Seismic mapping of on-shore sediments at Andøya, Norway, deposited prior to the North Atlantic rifting

Andøya is an island in the north of Norway. On its eastern side, it contains a local downfaulted basin of Mesozoic sediments sheltered from erosion during subsequent periods of Pleistocene glaciation. The sediments were deposited before the North Atlantic rifting and partly overlie weathered basement. We have recently carried out seismic surveying to better understand the geometry and seismic responses of the basin system. Extensive civil infrastructure and wet mire made the study area challenging for seismic exploration. We shot the survey lines at wet mire with detonating cord during winter when the mire was frozen. In the summer, we conducted seismic surveying along road shoulders with a small-scale vibrator. The seismic processing was particularly challenging due to the influence of traffic noise, heterogeneous near-surface conditions, and large seismic velocity contrasts. We interpreted the seismic lines in integration with other geophysical data and well logs to obtain a consistent and best possible seismic model of the basin. Our interpretation indicates a reorganization of the regional paleostress regime that took place during the continental breakup in the Eocene. In spite of severe obstacles for seismic surveying of the area, our results honor the robustness of the seismic method for subsurface imaging.

Channel waves in cross‐borehole data

Layered geological formations with large seismic velocity contrasts can effectively create channel waves in cross‐borehole seismic data. The existence of channel waves for such waveguides can be confirmed by ray tracing, wave equation modeling, and modal analysis. Channel wave arrivals are identified in cross‐borehole data recorded at Conoco’s Newkirk test facility. For these data, where velocity contrasts are about 2 to 1, tomography based on first arrival traveltimes, is limited due to problems with extreme ray bending and seismic shadow zones. However, it may be possible to extract geological information using channel wave information. The seismometer differencing method appears to be a promising approach for detecting waveguide boundaries by use of cross‐borehole data.