Near-surface characterization using distributed acoustic sensing in an urban area: Granada, Spain

Abstract

SUMMARY The Granada Basin in southeast Spain is an area of moderate seismicity. Yet, it hosts some of the highest seismic hazards in the Iberian Peninsula due to the presence of shallow soft sediments amplifying local ground motion. In urban areas, seismic measurements often suffer from sparse instrumentation. An enticing alternative to conventional seismometers is the distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology that can convert fibre-optic telecommunication cables into dense arrays of seismic sensors. In this study, we perform a shallow structure analysis using the ambient seismic field interferometry method. We conduct a DAS array field test in the city of Granada on the 26 and 27 August 2020, using a telecommunication fibre. In addition to the existing limitations of using DAS with unknown fibre-ground coupling conditions, the complex geometry of the fibre and limited data recording duration further challenge the extraction of surface-wave information from the ambient seismic field in such an urban environment. Therefore, we develop a processing scheme that incorporates a frequency–wavenumber (f−k) filter to enhance the quality of the virtual shot gathers and related multimode dispersion images. We are able to use this data set to generate several shear-wave velocity (VS) profiles for different sections of the cable. The shallow VS structure shows a good agreement with different geological conditions of soil deposits. This study demonstrates that DAS could provide insights into soil characterization and seismic microzonation in urban areas. In addition, the results contribute to a better understanding of local site response to ground motion.