run approximately perpendicular

to the strike of the workings for maximum imaging potential, and ii) to enable evaluation of the seismic imaging techniques on two different surfaces; at Site 1 the source and sensors would be placed on a hard paved surface with thin overburden, while at Site 10 the source and sensors would be spiked into softer soil with thicker overburden. 3. Field trials 3.1. Seismic system procedures and validation The seismic system consisted of a 12 geophone seismic string with 4.5 Hz geophones, a PC-based digital recording system, and a 12 kg guided weight drop source. The weight drop source was strong and highly repeatable and allowed the geophone string to be moved with respect to the source to simulate shots with a greater number of geophones; this added to the overall portability of the system which was needed due to the limited vehicle access and rugged conditions at the test sites. During data acquisition, the geophone at 1 m from the source remained fixed to function as a trigger channel and the geophone at 5 m from the source remained fixed to function as a reference channel to check the source consistency and for computing coherence functions for stacking. Fur-

Fig. 1. Index map of the field investigation site in Atlantic Canada.

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Fig. 2. Sketch of the typical subsurface conditions at the Montague District showing varying overburden thickness, steeply dipping bedrock, narrow mine workings, and weakened or collapsed crown pillars. The view shown is along the strike of the mine workings.

Fig. 3. Plans of Site 1 (left) and Site 10 (right) showing the location of the mapped veins, inferred workings and the seismic lines. The scale, north arrow and legend are the same for both site plans.

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ther details regarding the seismic system development are provided in a related publication (Butt et al., submitted for publication). Prior to going on-site at the Montague District, preliminary trials of the seismic system and data acquisition methodology were conducted at Test Site A on the Dalhousie University campus. At this test site, the seismic line crossed over a trench had been excavated in the overburden and then backfilled. Fig. 4 shows a plan of the test site and the corresponding time delay and shear velocity sections that were generated. Time-delay and low velocity anomalies are present at 18 m from the source, which correspond to the location of the backfilled trench. As

well, the velocity sections shows the overburden, interpreted as the lower velocity upper portion of the section, thinning towards the South which was later confirmed using a shallow Ground Penetrating Radar survey. Overall, these preliminary trails indicated that the seismic system was ready for the main field trials. 3.2. Montague data acquisition At the Montague District, seismic data was recorded along several seismic lines at Sites 1 and 10, using both forward and back shots along the seismic lines, using sampling rates of 3 and 6 kHz

Fig. 4. Plan of test Site A (left) and the corresponding time-delay and shear velocity images (right).

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for evaluation purposes. All the seismic data subsequently presented in this paper was recorded at 3 kHz using the seismic line configurations show in Fig. 2. For each seismic line, the geophones were spaced at 2 m intervals and then moved along the line 1 m, following the procedures outlined in the preceding section, to provide waveforms at 1 m from the source and then from 5 to 25 m from the source at 1 m spacing. A minimum of 10 clean shots were conducted at each geophone string position for stacking purposes. For comparative purposes, a conventional gravity survey (with a resolution of 0.01 mGal) was conducted at Site 1 using the same station locations as the geophones shown in Fig. 3. 4. Data processing and interpretation For the Montague seismic data, the subsurface cavities and the laterally inhomogeneous bedrock can result in dramatic changes in the Rayleigh Waves, even over lateral propagation of as small as 1 m, for reasons previously discussed. With this in mind, the processing strategy for individual waveform pre-processing and MASW waveform analysis was composed of two main components. The first dealt with data processing methods that highlighted the direct Rayleigh Waves in each recorded waveform. The second dealt with techniques which emphasized changes in the spectral time delays and wave velocities along the seismic lines. All software developed for these data processing components was done using Matlab.

4.1. Pre-processing The first pre-processing step was the removal of poor shot records from the dataset (such as records with different source functions or low signal-to-noise ratio) by examination of the reference channel waveforms recorded at 5 m from the source. The resulting shot gathers were then stacked using coherence functions computed using the reference channel waveforms. Examination of the stacked waveforms indicated the presence of several wave types, arrival events and background noise in addition to the Rayleigh Waves leading to difficulty in identifying the direct Rayleigh Waves. However, the Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) of the waveforms generally showed two main spectral components, the first below 50 Hz and the second above 100 Hz. Since the spectral component above 100 Hz diminished with respect to the lower frequency component at greater distances from the source, these higher frequency components were interpreted as the direct, refracted and reflected body waves. Based on this, all waveforms were then processed using an 80 Hz low pass filter and an appropriate amplitude gain to highlight the Rayleigh Waves. The lowpass filtering gave rise to relatively clean waveforms which, considered with the corresponding FFT spectra, indicated that the Rayleigh Wave content was more then 50%. The resulting waveforms were then assigned at the correct distance from the source to give the seismic sections with waveforms at 1 m spacing (Fig. 5). The final preprocessing step was the windowing of the direct Ray-

Fig. 5. Final stacked and filtered seismic sections for Sites 1 and 10.

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leigh Waves, which was done interactively for each waveform using the neighbouring waveforms as guides, and the setting of all waveform samples outside of these windows to zero. This final processing would result in waveforms that were estimated to be up to 80% Rayleigh Waves. The dataset resulting from pre-processing for each seismic line consisting of a 2-dimensional array of time domain amplitudes y(t, x) where t is the recording time and x is the distance or offset of the receiver from the source. 4.2. Time delay mapping With the presence of laterally varying stratification, potential cavities and fractures resulting from mining or subsidence activity, Rayleigh Wave velocity and hence travel-tine can vary within different pairs of successive receivers. To highlight these variations in travel-time, we developed a spectral technique called btime-delay mappingQ which identifies subtle changes in the Rayleigh Wave velocities between successive pairs of receivers. By time-delay mapping along offset, examination of the properties of the geological zone can be initially reviewed. Time-delay mapping was accomplished by performing an FFT to the time domain amplitudes y(t, x) to get the frequency domain dataset donated by Y(f, x) , where f is frequency in the range of 5 to 80 Hz. Then the phase U(f, x) was calculated using standard SASW methods (Nazarian and Stokoe, 1985), and travel times s(f, x) were computed within each pair of successive receivers. Travel times were then normalized and mapped by grey gradients to obtain the time-delay

image. For these images, increased brightness indicates a time-delay increase relative to the general trend and, conversely, lower velocities. Fig. 6 presents the resulting time delay images for Sites 1 and 10. For Site 1, there are regions of increased time-delays at 10 m and at 15 m from the source, indicating that wave velocities are much lower giving evidence to the presence of cavities beneath the surface at these locations. From a review of Fig. 3, the regions of increased time delay correspond to the same lateral positions as the mapped veins. For Site 10, there are regions of increased time-delay at 8 m and from 17 to 24 m from the source, which corresponds to the positions of mine workings inferred at these locations from the presence of depressions and backfilled holes as shown in Fig 2. Overall, both time-delay sections show anomalous increases in travel-time at approximately the same lateral positions as the mapped or inferred mine workings. 4.3. Shear velocity field mapping Surface wave propagation depends on frequency (depth of penetration), phase velocity (compression and shear), and the subsurface density. Each of these properties will affect the surface wave dispersion curve (phase velocity vs. frequency) in a predictable fashion. Since shear velocity has the greatest impact on the properties of a surface wave the dispersion curve can be inverted in such a way as to obtain the shear wave velocity as a function of depth (Miller et al., 1999; Xia et al., 1999). Rayleigh Wave dispersion can be shown on plots of phase velocity versus wavelength between successive

Fig. 6. Normalized time-delay mapping images for Sites 1 and 10. The time-delay scale is to the right.

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receiver pairs. Examples of these dispersion curves for the Site 1 dataset from 7 to 13 m from source are presented in Fig. 7. From the dispersion curve, the approximate lateral and depth variation along the seismic survey line can be inferred. In the direct inversion procedure, one of the two parameters to be determined is the penetration depth. Based on previous research (Richart et al., 1970; Nazarian and Stokoe, 1985), Rayleigh Wave propagation gives rise to particle motion whose amplitudes decrease exponentially with depth becoming negligible at an approximate depth of one wavelength. For different Poissons ratio, Richart et al. (1970) showed that the particle motion with the depth forms similarly shaped curves indicating that Poissons ratio does not significantly influence this performance. Based on the shape of these curves, and considering the potentially fractured sections which might absorb seismic energy, it was assumed that Rayleigh Waves reach a depth of one-third the wavelength at the test site. The second parameter to be derived is the Shear wave velocity. An empirical relationship indicated that the Shear wave velocity varies between 0.87 and 0.96 of the Rayleigh Wave velocity as a function of Poissons Ratio (Viktorov, 1967). For this investigation, the average ratio of 0.91 was used to determine the Shear wave velocity. Finally, a least square best fit linear inversion method (Gucunski and Woods, 1991) was applied to the resulting Shear wave depth dispersion curves. The set of data along offset was then organized in way of equal velocities and then mapped using velocity contours to produce the velocity images.

Fig. 8 presents the shear velocity images generated for Sites 1 and 10. For Site 1, three observations can be made: i) vertical zones of zero velocity are shown at 11 and 16 m from the source, the same locations where the two gold veins were mapped as shown in Fig. 3, ii) the regions overlying the zero velocity zones between 10 and 20 m from the source show reduced velocity as compared to the regions on either side of the zero velocity zone, and iii) in places, the highest velocity of 2000 m/s extends to shallow depth on the section. These results indicate the presence of two near vertical openings at the mapped locations of the gold bearing veins. The reduced velocity zones overlying these zero velocity zones are consistent with a weakened crown pillar overlying the openings, and the high velocity zones at shallow depth on either side of the zero velocity zones are consistent with shallow bedrock resulting from the thin overburden at the site. For Site 10, two observations can be made from the velocity section: i) zero velocity zones occur at 9 and 21 m from the seismic source, which coincide within a few meters of the inferred openings shown in Fig. 3, and ii) low velocity zones generally extend deeper into the section as compared with Site 10. These results indicate the presence of near vertical openings beneath the depressions mapped on surface, and the lower velocities extending deeper into the section are consistent with the thicker overburden at the site. Overall the velocity images are in agreement with the presence of steeply dipping openings at the locations indicated by historical mapping and current subsidence. Further, the velocity sections are consistent

Fig. 7. Normalized dispersion curves computed from the Site 1 dataset.

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Fig. 8. Shear velocity images for Sites 1 and 10. The velocity scale is to the right.

with the thickness of the overburden at each site and the possible weakening of crown pillars at Site 1. 4.4. Gravity survey and modeling Gravity surveys are capable of measuring small variations in densities of a constant mass and have been demonstrated to be one means of identifying near-surface cavities by mapping negative gravity anomalies resulting from the absence of material in the cavities (Butler, 1984). In this investigation, a LaCoste and Romberg Model G gravimeter was

used. Since the survey line was short (25 m) and the ground was almost flat, the terrain effect was assumed to be negligible and only free-air and Bouguer corrections were made. Fig. 9 presents the gravity profile measured along the Site 1 seismic line and the corresponding gravity model discussed below, clearly showing gravity lows in approximately the same lateral positions as the mapped veins in Fig. 3, the time delay anomalies in Fig. 6, and the zero velocity zones in Fig. 8. This corroborates the interpretation of near vertical openings in these two locations based on the seismic data alone.

Fig. 9. The measured and modeled gravity profiles for Site 1 (above) and the gravity model geometry (below).

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The gravity data was analysed further through the use of conventional gravity modeling using the commercial software GM-SYS 2.5D. The cavities were assigned zero density and the surrounding material was assigned a uniform density of 2.71 g/cm3, based on the reported density of rock samples near the test site. The geometry of the gravity model shown in Fig. 9 indicates that the observed profile is consistent with the presence of two steeply dipping cavities, although the cavity geometry is not exactly the same as the general opening geometry given in Fig. 2. This highlights the benefit of using multiple geophysical surveys to image cavities, however, the authors contend that gravity surveying of the type used for this investigation is too coarse to discriminate fractured zones and overburden thickness. 5. Conclusions and future work This investigation evaluated the potential of MASW techniques to image narrow steeply dipping mine workings in a laterally inhomogeneous bedrock. Since Rayleigh Waves can vary considerably over short propagation distances in this type of terrain, it was recognized that relatively dense waveform coverage (1 m sensor spacing in this investigation) and detailed pre-processing of the recorded waveforms to enhance the direct Rayleigh Waves were critical requirements for the success of MASW techniques. Both types of MASW techniques that were evaluated, time-delay mapping and shear velocity imaging, showed the presence of time-delay or velocity anomalies where mine workings were mapped or inferred from surface subsidence patterns. Time-delay mapping was effective at determining the lateral position of the cavities but velocity imaging was able to generate images in both lateral distance and depth and thus has the greater potential to image both the shape and position of the cavities. Reduced velocity regions on the generated shear velocity images were consistent with the relative thickness of overburden at both Montague test sites and the weakening of crown pillars at Site 1. Gravity surveying at Site 1 also agreed with both the time-delay and velocity images and highlighted the use complimentary geophysical techniques to image near-surface cavities. With regards to future work, there are several key areas that should be addressed. These include: 1. Field trails where definitive ground truthing, either by drilling boreholes or excavation of the site, is conducted to rigorously evaluate the accuracy of the

seismic images. Detailed maps of the underground workings were unavailable for this investigation, therefore the accuracy of the cavity size and shape from seismic imaging could not be evaluated. Additional field trails are planned to compensate for this shortcoming. 2. Development of a more robust and automatic procedure for separating direct Rayleigh Waves from other wave modes rather than manually windowing editing each wave trace. This windowing procedure has worked well in these field trials, but the procedure is somewhat subjective and impractical when longer surveys with many more wave traces are conducted. 3. Development of numerical Rayleigh Wave inversion techniques to improve the resolution and accuracy of the depth scale of the generated subsurface images. The current practice of relating depth to 1/3 of the Rayleigh Wavelength is only approximate and is expected to vary with specific site conditions. 4. Continued numerical and experimental work in a related research program to quantify the relationships between measured seismic attributes and mechanical rock mass quality, subsidence potential, etc. . . Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank several individuals for assistance with this investigation, including research assistant William Pay, staff at the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources Abandoned Mines Group, staff at the CANMET Ground Control Group, and Dr. Patrick Ryall from the Dalhousie Earth Sciences Department for assistance with the gravity survey work. This research was funded by the Atlantic Innovation Fund, C-CORE, MGI Ltd., SubSurface Imaging Technology and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. References
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