Imaging of fracture zones in the Finnsjön area, central Sweden, using the seismic reflection method

Abstract

In 1987 the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co. (SKB) funded the shooting of a 1.7-km long, high‐resolution seismic profile over the Finnsjön study site using a 60‐channel acquisition system with a shotpoint and geophone spacing of 10 m. The site is located about 140 km north of Stockholm and the host rocks are mainly granodioritic. The main objective of the profile was to image a known fracture zone with high hydraulic conductivity dipping gently to the west at depths of 100 to 400 m. The initial processing of the data failed to image this fracture zone. However, a steeply dipping reflector was imaged indicating the field data were of adequate quality and that the problem lay in the processing. These data have now been reprocessed and a clear image of the gently dipping zone has been obtained. In addition, several other reflectors were imaged in the reprocessed section, both gently and steeply dipping ones. Correlations with borehole data indicate that the origin of these reflections are also fracture zones. The improvement over the previous processing is caused mainly by (1) refraction statics, (2) choice of frequency band, (3) F-K filtering, and (4) velocity analyses. In addition to reprocessing the data, some further analyses were done including simulation of acquisition using only the near‐offset channels (channels 1–30) and the far‐offset channels (channels 31–60), and determining the damping factor Q in the upper few hundred meters based upon the amplitude decay of the first arrivals. The data acquisition simulation shows the far‐offset contribution to be significant even for shallow reflectors in this area, contrary to what may be expected. A Q value of 10, determined from observed amplitude decay rates, agrees well with theoretical ones assuming plane wave propagation in an attenuating medium.