Source location mechanism of microseismic monitoring using P-S waves and its effect analysis

Abstract

Source location is the most fundamental and most important problem in microseismic monitoring. However, only P-wave has  been mostly applied in the existing microseismic monitoring networks, with low location accuracy and poor stability of location result for the microseismic events occurring beyond monitoring networks. The seismic source location was implemented using P-wave and S-wave in this study to expand the effective monitoring area of a microseismic monitoring network and improve its location accuracy for microseismic events nearby the monitoring network. Then, the seismic source location mechanism using P-S waves was revealed through theoretical derivation and analysis. Subsequently, the numerical simulation was used to analyze and compare the location effects of differently distributed monitoring networks, those consisting of different quantities of sensors, and those with S-wave contained in some sensors under two circumstances: combination of P-wave and S-wave and single use of P-wave. Results demonstrate that adding S-wave in the plane enhances the accuracy control in the radius direction of the monitoring network. After S-wave is included, the location accuracy within a certain area beyond the monitoring network is improved considerably, the effective monitoring area of the whole network is expanded, and the unstable location zones using only P-wave are eliminated. The location results of differently distributed monitoring networks and the influence laws of the quantity of sensors constituting the networks on the location results are acquired. This study provides evidence for microseismic monitoring to realize accurate and stable location within a large range.