Mapping lithological boundaries in mines with array seismology and in situ acoustic emission monitoring

Abstract

SUMMARY Knowledge of the position of lithological boundaries is key information for a realistic interpretation of geological settings. Especially in the mining environment, the exact knowledge of geometrical boundaries and characteristics of rock structures has a great impact for both economic decisions and safety awareness. For this purpose, we investigate the P-coda of high frequency acoustic emission (AE) events (picoseismicity) and test the application of array seismology techniques, usually used to study the Earth's deep interior, on a much smaller scale in a mining environment. In total 52 events were used, all of them recorded in the Asse II salt mine in Lower Saxony (Germany) using a network of 16 piezoelectric sensors. Many of these events show a pulse-like arrival in the late P-coda, suggesting the presence of a well-defined structure which scatters seismic energy. To explore the directional information of the signals in the seismograms we use the sliding-window slowness-backazimuth analysis, performed on the waveform envelope of the entire recording. Strong direct P-wave arrivals are clearly visible with observed slowness and backazimuth as expected for a homogenous medium. This implies straight ray paths from event to sensors indicating that the medium between the events and the sensors is homogeneous for wavelengths larger than about 60 cm. In the late P-coda we observe out-of-plane arrivals from southeast and, assuming single P-to-P scattering, we find that the scatterers responsible for these observations are clustered in space defining a sharp reflector corresponding to a known lithological boundary located at the southern flank of the salt dome. In agreement with the established geological model we observe no other dominant reflections in the analysed waveforms that would indicate previously unknown lithological boundaries. This study shows that array seismology can be applied to AEs in mines to gain more information on structures and heterogeneities located in the vicinity of the monitored rock volume. In micro-acoustically monitored mines, this technique could be a valuable addition to increase hazard awareness and mining efficiency at little or no extra costs.