Instrumental timing and phase errors are a notorious problem in seismic data acquisition and processing. These can be frequency independent, for example due to clock drift, but may also be frequency dependent, for example due to imperfectly known instrument responses. A technique is presented that allows both types of errors to be recovered in a systematic fashion. The methodology relies on the time-symmetry usually inherent in time-averaged cross-correlations of ambient seismic noise: the difference between the arrival time of the direct surface-wave at positive time and the arrival time of the direct surface-wave at negative time is quantified. Doing this for all eligible receiver-receiver pairs of a large-N seismic array, including one or more receivers devoid of instrumental timing errors, the instrumental timing errors of all incorrectly timed receivers can be determined uniquely. Most notably, this is accomplished by means of a weighted least-squares inversion. The weights are based on the receiver-receiver distances and decrease the adverse effect of inhomogeneities in the noise illumination pattern on the recovered instrumental timing errors. Inversion results are furthermore optimized by limiting the inversion to receiver couples that (i) exceed a specific receiver-receiver distance threshold and (ii) whose time-averaged cross-correlations exceed a specific signal-to-noise ratio threshold. Potential frequency dependence of the timing errors is incorporated by means of an iterative, frequency-dependent approach. The proposed methodology is validated using synthetic recordings of ambient seismic surface-wave noise due to an arbitrary non-uniform illumination pattern. The methodology is successfully applied to time-averaged cross-correlations of field recordings of ambient seismic noise on and around the Reykjanes peninsula, SW Iceland.

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Tomographic imaging based on ambient seismic noise measurements has shown to be a powerful tool, especially in areas like Iceland, where the microseism illumination is excellent. In this paper, we produce a 3D S-wave tomographic image over the western Reykjanes Peninsula high-enthalpy geothermal fields and evaluate the reliability of the tomographic results for different resolutions through simulated and real data. We use 30 broadband stations operating for approximately one-and-a-half year and apply ambient noise seismic interferometry for each station-pair. This results in empirical Green's functions in which especially the ballistic surface waves (BSW) are well resolved. The retrieved BSW exhibit a high signal-to-noise ratio between 0.1 and 0.5 Hz, and the beamforming analysis indicates an apparent surface-wave velocity of 3 km/s over a broad azimuthal range. For the tomographic inversion, we invert the estimated phase velocities between all station pairs to frequency-dependent phase velocity maps in four different resolutions (1, 2, 3, and 4 km) using a Tikhonov regularisation. With the estimated regularisation parameter per frequency per resolution, we invert simulated data for checkerboard sensitivity tests per frequency for different combinations of velocity anomaly sizes and resolutions.

Finally, after the inversion to depth, we detect S-wave velocity anomalies with variations between −15% and 15% with reference to an estimated average velocity using 1 km and 3 km of lateral resolutions and 1 km of vertical resolution. This study shows the potential of ambient noise tomography as complementary seismological tool for reservoir characterization.@en

Integration of results from active seismic, passive seismic and well data reduces the uncertainties of several subsurface parameters that are of interest for cost-effective geothermal production operations in Los Humeros. In this study, we present results from the application of ambient noise seismic interferometry (ANSI) to retrieve zero-offset reflected P-waves from continuous seismic data recorded at the Los Humeros geothermal field, Mexico. This study is inspired by encouraging results from the application of ANSI for body wave reflection retrieval that was reported in 2016 for a geothermal field located at Reykjanes peninsula, Iceland (Verdel et al., 2016). Continuous broadband and short-period seismic recordings provided insightful reflection information that corresponded well, in relevant depth intervals, with reflectivity retrieved from the correlation of coda waves from a distant but very strong earthquake. That work was carried out within the context of EU’s Seventh Framework research and innovation program IMAGE. Encouraged by these findings, it was decided to conduct a new study following a similar approach within the context of the GEMex project, a European-Mexican collaboration. The purpose of GEMex is to gain an improved understanding of the geological structure and geothermal reservoir behaviour for two geothermal fields: Los Humeros and Acoculco. In the following, we address data selection and processing aspects related to the retrieval of reflected P-waves from Los Humeros seismic noise recordings. The retrieved reflections are compared with modelled reflectivities at two station locations at a close distance from the location where the seismic interval velocities that are used in the modelling were available from the literature. The reflected P-wave information provides structural detail about the field at locations directly underneath the employed seismic stations.@en

The Reykjanes Geothermal System (RGS) is a high-temperature geothermal system located on the Reykjanes peninsula, a transtensional plate-boundary zone located on the southwestern tip of Iceland. The area is characterized by high seismicity, recent volcanism, and high-temperature geothermal fields. We use seismic noise records from April 2014 to August 2015 to study stress changes and potential deformation of the subsurface caused by injection and production operations at RGS through seismic interferometry. We retrieve continuous time series of waveform similarity values and seismic velocity changes during this period. The S-transform of the similarity values allows us to clearly identify three variations in the mechanical properties of the Reykjanes peninsula related to rapid changes of RGS production. In addition, we observe a slow seismic velocity decrease of 0.36%/year in the reservoir due to the water deficit and seasonal variations associated with the energy production demand.

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Global phases, viz. seismic phases that travel through the Earth?s core, can be used to locally image the crust by means of seismic interferometry. This method is known as Global Phase Seismic Interferometry (GloPSI). Traditionally, GloPSI retrieves low-frequency information (up to 1 Hz). Recent studies, however, suggest that there is high-frequency signal present in the coda of strong, distant earthquakes. This research quantifies the potential of these high-frequency signals, by analysing recordings of a multitude of high-magnitude earthquakes (≥6.4M_w) and their coda on a selection of permanent USArray stations. Nearly half of the P, PKP and PKIKP phases are recorded with a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 5 dB at 3 Hz. To assess the viability of using the high-frequency signal, the second half of the paper highlights two case studies. First, a known sedimentary structure is imaged in Malargue, Argentina. Secondly, the method is used to reveal the structure of the Midcontinent Rift below the SPREE array in Minnesota, USA. Both studies demonstrate that structural information of the shallow crust (≤5 km) below the arrays can be retrieved. In particular, the interpreted thickness of the sedimentary layer below the Malargue array is in agreement with earlier studies in the same area. Being able to use global phases and direct P-phases with large epicentral distances (>80°) to recover the Earth?s sedimentary structure suggests that GloPSI can be applied in an industrial context.

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Passive seismic interferometry enables the estimation of the reflection response of the subsurface using passive receiver recordings at the surface from sources located deep in the Earth. Interferometric imaging makes use of this retrieved reflection response in order to study the subsurface. Successful interferometric imaging relies on the availability of passive recordings from sufficient sources in the subsurface. Ideally, these sources should be homogeneously distributed, which is unlikely to happen in practical applications. Incomplete source distributions result in the retrieval of inaccurate reflection responses, containing artefacts which can disturb the interferometric imaging process. We propose an alternative imaging method for passive data based on illumination diagnosis and directionally constrained migration. In this method, passive responses from single transient sources are cross-correlated individually, and the dominant radiation direction from each virtual source is estimated. The correlated responses are imaged individually, thereby limiting the source wavefield to the dominant radiation direction of the virtual source. This constraint enables the construction of accurate images from individual sources with a significantly reduced amount of migrated interferometric artefacts. We also show that the summation of all individual imaging results improves the subsurface image by constructive interference, while migrated crosstalk and artefacts experience cancellation. This process, called Image Interferometry, shows that in case of limited subsurface illumination the interferometric integration can be applied in the image domain rather than in the virtual reflection-response domain, thus eliminating the need for the retrieval of the reflection response as an intermediate step.@en

We present results from the application of ambient noise seismic interferometry (ANSI) to data that were recorded continuously in 2014 and 2015 at Iceland’s peninsula Reykjanes. The objective of this study is the retrieval of reflected body waves (P-waves) that provide high-resolution velocity-versus-depth as well as subsurface structural information. We show, for a subset of the onshore seismometers, that reflection information is present in the frequency bandwidth 3-8 Hz. We have observed both time-lapse variations where we expect them and time-invariant results where we do not expect to see changes. As we lacked availability of active seismic reflection and well-sonic data that could serve as reference, we discovered, in our search to find a truly independent means for checking the reflection information quality of our ANSI results, that the coda of a global seismic P-wave, that is created by scattering in the crust, contains very high frequent (3-8 Hz) reflectivity information as it shows quite good correspondence with the 40-days ANSI results, whereas random noise correlation results, using the same amount of data as the coda response, shows less resemblance. We conclude that these results justify a more detailed investigation of the merits of the ANSI method for this data set. But then, the ANSI-derived reflectivity estimates in turn clearly suggest that indeed P-wave crustal scattering information from global seismic waves is present in the frequency-range of 3–8 Hz, which is extremely high for global seismic waves. The latter aspect may open up a large range of opportunities for detailed crustal research at any location on the globe where broadband, and even shortperiod, seismometers are installed. @en

We present tomographic results obtained around geothermal reservoirs using seismic data recorded both on-land Reykjanes, SW-Iceland and offshore along Reykjanes Ridge. We gathered records from a network of 83 seismic stations (including 21 Ocean Bottom Seismometers) deployed between April 2014 and August 2015. We obtain crustal velocity images from several tomography methods. First, we used local earthquakes to perform travel time tomography. The processing includes first arrival picking of P- and S-phases using an automatic detection and picking technique based on Akaike Information Criteria. We locate earthquakes by using a non-linear localization technique, as a priori information for deriving a 1D velocity model. We then computed a 3D velocity model by joint inversion of each earthquake’s location and velocity lateral anomalies with respect to the 1D model. Our results confirms previous models obtained in the area, with enhanced details. Second, we used ambient noise cross-correlation techniques which involve the computation of cross-correlation between seismic records. Empirical Green’s functions are estimated and analyzed to derive an S-wave velocity model by surface wave tomography. Third, noise correlation theory shows that zero-offset P-wave reflectivity at selected station locations can be approximated by auto-correlating and stacking station data. With few assumptions, single-station autocorrelations provide local 1D high-resolution structural acoustic-contrast versus depth information. We show that the application of ambient noise interferometry for reflection retrieval complement well the results from both classical and noise tomography methods. @en

We report on the results obtained from a dense seismic deployment over a geothermal reservoir. The reservoir has been producing continuously for almost a decade and is located on the tip of the Reykjanes peninsula, SW Iceland. The seismic stations on top of the reservoir have continuously recorded the ambient seismic wavefield between April 2014 and September 2015. The density of the seismic network makes the data well suited for time-lapse seismic imaging of the reservoir. To that end we compute time-lapse responses through the application of seismic interferometry. These interferometric lapse responses are obtained by simple crosscorrelation of the seismic noise recorded by the different seismic stations. We subsequently evaluate the temporal variation of the coda of these crosscorrelations. The term coda refers to the later arriving, multiple scattered waves. The multiple scattering implies that these waves have sampled the subsurface very densely and hence become highly sensitive to tiny mechanical and structural changes in that subsurface. This sensitivity allows one, in principle at least, to monitor the geothermal reservoir. Preliminary results indeed suggest a relation between the temporal variation of the coda waves and the reservoir. Ultimately, this method may lead to a means to monitor a geothermal reservoir in both space and time. @en

We report on the results obtained from a dense seismic deployment over a geothermal reservoir located on the tip of the Reykjanes peninsula, SW Iceland. The available seismic stations have continuously recorded the ambient-seismic wave field between April 2014 and August 2015. Using seismic interferometry (SI), seismic responses were generated between these receivers. SI allows one to turn one receiver of a receiver pair into a so-called ‘virtual source’, whose response is then retrieved by the other receiver. The retrieved virtual-source response approximates the medium’s Green’s function between the two receiver locations. For the ambientseismic recordings used in this study, virtual-source retrieval involves simple time-averaging of the crosscorrelations between these recordings. The virtual-source responses were retrieved in a time-lapse manner. The temporal variation of the ‘coda’ of these virtual-source responses has been evaluated, where the term coda refers to the later arriving, multiply scattered waves. The multiple scattering implies that these waves have sampled the subsurface very densely and hence have become highly sensitive to tiny mechanical and structural changes in that subsurface. We did not find a clear relation between the temporal variation of the coda waves and the injection/ extraction rates of the geothermal reservoir. @en

Manifestations of supercritical water in magmatic environments have so far only been accessible from analogue outcrops of fossil systems and by simulating pressure/temperature conditions in the laboratory. In order to assess the unknown properties of such reservoirs, scientific drilling is used when Earth surface sampled rocks cannot sufficiently explain past geological processes and when geophysical imaging does not sufficiently explain observed phenomena. However, our understanding of structural and dynamic characteristics of geothermal systems can be improved through application of advanced and/or innovative exploration technologies. Unlike resistivity imaging, active and passive seismic techniques have rarely been used in volcanic geothermal areas, because processing techniques were not adapted to geothermal conditions. Recent advances in volcano-seismology have introduced new processing techniques for assessing subsurface structures and controls on fluid flow in geothermal systems. We present here preliminary analyses of seismic records around a geothermal reservoir located both on-land and offshore along the Reykjanes Ridge, SW-Iceland. We deployed on-land stations (20 broad-band and 10 short-period seismometers) and 24 Ocean Bottom Seismometers which are recording since April 2014. Together with existing permanent stations, the complete network comprises 66 stations. The network was designed so that several processing techniques can be used with the data set and address scientific questions concerning geothermal systems and the oceanic ridge. We present the network deployment, our approach and preliminary results from the first months.@en