Study of a subsurface fracture zone by vertical seismic profiling

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Abstract
Remotely estimating the properties of subsurface fracture zones is important in characterizing the structure of the shallow earth. We present a vertical seismic profiling (VSP) technique to make this fracture zone estimation and discuss the results of a VSP experiment performed in the upper 770 m of the Michigan Basin. Both P and SH waves were used to observe an explosively‐fractured volume of Antrim shale. The experiment was divided into two parts: a "before" survey run on the unaltered rock, then an identical "after" survey executed across the fractured volume. A seismic velocity structure of the basin was calculated from the "before" survey. Comparison of the "after" observations to the "before" data, elucidated the fracture volume and its effective elastic parameters. From travel‐time delays, amplitude attenuation, converted and scattered waves, we estimated the depth (395 m), shape (ellipsoidal), size (10 m × 20 m × 30 m) and porosity (20%) of the fracture zone.