GEObit 32bit PST Instrumentation

Passive Seismic Tomography Instrumentation

SRi32L sensor/digitizer/recorder unit
In this article we present the instrumentation which have been used in several passive
tomography projects, and explain why we propose such kind of instruments with
special characteristics.
1. Why wide band sensor?
The source of the energy for the passive tomography exploration comes from microearthquakes that occur below the area of the installation of the micro-seismic network.
These recorded seismic events usually have a magnitude from 2R, up to 3R, and
their frequency spectrum is into the band 2Hz to 20Hz. So, a wide band seismometer
with the range of at least 1Hz up to 30 Hz is necessary to be used for the recording of
such seismic events.
In PST exploration, we are using sensors with recording bandwidth from 0.1Hz to
100Hz in order to record these seismic events with the maximum quality. The low
frequency response gives us the ability to calculate moment tensors as well.

Figure 1. Seismic event recording

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Figure 2. Seismic event plot

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Figure 3. Seismic event frequency spectrum plot

Somebody may ask, why not broadband sensors? The answer is that the broadband
sensors are much more expensive than our sensors and makes the survey inefficient in
price terms. We do not get more information using broad-band sensors of local microearthquakes recording.

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Figure 4. Seismic event recording from wide-band and broad-band sensors

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Figure 5. Seismic event frequency spectrum plot from the 40T BB sensor

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Figure 6. Seismic event frequency spectrum plot from the wide-band sensor

The figure 4 shows a typical seismic event recorded from a wide-band and eight
broad-band (Nanometrics Trillium 40T) sensors. Station 19 is the one broad-band
and it could not be recognized from others having a first look at the signal plot. The
frequency spectrum of the BB sensor and the spectrum of the wide-band sensors are
presented in figures 5 and 6 respectively. These spectrum plots represent frequencies
of the recorded signals of the same earthquake.
Why not using simple geophones? Commercial geophones with small dimensions
have usually natural frequency 4.5Hz or 10Hz. Using these kind of geophones, the
lower part of the spectrum of the signal is lost, because the geophone cannot respond
in the low frequency area (below 4.5 Hz), and its sensitivity falls dramatically. There
are also geophones in the market with natural frequency of 2.0Hz or 2.5Hz, but their
dimensions do not allow to be used in small boreholes. Larger boreholes will be
needed increasing the cost of the installation. The price also of a sensor made by
2.0Hz or 2.5Hz is a few times more than the one with 4.5Hz geophone.
Another advantage of the 4.5Hz geophones is their sensitivity over tilt. Usually they
respond perfect within 5 - 10 degrees of tilt. This means that the sensor can be
installed into the borehole without any need of special leveling. An elastic packer is
more than enough to hold the sensor into the borehole. It is leveled according the
casing verticality and it is operational, ranging within its characteristics even there is
some degrees of tilt at the borehole casing.
So, the ideal solution for fast, accurate installation is the wide-band seismometers
consisted of 4.5Hz geophones, with small dimensions and cost, designed according
the force-balance principle. Our wide-band sensors meet all the requirements for local

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micro-earthquake recording in the passive tomography projects and in our new
INTEGRA24, the sensor electronics are build-in to the instrument.

2. Why borehole type sensor?

Most seismological sensors are surface mounted. For their installation, usually
seismic vaults have to be made, where the noise level is less than the surface. Our
instruments are mostly borehole type, so they can be installed in a typical depth 20
meters. The noise level there is much less than the surface. The borehole can be easily
(not always!) opened with a drilling machine with low cost, within some working
hours. Small diameter boreholes can be opened by hand in rough areas where no
vehicles can access.

Figure 7. Seismic noise at the 20 meters depth borehole

Figure 8. Seismic noise at the surface

3. Why high sensitivity sensor?

The magnitude (Richter Scale) of the recorded events for the passive seismic
tomography exploration, range from 2R to 3R. For the recording of such small
events, the sensor must be very sensitive. Our instruments have sensitivity as
1500V/m/sec.

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4. Why in-build sensor self test?
The operator needs a way to apply a fast signal test to the equipment in order to verify
proper operation. Since PST is a geophysical method, most of the clients are asking
for such kind of tests to be performed from the instruments themselves, like the
conventional seismic instruments do. The SRi32 provides a build-in signal generator
combined with a micro-controller, and injects signal to the sensor. The square wave or
sinusoidal signal that injected to the sensor with constant amplitude, forces the masses
of the geophones to move. The geophones produce a seismic signal to their output
proportional to their movement. The shape of this signal that the user should see is
shown at the figures 9 and 10.

Figure 9. Sinusoidal signal calibration

Figure 10. Pulse signal calibration.

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Once the user is connected with the SRi32 through the DataMonitor, he can verify the
proper operation of the sensor. In parallel, the processor of the digitizer uses this
signal to perform auto-calibration function at the system. So, all the seismic stations
of the microseismic network can always be calibrated during all the recording period.

5. Why high resolution digitiser?

The resolution of the digitiser is one of the most important parameters of the seismic
instrumentation. 24bits digitizers are mostly used in seismic exploration. The SRi32
unit is based on a 4rd generation 32bit digitizer, with dynamic range 138dB at 250sps,
while dynamic range is 142dB at 1000sps

Figure 11. SRi32 noise spectrum & histogram plot.

6. Why big capacity storage media?

Our seismic stations are standalone instruments, powered from a typical 12V battery.
The seismic crew usually visits the stations once per week or later, to change battery
and retrieve the data. For places that this routine visit is difficult to be done, because
the access of some stations is difficult, the storage media must have enough capacity

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to store the data for longer period. The SRi32 recorder when acquires its data to a
microSD flash card with capacity up to 64Gbytes. Using a 2Gb microSD the
recording duration will be up to 26days. Larger capacity Compact Flash Card will be
used for larger recording period.

7. Why very low power consumption?

One other important point of the standalone seismic station is the power autonomy.
Given that is it powered from a simple 12V lead acid battery, the cycle must be as
many days as the seismic crew needs to visit the seismic station. Seismic networks
consisted of 50 seismic stations, spread in an area of 1000 2000
Sqm2 placed in accessible terrain, usually takes one week to ten days from the
seismic crew to visit them. So the power autonomy of each seismic station (recorder +
sensor) must be enough for at least 10-12 days. Our seismic stations can operate for
this time period, powered from a set of double 12V/7.2Ah lead acid batteries.

Figure 12. Seismic station.

8. Why smart automatic event detection software?
One of the most critical problems of the data processing is the seismic event
detection. Things are simple, when the data are free of noise, but there are some cases
that the micro-seismic network has to be installed very close to residential regions,
like cities, or industrial areas. There, even the sensors are installed in a depth of 20m,
noise which is inside the seismic band will be propagated into the seismic signal. In
places also that the sensors are not installed within the bedrock, noise is generally
higher. For this reason, GEObit engineers have design and develop a very special
event detection tool, based on a modified recursive STA/LTA and curtosis algorithm.
Adaptive filtering of the data is applied from the software prior to processing, in order
to reject noise components outside of the recording band.

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The way it operates is to process the data from neighboring stations and search if any
seismic event has been recorded. Searching all the stations data, one by one into their
neighborhood, the event detection software can detect and extract all the recorded
seismic events, even its magnitude is very small and even the data are noisy. This
software has been tested and evaluated in the noisiest environments, where seismic
networks had to be installed around cities and industrial areas.

Figure 13. Event Detection Software.

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Figure 14. Event Detection Software.

9. Conclusion
In order to make a successful passive tomography acquisition, the recording
equipment should have the special characteristics. The design of the SRi32 integrates
fifteen years of technology in PST exploration.

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