Seismic interferometry for surface-wave attenuation: A case of study from the Ludvika Mines of Sweden

Abstract

In exploration seismology, surface waves generated by active sources usually mask events of interest like reflections and diffractions. This is exacerbated in high-noise, near-mine environments where the targets have often low-impedance contrasts. We present a purely data-driven approach for surface-waves attenuation in active-source reflection seismic data acquired at the Ludvika mining area of central Sweden in 2016. We apply seismic interferometry to the data in order to retrieve dominant surface waves between receivers. We then subtract them from the original data in an adaptive way for their attenuation. Our results show that the surface waves are well suppressed and the target mineralization signature is boosted allowing new features to be revealed. After a simple pre-stack processing, we obtain cleaner seismic sections with more continuous reflections.