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At least 829 records · Page 46
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Graph-learning approach to combine multiresolution seismic velocity models

SUMMARY The resolution of velocity models obtained by tomography varies due to multiple factors and variables, such as the inversion approach, ray coverage, data quality, etc. Combining velocity models with different resolutions can enable more accurate ground motion simulations. Toward this goal, we present a novel methodology to fuse multiresolution seismic velocity maps with probabilistic graphical models (PGMs). The PGMs provide segmentation results, corresponding to various velocity intervals, in seismic velocity models with different resolutions. Further, by considering physical information (such as ray path density), we introduce physics-informed probabilistic graphical models (PIPGMs). These models provide data-driven relations between subdomains with low (LR) and high (HR) resolutions. Transferring (segmented) distribution information from the HR regions enhances the details in the LR regions by solving a maximum likelihood problem with prior knowledge from HR models. When updating areas bordering HR and LR regions, a patch-scanning policy is adopted to consider local patterns and avoid sharp boundaries. To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed PGM fusion method, we tested the fusion approach on both a synthetic checkerboard model and a fault zone structure imaged from the 2019 Ridgecrest, CA, earthquake sequence. The Ridgecrest fault zone image consists of a shallow (top 1 km) high-resolution shear-wave velocity model obtained from ambient noise tomography, which is embedded into the coarser Statewide California Earthquake Center Community Velocity Model version S4.26-M01. The model efficacy is underscored by the deviation between observed and calculated traveltimes along the boundaries between HR and LR regions, 38 per cent less than obtained by conventional Gaussian interpolation. The proposed PGM fusion method can merge any gridded multiresolution velocity model, a valuable tool for computational seismology and ground motion estimation.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗
DOE OSTI2025

Estimating an airborne dipole source using 3-D wavefield simulations and seismic receivers on the ground

Acoustic signals can couple to the ground, providing an opportunity to use seismic stations to investigate airborne sources. The study of Bishop et al. used wavefield simulations in a fluid-solid medium to quantify the role of topography on the seismic (ground) recordings of a monopole source in the air. We build upon this study by linking wavefield forward modelling with the source estimation code MTUQ, which can accommodate point forces or moment tensors in a solid medium, as well as sources in the air (or water) if they are enabled by the forward-modelling solver. We perform a series of synthetic numerical experiments to demonstrate that a dipole airborne source can be estimated using ground-based receivers, even within the presence of realistic topography. We investigate the influence of receiver coverage, topography, and assumed source location on the estimated results. The established capabilities raise the prospects for future efforts to estimate dipole sources in 3-D models that include heterogeneity in the air and the earth in addition to topography.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Elastic full-waveform inversion and parameterization analysis applied to walk-away vertical seismic profile data for unconventional (heavy oil) reservoir characterization

We report seismic full-waveform inversion (FWI) methods hold strong potential to recover multiple subsurface elastic properties for hydrocarbon reservoir characterization. Simultaneously updating multiple physical parameters introduces the problem of interparameter tradeoff, arising from the covariance between different physical parameters, which increases nonlinearity and uncertainty of multiparameter FWI. The coupling effects of different physical parameters are significantly influenced by model parameterization and acquisition arrangement. An appropriate choice of model parameterization is critical to successful field data applications of multiparameter FWI. The objective of this paper is to examine the performance of various model parameterizations in isotropic-elastic FWI with walk-away vertical seismic profile (W-VSP) dataset for unconventional heavy oil reservoir characterization. Six model parameterizations are considered: velocity-density (α, β and ρ'), modulus-density (κ, μ and ρ), Lamé-density (λ, μ' and ρ'''), impedance-density (IP, IS and ρ''), velocity-impedance-I (α', β' and I' P ), and velocity-impedance-II (α'', β'' and I'S). We begin analyzing the interparameter tradeoff by making use of scattering radiation patterns, which is a common strategy for qualitative parameter resolution analysis. In this paper, we discuss the advantages and limitations of the scattering radiation patterns and recommend that interparameter tradeoffs be evaluated using interparameter contamination kernels, which provide quantitative, second-order measurements of the interparameter contaminations and can be constructed efficiently with an adjoint-state approach. Synthetic W-VSP isotropic-elastic FWI experiments in the time domain verify our conclusions about interparameter tradeoffs for various model parameterizations. Density profiles are most strongly influenced by the interparameter contaminations; depending on model parameterization, the inverted density profile can be over-estimated, under-estimated or spatially distorted. Among the six cases, only the velocity-density parameterization provides stable and informative density features not included in the starting model. Field data applications of multicomponent W-VSP isotropic-elastic FWI in the time domain were also carried out. Finally, the heavy oil reservoir target zone, characterized by low α-to-β ratios and low Poisson’s ratios, can be identified clearly with the inverted isotropic-elastic parameters.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Real-time deep-learning inversion of seismic full waveform data for CO 2 saturation and uncertainty in geological carbon storage monitoring

Deep-learning inversion has recently drawn attention in geological carbon storage research due to its potential of imaging and monitoring carbon storage in real time, significantly improving efficiency and safety of carbon storage operations. We present a deep-learning full waveform inversion method that after the neural network has been trained can image CO 2 saturation and its uncertainty in real time. Our deep-learning inversion method is based on the U-Net architecture with the neural network trained on pairs of synthetic seismic data and CO 2 saturation models. Accordingly, our training establishes a mapping relationship between seismic data and CO 2 saturation models and once fully trained directly estimates CO 2 saturation as a function of subsurface location. We further quantify uncertainties of CO 2 saturation estimates using the Monte Carlo dropout method and a bootstrap aggregating method. For this proof-of-concept study, the CO 2 training models and data are derived from the Kimberlina 1.2 model, a hypothetical 3D geological carbon storage model that is constructed based on various geological and hydrological data from the Southern San Joaquin Basin, California. We perform deep-learning inversion experiments using noise-free and noisy training and test data sets and compare the results. Our modelling experiments show that (1) the deep-learning inversion can estimate 2D distributions of CO 2 fairly well even in the presence of Gaussian random noise and (2) both CO 2 saturation imaging and uncertainty quantification can be done in real time. Our results suggest that the deep-learning inversion method can serve as a robust real-time monitoring tool for geological carbon storage and/or other time-varying reservoir/aquifer properties that result from injection, extraction, and/or other subsurface transport phenomena.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Surface Deformation and Seismicity Linked to Fluid Injection in the Raton Basin

Abstract It is suggested that in addition to seismicity deep fluid injection may cause surface uplift and subsidence in oil and gas‐producing regions. This study uses the Raton Basin as an example to investigate the hydromechanical processes of surface uplift and subsidence during wastewater injection. The Raton Basin, in southern central Colorado and northern central New Mexico, has experienced wastewater injection related to coalbed methane and gas production starting in 1994. In this study, we estimate the extent and magnitude of total vertical deformation in the Raton Basin from 1994 to 2020 and incremental deformation between the years 2017 to 2020. Results indicate a modeled uplift as much as 15 cm occurring between 1994 and 2020. Between 2017 and 2020, up to 3 cm of uplift occurred, largely near the northwestern injection wells. Most modeled uplift between 1994 and 2020 occurred near the southern wells, where the greatest cumulative volume of wastewater was injected. However, modeled subsidence occurred around the southern and eastern wells between 2017 and 2020, after the rate of injection decreased. Modeling indicates that while the magnitude of modeled uplift corresponds to cumulative injection volume and maximum rate in the long‐term, short‐term incremental deformation (uplift or subsidence) is controlled by changes in the rate of injection. The number of yearly earthquake events follows periods of rapid modeled uplifting throughout the Basin, suggesting that measurable surface deformation may be caused by the same injection‐induced pore pressure perturbations that initiate seismicity.

Geology↗
DOE OSTI2014

Development of a versatile hybrid testing system for seismic experimentation

The hybrid testing method for earthquake engineering was developed to evaluate the seismic performance of civil structural systems. During hybrid testing, part of the structure, called physical substructure, is physically tested using hydraulic loading equipment while the rest of the structure, named numerical substructure, is numerically simulated with a computer model. Thus, hybrid testing allows a complex physical substructure being tested experimentally, while the relatively simple part of the structure is numerically simulated to economically obtain the full structural response. Recently, a versatile hybrid testing system was built at Western Michigan University consisting of a shake table, an actuator/reaction system, and an advanced hybrid testing controller. Such a testing system is capable of conducting various seismic experiments such as displacement-based pseudodynamic substructure testing as well as force-based real time dynamic hybrid testing. Because of its versatility and easy operation at the benchmark scale, the developed testing system is particularly suitable for the development of advanced hybrid testing techniques and, earthquake engineering education/outreach activities. The development of the testing system is described in this article focusing on the hardware and software integrations. A three story shake table hybrid test is presented as an example to demonstrate the system’s capability and feasibility.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Nonlinear dynamics induced in a structure by seismic and environmental loading

In this study,we show that under very weak dynamic and quasi-static deformation, that is orders of magnitude below the yield deformation of the equivalent stress strain curve (around 10 -3 ), the elastic parameters of a civil engineering structure (resonance frequency and damping) exhibit nonlinear softening and recovery. These observations bridge the gap between laboratory and seismic scales where elastic nonlinear behavior has been previously observed. Under weak seismic or atmospheric loading, modal frequencies are modified by around 1% and damping by more than 100% for strain levels between 10 -7 and 10 -4 . These observations support the concept of universal behavior of nonlinear elastic behavior in diverse systems, including granular materials and damaged solids that scale from millimeter dimensions to the scale of structures to fault dimensions in the Earth.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Shear-wave anisotropy reveals pore fluid pressure–induced seismicity in the U.S. midcontinent

Seismicity in the U.S. midcontinent has increased by orders of magnitude over the past decade. Spatiotemporal correlations of seismicity to wastewater injection operations have suggested that injection-related pore fluid pressure increases are inducing the earthquakes. We present direct evidence linking earthquake occurrence to pore pressure increase in the U.S. midcontinent through time-lapse shear-wave (S-wave) anisotropy analysis. Since the onset of the observation period in 2010, the orientation of the fast S-wave polarization has flipped from inline with the maximum horizontal stress to inline with the minimum horizontal stress, a change known to be associated with critical pore pressure buildup. The time delay between fast and slow S-wave arrivals exhibits increased variance through time, which is common in critical pore fluid settings. Near-basement borehole fluid pressure measurements indicate pore pressure increase in the region over the earthquake monitoring period.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Physics-based seismic hazard analysis on petascale heterogeneous supercomputers, In: SC '13 Proceedings of the International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis

We have developed a highly scalable and efficient GPU-based finite-difference code (AWP) for earthquake simulation that implements high throughput, memory locality, communication reduction and communication/computation overlap and achieves linear scalability on Cray XK7 Titan at ORNL and NCSA's Blue Waters system. We simulate realistic 0-10 Hz earthquake ground motions relevant to building engineering design using high-performance AWP. Moreover, we show that AWP provides a speedup by a factor of 110 in key strain tensor calculations critical to probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). These performance improvements to critical scientific application software, coupled with improved co-scheduling capabilities of our workflow-managed systems, make a statewide hazard model a goal reachable with existing supercomputers. The performance improvements of GPU-based AWP are expected to save millions of core-hours over the next few years as physics-based seismic hazard analysis is developed using heterogeneous petascale supercomputers.

Computer Science↗
DOE OSTI2019

Porting a 3D seismic modeling code (SW4) to CORAL machines

Seismic waves fourth order (SW4) solves the seismic wave equations on Cartesian and curvilinear grids using large compute clusters with O (100,000) cores. In this article we discuss the porting of SW4 to run on the CORAL architecture using the RAJA performance portability abstraction layer. The performances of key kernels using RAJA and CUDA are compared to estimate the performance penalty of using the portability abstraction layer. Code changes required for efficiency on GPUs and minimizing time spent in Message Passing Interface (MPI) are discussed. This article describes a path for efficiently porting large code bases to GPU-based machines while avoiding the pitfalls of a new architecture in the early stages of its deployment. Current bottlenecks in the code are discussed along with possible architectural or software mitigations. SW4 runs 28× faster on one 4-GPU CORAL node than on a CTS-1 node (Dual Intel Xeon E5-2695 v4). SW4 is now in routine use on problems of unprecedented resolution (203 billion grid points) and scale on 1,200 nodes of Summit.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Seismic Waves, 4th order accurate

SW4 is a program for simulating seismic wave propagation on parallel computers. SW4 colves the seismic wave equations in Cartesian corrdinates. It is therefore appropriate for regional simulations, where the curvature of the earth can be neglected. SW4 implements a free surface boundary condition on a realistic topography, absorbing super-grid conditions on the far-field boundaries, and a kinematic source model consisting of point force and/or point moment tensor source terms. SW4 supports a fully 3-D heterogeneous material model that can be specified in several formats. SW4 can output synthetic seismograms in an ASCII test format, or in the SAC finary format. It can also present simulation information as GMT scripts, whixh can be used to create annotated maps. Furthermore, SW4 can output the solution as well as the material model along 2-D grid planes.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2023

Seismic Response Processing Module

The seismic response processing module is a Java based library that provides support for removing instrument response signals from seismic recordings. The response module provides support for EvalResp, PZF, PAZ, FAP, PAZFIR, PAZFAP, FIRFAP, and CSS response types and parallel processing support for transfer operations. Additionally, the response module uses the JSR-363 units of measurement specification to allow for transfer to and from a wide range of units types to represent the time-series.

Dodge, Douglas↗
DOE OSTI2024

Bayesian OED for Seismic Monitoring

SAND2024-13870O The Bayesian OED (Optimal Experiment Design) for Seismic Monitoring code provides the tools to analyze and optimize seismic monitoring networks using Bayesian OED. This method designs a utility function for experiments (network designs) using network analysis and network optimization. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Catanach, Thomas↗
DOE OSTI2016

A source-synchronous filter for uncorrelated receiver traces from a swept-frequency seismic source

We have developed a novel algorithm to reduce noise in signals obtained from swept-frequency sources by removing out-of-band external noise sources and distortion caused from unwanted harmonics. The algorithm is designed to condition nonstationary signals for which traditional frequency-domain methods for removing noise have been less effective. The source synchronous filter (SSF) is a time-varying narrow band filter, which is synchronized with the frequency of the source signal at all times. Because the bandwidth of the filter needs to account for the source-to-receiver propagation delay and the sweep rate, SSF works best with slow sweep rates and moveout-adjusted waveforms to compensate for source-receiver delays. The SSF algorithm was applied to data collected during a field test at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Garner Valley downhole array site in Southern California. At the site, a 45 kN shaker was mounted on top of a one-story structure and swept from 0 to 10 Hz and back over 60 s (producing useful seismic waves greater than 1.6 Hz). The seismic data were captured with small accelerometer and geophone arrays and with a distributed acoustic sensing array, which is a fiber-optic-based technique for the monitoring of elastic waves. The result of the application of SSF on the field data is a set of undistorted and uncorrelated traces that can be used in different applications, such as measuring phase velocities of surface waves or applying convolution operations with the encoder source function to obtain traveltimes. Lastly, the results from the SSF were used with a visual phase alignment tool to facilitate developing dispersion curves and as a prefilter to improve the interpretation of the data.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Gas hydrate quantification in Walker Ridge block 313, Gulf of Mexico, from full-waveform inversion of ocean-bottom seismic data

The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Joint Industry Project Leg 2 logging-while-drilling data in Walker Ridge lease block 313 (WR313) in the GOM detected gas hydrate in coarse- and fine-grained sediments at sites WR313-G and WR313-H. The coarse-grained units are thin ([Formula: see text]) and highly saturated, whereas the fine-grained unit is thick (approximately 200 m) with low saturation and fracture-filling gas hydrate. Unlike its coarse-grained counterpart, the seismic character of the fine-grained unit does not clearly indicate the presence of gas hydrate, which would likely have remained undiscovered in the absence of drilling. In this paper, through frequency-domain acoustic full-waveform inversion (FWI) of ocean-bottom seismometer data along a 2D multichannel seismic transect near sites WR313-G and WR313-H, we detect and quantify gas hydrate in the fine-grained unit. Key results are as follows: First, the base of the gas hydrate stability zone, which is not obvious in the reflection profile, can be discerned in the FWI results. Second, the gas hydrate in the fine-grained unit is mainly confined to the area between two sets of opposite-dipping normal faults implying that the fault architecture may be partially responsible for this gas hydrate accumulation and distribution.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Seismic monitoring of well integrity

Seismic tube waves, produced by flexure of the well boundary, pressure changes in the fluid in the well, and deformation of the material immediately surrounding the well, are particularly sensitive to variations in the state of the well. In this work, we evaluate a direct approach for generating and observing tube waves as a means of detecting well damage. While we find that it can be difficult to reliably excite observable tube waves without a very strong surface source, time-frequency techniques can be employed to increase the detectability of tube wave reflections. New technologies, particularly distributed acoustic sensing, hold great promise for evaluating well integrity by monitoring tube waves, temperature changes, and seismic noise due to well deformation and fluid leakage.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Utah FORGE 5-2419: Seismicity-Permeability Relationships Probed via Nonlinear Acoustic Imaging - Workshop Presentation

This is a presentation on the Seismicity-Permeability Relationships Probed via Nonlinear Acoustic Imaging project by Pennsylvania State University, presented by Derek Elsworth. The project's objectives were to explore controls and acoustic signatures of aseismic through seismic evolution of friction-stability-permeability relationships on fractures in shear-reactivation, link this reactivation to key features of the pre-existing stress state, and upscale these indexes to reservoir scale to drive successful reservoir stimulation. This presentation was featured in the Utah FORGE R&D Annual Workshop on September 8, 2023. The workshop provided a valuable opportunity to explore the progress made in each of the 17 Research and Development projects funded under Solicitation 2020-1 which aim to enhance our understanding of the crucial factors influencing the development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) reservoirs and resources.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Significantly Improving Regional Seismic Amplitude Tomography at Higher Frequencies by Determining S -Wave Bandwidth

Characterizing regional seismic signals continues to be a difficult problem due to their variability. Calibration of these signals is very important to many aspects of monitoring underground nuclear explosions, including detecting seismic signals, discriminating explosions from earthquakes, and reliably estimating magnitude and yield. Amplitude tomography, which simultaneously inverts for source, propagation, and site effects, is a leading method of calibrating these signals. A major issue in amplitude tomography is the data quality of the input amplitude measurements. Pre-event and prephase signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) tests are typically used but can frequently include bad signals and exclude good signals. The deficiencies of SNR criteria, which are demonstrated here, lead to large calibration errors. To ameliorate these issues, we introduce a semi-automated approach to assess the bandwidth of a spectrum where it behaves physically. We determine the maximum frequency (denoted as F max ) where it deviates from this behavior due to inflections at which noise or spurious signals start to bias the spectra away from the expected decay. We compare two amplitude tomography runs using the SNR and new F max criteria and show significant improvements to the stability and accuracy of the tomography output for frequency bands higher than 2 Hz by using our assessments of valid S-wave bandwidth. We compare Q estimates, P/S residuals, and some detailed results to explain the improvements. Lastly, for frequency bands higher than 4 Hz, needed for effective P/S discrimination of explosions from earthquakes, the new bandwidth criteria sufficiently fix the instabilities and errors so that the residuals and calibration terms are useful for application.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗