RF as an exploration tool

Passive seismic methods are at the fore-front of the research for improving the exploration of the shallow crust (0-5km depth range). Receiver Function technique is based on the analysis of the propagation of teleseismic wavefields across the receiver-side Earth structure and it has been widely used in academia for imaging the Earth structure at crustal and upper mantle depth level. In the framework of the SIMCRUST project, we investigated the feasibility of the RF as a tool for the exploration of the shallow crust in term both of the uncertainties on the depth of the mapped velocity contrasts and the possibility of locating buried anisotropic bodies. The RF methodologies has been applied to a specifically designed seismic network with a dense (about 1km) inter-station distance crossing the southern boundary of the Dublin sedimentary basin [Licciardi and Piana Agostinetti, 2017]. A semi-automatic detection algorithm has been developed to find anisotropic volumes at depth [Licciardi and Piana Agostinetti, 2016]. A more detailed investigation of the RF resolving power has been conducted using an open-access seismic database collected in oil field in Wyoming (USA), composed by recording from a linear seismic array with an inter-station distance of about 250 meters [Piana Agostinetti, 2016]. To achieve a robust estimate of the uncertainties on the depth of the retrieved seismic interfaces, data from a permanent seismic station deployed in Southern Italy near-by a 7070m-deep exploration borehole have been also analyzed and the results have been compared with borehole sonic-log and lithostratigraphies [Piana Agostinetti and Malinverno, 2014, 2017]. RF analysis has been also tested for exploration of the Larderello geothermal field, the first geothermal resource exploited in the XX century [Saccorotti et al. 2014, Piana Agostinetti et al. 2017].

PUBLICATIONS and MEETING ABSTRACTS

Piana Agostinetti, N., A. Licciardi D. Piccinini, F. Mazzarini, G. Musumeci, and G. Saccorotti (2017) The shallow seismic structure of the Larderello geothermal field (Italy) as seen from Receiver Function analysis, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 19, EGU2017-12810, EGU General Assembly

Piana Agostinetti, N. and A. Malinverno (2017) Empirical assesment of uncertainties in high-resolution Receiver Function inversion: a comparison with sonic-log and borehole data, in prep for Geophysics

Licciardi, A. and N. Piana Agostinetti (2016) Sedimentary basin exploration with receiver functions: seismic structure and anisotropy of the Dublin Basin (Ireland), accepted for publication on Geophysics

Licciardi, A. and N. Piana Agostinetti (2016) An automated method for the detection of seismic anisotropy at depth via receiver function analysis, Geophys. J. Int., 205 (3): 1589-1612, doi:10.1093/gji/ggw091

Licciardi, A. and N. Piana Agostinetti (2015) Exploring Sedimentary Basins with High Frequency Receiver Function: the Dublin Basin Case Study. AGU fall meeting, San Francisco, CA

Piana Agostinetti, N. (2015) Empirical investigation into vertical and horizontal resolution of the Receiver Function methodology, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 17, EGU2015-7444

Piana Agostinetti, N. and A. Malinverno (2014) High-resolution S-velocity structure of the shallow crust via Trans-dimensional Multi-Frequency Receiver Function inversion, AGU fall meeting, San Francisco, CA

Saccorotti, G., D. Piccinini, M. Zupo, F. Mazzarini, C. Chiarabba, N. Piana Agostinetti, A. Licciardi and M. Bagagli (2014) Passive, broad-band seismic measurements for geothermal exploration: The GAPSS experiment, Energy Procedia, 59, 227 – 234, doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2014.10.371