Near-surface geophysics is the use of geophysical methods to investigate small-scale features in the shallow (tens of meters) subsurface. It is closely related to applied geophysics or exploration geophysics. Methods used include seismic refraction and reflection, gravity, magnetic, electric, and electromagnetic methods. Many of these methods were developed for oil and mineral exploration but are now used for a great variety of applications, including archaeology, environmental science, forensic science, military intelligence, geotechnical investigation, treasure hunting, and hydrogeology. In addition to the practical applications, near-surface geophysics includes the study of biogeochemical cycles.
Overview In studies of the solid Earth, the main feature that distinguishes geophysics from geology is that it involves remote sensing. Various physical phenomena are used to probe below the surface where scientists cannot directly access the rock. Applied geophysics projects typically have the following elements: data acquisition, data reduction, data processing, modeling, and geological interpretation. This all requires various types of geophysical surveys. These may include surveys of gravity, magnetism, seismicity, or magnetotellurics.
Data acquisition A geophysical survey is a set of measurements made with a geophysical instrument. Often a set of measurements are along a line, or traverse. Many surveys have a set of parallel traverses and another set perpendicular to it to get good spatial coverage. Technologies used for geophysical surveys include:
Seismic methods, such as reflection seismology, seismic refraction, and seismic tomography. Seismoelectrical method Geodesy and gravity techniques, including gravimetry and gravity gradiometry. Magnetic techniques, including aeromagnetic surveys and magnetometers. Electrical techniques, including electrical resistivity tomography, induced polarization and spontaneous potential. Electromagnetic methods, such as magnetotellurics, ground penetrating radar and transient/time-domain electromagnetics. Borehole geophysics, also called well logging. Remote sensing techniques, including hyperspectral imaging.
Data reduction The raw data from a geophysical survey must often be converted to a more useful form. This may involve correcting the data for unwanted variations; for example, a gravity survey would be corrected for surface topography. Seismic travel times would be converted to depths. Often a target of the survey will be revealed as an anomaly, a region that has data values above or below the surrounding region.
Data processing The reduced data may not provide a good enough image because of background noise. The signal-to-noise ratio may be improved by repeated measurements of the same quantity followed by some sort of averaging such as stacking or signal processing.
Modeling
Once a good profile is obtained of the physical property that is directly measured, it must be converted to a model of the property that is being investigated. For example, gravity measurements are used to obtain a model of the density profile under the surface. This is called an inverse problem. Given a model of the density, the gravity measurements at the surface can be predicted; but in an inverse problem the gravity measurements are known and the density must be inferred. This problem has uncertainties due to the noise and limited coverage of the surface, but even with perfect coverage many possible models of the interior could fit the data. Thus, additional assumptions must be made to constrain the model. Depending on the data coverage, the model may only be a 2D model of a profile. Or a set of parallel transects may be interpreted using a 2½D model, which assumes that relevant features are elongated. For more complex features, a 3D model may be obtained using tomography.
Geological interpretation The final step in a project is the geological interpretation. A positive gravity anomaly may be an igneous intrusion, a negative anomaly a salt dome or void. A region of higher electrical conductivity may have water or galena. For a good interpretation the geophysics model must be combined with geological knowledge of the area.
Seismology
Seismology makes use of the ability of vibrations to travel through rock as seismic waves. These waves come in two types: pressure waves (P-waves) and shear waves (S-waves). P-waves travel faster than S-waves, and both have trajectories that bend as the wave speeds change with depth. Refraction seismology makes use of these curved trajectories. In addition, if there are discontinuities between layers in the rock or sediment, seismic waves are reflected. Reflection seismology identifies these layer boundaries by the reflections.
Reflection seismology Seismic reflection is used for imaging of nearly horizontal layers in the Earth. The method is much like echo sounding. It can be used to identify folding and faulting, and to search for oil and gas fields. On a regional scale, profiles can be combined to get sequence stratigraphy, making it possible to date sedimentary layers and identify eustatic sea level rise.
Refraction seismology Seismic refraction can be used not only to identify layers in rocks by the trajectories of the seismic waves, but also to infer the wave speeds in each layer, thereby providing some information on the material in each layer.
Magnetic surveying Magnetic surveying can be done on a planetary scale (for example, the survey of Mars by the Mars Global Surveyor) or on a scale of meters. In the near-surface, it is used to map geological boundaries and faults, find certain ores, buried igneous dykes, locating buried pipes and old mine workings, and detecting some kinds of land mines. It is also used to look for human artifacts. Magnetometers are used to search for anomalies produced by targets with a lot of magnetically hard material such as ferrites.
Microgravity surveying High precision gravity measurements can be used to detect near surface density anomalies, such as those associated with sinkholes and old mine workings, with repeat monitoring allowing near-surface changes over these to be quantified.
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