What We Can Offer

We offer a comprehensive turnkey solution for passive seismic exploration, streamlining the entire process from project conception to final analysis. Our service includes meticulous project planning, operations, and data acquisition using our custom-built equipment and software. There's no need for capital investment in assets, as we incorporate the use of our specialised equipment into our complete solution. Designed to withstand the most challenging environments, our equipment has been rigorously tested across Australia's diverse conditions, ensuring reliability and precision.

Our approach features live data acquisition, enabling real-time monitoring of sites and data for immediate insights. Following acquisition, we focus on site restoration and secure, advanced cloud-based data storage and analysis. We take care of data interpretation, delivering results that are straightforward, cost-effective, and impactful.

For projects requiring broader geophysical insights, we seamlessly integrate our data with other geophysical datasets, collaborating closely with other groups or partners. Importantly, our clients retain complete ownership of all data, which we recommend storing on a dedicated cloud environment, custom-created for each client. This ensures secure, accessible, and efficient management of valuable seismic data.

Initial Planning

Start with extensive planning with our team of experts to align project objectives and methodologies.

Deployment and Data Acquisition

Utilize advanced, custom-built equipment designed for reliability and precision, removing the need for client investment in technology.

Conduct live monitoring and data acquisition to ensure real-time insights and adaptability.

Site Restoration

Implement thorough site restoration post-data collection, affirming our commitment to environmental stewardship.

Data Security

Securely transfer and store the collected data on advanced cloud platforms, emphasizing data integrity and confidentiality.

Data Analysis for Actionable Insights

Employ state-of-the-art cloud computing for data analysis, focusing on delivering straightforward, actionable insights that are both cost-effective and impactful.

Comprehensive Geophysical Integration

Where necessary, integrate collected data with broader geological and geophysical datasets for enriched insights.

Ensure seamless integration and analysis to expand the scope of exploration findings.

Client Data Ownership and Custom Cloud Solutions

Guarantee absolute data ownership to clients, reinforcing trust and transparency.

Propose and implement custom-created cloud environments tailored to each client, ensuring optimal data accessibility, security, and management efficiency

Why Passive Seismic

The appeal of Passive Seismic methods in geophysical exploration lies in their ability to provide detailed insights into the Earth's subsurface structures through non-invasive and cost-efficient means. By utilizing ambient seismic noise and the natural seismicity of the Earth, these techniques minimize the environmental footprint and operational complexities associated with active seismic methods.

Environmental Benefits

Reduced Footprint: Eliminates the need for explosive charges or heavy machinery, preserving the natural state of the survey area.

Lowers Noise Pollution: No artificial sound sources means less disruption to wildlife and local communities.

Operational Advantages

Cost Efficiency: Reduces operational costs by eliminating the need for active source equipment and its deployment.

Accessibility: Enables data collection in areas where active sources are not feasible, such as urban environments, sensitive ecosystems, or near critical infrastructure.

Continuous Monitoring: Allows for the continuous observation of subsurface changes over time, ideal for monitoring reservoirs, volcanoes, and earthquake activity.

Data and Analysis Improvements

Natural Source Diversity: Utilizes a wider range of seismic frequencies and sources (e.g., earthquakes, ocean waves), potentially offering richer data sets.

Deep Insight: Can provide deeper insights into subsurface structures due to the penetration capabilities of natural seismic waves.

Temporal Resolution: Tracks changes in subsurface properties over time, enabling the detection of trends and patterns that might not be visible through snapshot approaches of active seismic.

Safety and Accessibility

Increased Safety: Reduces the risk to personnel by avoiding the use of explosives or heavy field equipment.

Non-Invasive: Ideal for regions with strict environmental or land use regulations, reducing legal and permitting hurdles.

Applications

Hydrocarbon Exploration: Monitoring for microseismic events indicative of oil and gas reservoirs.

Geothermal Reservoir Management: Assessing reservoir dynamics and guiding drilling operations.

Earthquake Hazard Assessment: Enhancing understanding of fault behaviors and stress accumulation in seismic zones.

Volcanic Activity Monitoring: Early detection of volcanic unrest through patterns in seismic activity.

Future Prospects and Integration

Integration with Other Data: Combining passive seismic data with active seismic, geological, and other geophysical data for a comprehensive subsurface model.

Technological Advancements: Leveraging improvements in sensor technology, data processing, and machine learning algorithms to enhance data quality and interpretation capabilities.

Passive Seismic Techniques We Utilise

Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT):

Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) harnesses the continuous, naturally occurring seismic noise generated by sources such as oceans, wind, and human activity. Unlike traditional seismic methods that require artificial sources to generate seismic waves, ANT uses the cross-correlation of noise signals recorded at different locations to extract the coherent wavefronts that traverse the subsurface. Through this process, ANT creates high-resolution velocity models that map the speed of seismic waves in different directions and at various depths, revealing the Earth’s internal structure. These models are pivotal for understanding geological features, assessing earthquake hazards, and exploring geothermal resources.

Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR):

The Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) technique measures the ratio of the amplitude of horizontal ground motion to vertical ground motion recorded at a site. This ratio is used to identify natural resonant frequencies of geological layers, which are influenced by the layers' stiffness, thickness, and depth. HVSR is particularly effective for investigating the sedimentary cover's properties over bedrock, identifying potential sites for hydrocarbon reservoirs, assessing seismic hazards in urban planning, constraining resource boundaries and evaluating site effects for earthquake engineering.

The method is enhanced by utilizing a variety of scientific methods for derivation and inversion, including testing inversions with techniques such as the Reverse Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo (RJ-MCMC) method. This method effectively navigates through various model possibilities to find the best fit for the observed data, accommodating uncertainties and complexities with greater flexibility, potentially enhancing the accuracy of subsurface modeling. By efficiently handling the uncertainties and complexities in seismic data, it leads to a more precise identification of geological features and anomalies.

Receiver Functions:

Receiver Functions technique involves the analysis of seismic waves converted from one type (P-waves) to another (S-waves) at interfaces between different subsurface layers. This conversion occurs due to the impedance contrast at the boundaries of geological structures, providing clues about the depth, composition, and stratigraphy of these layers. By isolating these converted phases from the direct P-wave arrivals, we can infer detailed information about the crust and upper mantle's structure, including layer thicknesses, seismic velocities, and the presence of fluids. Receiver Functions are invaluable in continental and oceanic crust studies, mantle lithosphere investigations, and subduction zone dynamics.

Full Waveform Inversion (FWI):

Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) is a sophisticated computational method that iteratively updates subsurface velocity models to minimise the difference between observed and synthetic (calculated) seismic waveforms. By considering the entire seismic waveform, FWI exploits the wealth of information contained in the wave's propagation, including amplitude, phase, and travel time, to construct high-fidelity models of the subsurface. This level of detail enables the identification of complex geological features such as faults, fractures, and fluid pathways, critical for oil and gas exploration, carbon storage assessment, and earthquake risk evaluation.

Spatially Averaged Coherency (SPAC):

The Spatially Averaged Coherency (SPAC) technique leverages the coherency of ambient seismic noise recorded at multiple geophones arranged in a circular array. By analyzing the spatial correlation of the seismic signals at various azimuthal angles and distances, SPAC determines the dispersion characteristics of surface waves. These dispersion curves are then inverted to derive subsurface shear wave velocity profiles. SPAC is particularly effective in providing high-resolution subsurface images, essential for understanding site conditions, evaluating earthquake site effects, and delineating geological layers. Its non-invasive nature and ability to utilize ambient noise make it an invaluable tool in urban environments and regions where traditional seismic surveys are impractical.

Cost Effective Solutions

The scalable nature of our deployment model enables us to tailor pricing based on the operation target and the relatively small number of sensors needed, ensuring an economical approach.

Since the sensors are our own, clients are spared the expense of capital purchases, receiving instead a comprehensive turnkey solution at a straightforward price.
See our Research and Development for more on our custom equipment and software:

Partnership Opportunities

Partnership Opportunities: We're open to collaborative case studies, offering mutually beneficial opportunities to advance seismic exploration together.