Surface-wave analysis for estimating near-surface properties

Khaled Al Dulaijan, Robert R. Stewart

In a real layered earth, surface waves are dispersive with multiple modes. The dispersion properties of surface waves can be useful for estimating S-wave velocity of the near surface. The surface-wave analysis, in the Priddis site, involves recording of surface waves on vertical geophones, estimating phase-velocity dispersion curves, and then inverting these dispersion curves to estimate the S-wave velocity, of the near surface, as a function of depth. P-wave velocities of the near surface were estimated from the sonic log of the Priddis well, and samples from the well cuttings were described in the lab for lithology information of the near surface.