Poster: Finding appropriate rocks physics models to interpret seismic data in hydrogeophysics applications

Event: AGU Fall Meeting 2018, Washington DC (USA)
poster by Lara Blazevic, Ludovic Bodet, Damien Jougnot, Laurent Longuvergne

Abstract

Seismic methods have been recently applied to the monitoring of spatial and temporal variations of near surface characteristics for hydrogeological purposes. The seismic signal is certainly related to mechanical properties that partly depend on porosity and saturation. The behavior of pressure (P) and shear (S) waves in the presence of water is partially decoupled, and the ratio of their propagation velocities VP/VS has been used to study water saturation changes.

However, the interpretation of the mechanical properties remains complex in unconsolidated near surface materials, limiting the quantitative description of linked hydrodynamic properties. In this study, we investigate the theories behind wave propagation velocities in poorly consolidated media and how they are affected by water content, focusing our discussion on the partially saturated response.

We present a field case where we used a Hertz-Mindlin based rock physics model to estimate water saturation from VP and VS from seismic data. The model is able to distinguish between dry and fully saturated areas at two distinct hydrological periods, but fails in identifying partially saturated areas in both cases. This work underlines the need for more elaborated models to infer hydrodynamic properties from seismic data.


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Presentation: Potential Impact of Groundbased Gravity Gradiometer for Subsurface Reservoir Monotoring

Event: EGU General Assembly, Vienna (Austria) 2019
Presentation by Anne-Karin Cooke, Cédric Champollion, Pierre Vermeulen, Nicolas Le Moigne and Sébastien Merlet

Abstract

Ground-based gravity measurements can provide accurate constrains on the water storage dynamics of subsurface reservoirs. At the scale of the measurements time-lapse gravity experiments allow to monitor the water mass balance taking into account both the saturated and the unsaturated zone.

One major characteristic of the gravity measurement is the integration of all water masses across scales: gravity variations can be the effect of continentalscale soil humidity or aquifer (such as seen by GRACE measurements) and of local effects (such as the umbrellaeffect of a building or reservoir heterogeneities). The vertical gravity gradient is similar to gravity while showing a higher sensibility to local masses. The interest of the gradient for subsurface features such as caves is well known.

The objective of the presentation is the specific potential of gravity vertical gradient monitoring for water reservoir studies. The study is first based on existing measurements of gravity gradients time series (with a relative spring gravimeter): can significant hydro-logical signals be detected? Then based on numerical simulations, the potential of future ground-based for reservoir monitoring is investigated.

The capability of the gravity gradient method to detect heterogeneities (contrary to theclassical gravity) is evident: for example the classical Bouguer plate approximation often used to convert gravityinto equivalent water height (even in heterogeneous area such as karst) has no effect on the gravity gradient, hence new models need to be applied that combine gravity and gravity gradient measurements.


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