Monitoring and Imaging based on Interferometric Concepts (MIIC)

Time frame: 2010 - 2014

Summary
Monitoring with acoustic or seismic waves has been limited to the monitoring of sources for a long time. Temporal changes in the wave propagation have generally been neglected since these variations are usually very weak, i.e. smaller than the spatial variability. However, changes of the wave velocity or attenuation may provide valuable information about stress changes, the opening and development of cracks, temperature changes or chemical alteration, and thus open up a novel approach to the observation of dynamic processes.
The key to detect these temporal variations of the medium is to use interferometry of the scattered seismic wave field. With a set of targets we investigate the potential and limitations of passive image interferometry, which is based on the ambient seismic noise.
Our main target is the test site for CO2 sequestration in Ketzin where a network of seismometers was operated for a period of 4 years during the sequestration experiment. We investigate the characteristics of the ambient noise and its correlation properties with the aim of identifying changes in the seismic wave field in response to the perturbation of the subsurface introduced by the emplacement of CO2.

Contact
Dr. Christoph Sens-Schönfelder (GFZ Potsdam)
Martina Gassenmeier

Principle Investigators
Dr. Christoph Sens-Schönfelder (GFZ Potsdam)
Prof. Dr. Michael Korn (Uni Leipzig)

Collaborations
Dr. Eraldo Pomponi (Uni Leipzig)
Mickeal Delatre (BRGM Orléans)