ALBERT

Notizen: In the laboratories of the agip mineraria a new apparatus has been developed which, utilizing reflected energy collected by several groups of seismometers, provides on a single trace an indication of the total energy level. This indication is controled in time according to an exponential characteristic, thus compensating for the attenuation which is effected in the subsurface. The apparatus enables indications of successive energy levels to be obtained for different shots, thus furnishing a time section even during the routine field work.

Notizen: The factors affecting the response of a velocity-sensitive well geophone are discussed and it is shown that the geophone movement in response to a seismic pulse is primarily due to the pressure difference between its ends. Several practical examples are calculated to show that the first arrival waveform recorded by a geophone depends on the distance from an interface and that these changes in recorded waveform may give errors of up to 3 msec in well-velocity surveys. These errors may be minimised by using pressure geophones or by avoiding measurements at geological interfaces.

Notizen: Surface charges in seismic refraction work in the sand dunes of the Sahara have been necessitated by the many problems involved in shot hole driving. These include lost circulation, unconsolidated surface sands and gravels, caving, poor shot efficiency etc.Tests were conducted in September 1958 in an attempt to evaluate some of the problems involved in surface shooting. This method is complicated by the large number of variables, 8 major ones, influencing the shot pattern.It is difficult to evaluate each of such a large number of variables by an exhaustive and systematic test procedure due to the prohibitive number of shots that this would involve. However, two series of tests contributed greatly to an understanding of the problem, although they left some points to be cleared up.Firstly shots were fired using small charges (less than 25 kg). These gave interesting results, however, they are not applicable to the heavy charges currently in use (500-1500 kg). These results refer primarily to the use of suspended charges which gave superior results to those obtained from surface charges layed on the ground. They also tend to indicate the influence of the weight of the charge. This is manifested by a saturation in seismic energy, as the size of the charge increases.The results obtained from the shooting (200 kg) of several individual charges are not as pronounced. The following conclusions are drawn:Nitrate explosives, in current use in the Sahara for several years, give good results in refraction.– The use of suspended shots does not result in sufficient gain in energy over the ground shots to justify their more complicated utilization: preparation, partial destruction of supports, safety etc. Hence further shooting of suspended charges has been abandoned.– The detonation of individual charges by use of primacord layed parallel to the line, in preference to simultaneous electrical detonation, gave superior results from the energy point of view (especially for high frequency arrivals) and simplified lay-out procedures. Hence this method was adopted.– As for the small charges the relation between seismic energy and weight of the individual charges shows a saturation effect which is less pronounced.–The distance between the individual charges appears to be the most important variable. The relation, seismic energy-distance between charges, indicates an increase in a linear manner for distances of 5 to 20 meters. It would appear as though the beneficial effect for greater distances diminishes beyond this point.Finally, it would appear as though it would be preferable for a given overall charge to reduce the weight of the individual charges and increase the distance between the individual charges. Obviously this rule has certain practical and economic limits. If the cost of the unit of seismic energy is evaluated it is preferable to utilize large distances between charges (20 m) but also relatively large individual charges (about 25 kg).The testing program was followed by nine months of surveying in different types of terrain. The parameters were etablished from the results of the testing program.Economically the following conclusions may be drawn: The average explosives consumption increased from 1000 kg for the shot–hole shots to 1500 kg for the surface shots. This increase, costwise, represents almost exactly the cost of shot hole drilling at the present price of explosives. Efforts are being made to have the price of explosives reduced and should this realize the net result will be a definite cost advantage in favor of surface shooting.In addition, the introduction of magnetic recording in refraction work to the Sahara in 1959 appears to indicate a substantial reduction in the size of the charges needed, hence, a further advantage to surface shooting.

Notizen: Dipole-dipole induced polarization (IP) data are displayed typically as multi-level profiles, or as contours on vertical sectional plots referred to as pseudo-sections. The dipole-dipole array tends to yield IP anomalies in which the most anomalous values are displaced laterally from the source body. The data patterns are fairly interpretable on pseudo-sections or on multi-level profiles but are sufficiently complex to discourage the contouring of the data in plan.A method was developed for the presentation of dipole-dipole IP data on a contour map. The method consists of a simple averaging of data which can be performed manually if desired. It yields a single output value per station which reflects all levels of the pseudo-section, and is suitable for contouring in plan. The advantage of the technique is that it provides a quantitative picture of IP anomalies in their background or regional setting.

Notizen: Constant offset sections can be mapped to a fixed offset and compared in order to provide a method of velocity analysis. The direct mapping to zero offset prior to stack might provide an alternative processing procedure to NMO and stack. The main advantage of such a procedure would lie in the correct treatment of cross-dips, but interpretational advantages might also follow from the performance of partial stacks biased to either high or low offset information.

Notizen: Induced polarization and resistivity model studies over thin dykes for varying resistivity contrasts, depth of burial, and dip angles show striking parallelism of the surface apparent resistivity contours with the boundary of the body. This effect may be utilized for the estimation of strike length of the body. Results show that intermediate values of the electrode spacing is satisfactory for detection under widely varying conditions of resistivity contrast and depth. The percentage frequency effect (P.F.E.) and the metal factor (M.F.) responses are found to be more sensitive to the variation in the depth of burial than the resistivity responses. Pseudosections for P.F.E. and M.F. are concentrated much closer to the body than the resistivity pseudo-sections.

Notizen: A direct interpretation scheme is developed which is capable of determining most of the geological features of a ground which can be assumed to be two dimensional in structure. This scheme extends the earlier work of Pekeris (1940) and Koefoed (1968) to the case where the basal layer of a ground is undulating. It also has a limited use for finding the parameters of a dipping dyke in the lower medium. Though the top and dip of the dyke can be determined, this is not true for the thickness.

Notizen: Laboratory studies of absorption-frequency behavior in rocks often use spectral ratios of digitally recorded ultrasonic signals which have been transmitted through a rock sample and a reference sample of very low absorption, respectively. It is proposed to treat the digitally recorded signals as an autoregressive-moving average (ARMA) process which, using recursive filter concepts, can be represented as a ratio of two polynomials in the z-transform variable z. The numerator polynomial contains only that part of the signal that is modified by anelastic effects, whereas the denominator contains the elastic effects of the physical apparatus such as reverberations. Examples are given which show that this separation of the recorded signal greatly facilitates the laboratory investigation of loss mechanisms and absorption-frequency behavior based on spectral ratios.

Notizen: The generalized integral equation for the electric potential governed by a quasi-harmonic equation can be derived via a variational formulation. For surface current distributions it is not always a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. Numerical solutions of the general heterogeneous problem can be obtained with the “reciprocal averaging technique”, where the solution is obtained a second time after exchange of source and field points.