Evaluating the structural model from ambient vibration recordings and shallow seismic refraction techniques. A case study of Zagazig City, Egypt

Abstract

This study uses the seismic refraction and noise measurements to investigate the velocity structure of the subsurface and emphasize the advantage of ambient vibration over the conventional seismic refraction technique. Field measurements were carried out at nine sites in and around Zagazig city. Shallow seismic refraction data were interpreted using the delay time method to obtain the two-dimension ground model at each site. Ambient vibration arrays are used to infer the one-dimensional compressional and shear wave velocity profiles through two main steps. The first step is to derive the dispersion curve from the recorded signals using the frequency-wavenumber method. The second is to invert the dispersion curve to obtain the site velocity profiles. The results of the compressional wave velocities obtained from seismic refraction technique showed that the subsurface consists of a number of layers ranging from two to four layers and give a good agreement with the results of the seismic wave velocities obtained from the ambient vibration arrays. The ambient vibration arrays gave a deeper depth of penetration than the other method, providing more information on the subsurface structure without any disturbance to the environment. This work provides reliable estimates of the seismic velocity structures of both shallow and deep sedimentary layers within the area of interest.