Highlighting and quantifying seismic data quality concerns

Authors: Morkel, IG; Wesseloo, J; Harris, P Download Paper

DOI https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_rep/1508_37_Morkel

Cite As:
Morkel, IG, Wesseloo, J & Harris, P 2015, 'Highlighting and quantifying seismic data quality concerns', in PM Dight (ed.), FMGM 2015: Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium on Field Measurements in Geomechanics, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 539-549, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_rep/1508_37_Morkel



Abstract:
For seismically active mines, the analysis of the mining induced seismicity forms an important part of the geotechnical risk management and design process. However, it appears that the quality of seismic data is seldom scrutinised, resulting in lower quality databases and, therefore, unreliable results. These results are used to make decisions affecting both the safety and productivity of mine sites. For this reason assessing and quantifying the database quality is important. Many mine sites rely on seismic service providers to help maintain the seismic system and to provide good quality seismic data, which they will use in seismic analysis techniques. The mine personnel generally assume good quality data and do not have the tools or expertise to evaluate the integrity of a database. In our experience, data quality problems are experienced by most mines, to some degree, with the quality at some mines having a serious impact on decision making. This paper presents a method for the assessment of seismic data quality. This method highlights the areas in the database that is most contaminated with bad data and thus provides a first step towards rectifying the problem. Quality indices are also developed to objectively quantify the database quality. The methods presented in this paper are work in progress on which the authors will improve in the near future.

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