Ground penetrating radar and active seismic investigation of stratigraphically verified pyroclastic deposits

Abstract:

We conducted ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and active seismic surveys in July and August, 2015 parallel to outcrops of the pyroclastic density current deposits of the May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (MSH), Washington. The primary objective of this study is to compare geophysical properties that influence electromagnetic and elastic wave velocities with stratigraphic parameters in the un-saturated zone. The deposits of interest are composed of pumice, volcanic ash, and lava blocks comprising a wide range of intrinsic porosities and grain sizes from sand to boulders. Single-offset GPR surveys for reflection data were performed with a Sensors and Software pulseEKKO Pro 100 GPR using 50 MHz, 100 MHz, and 200 MHz antennae. GPR data processing includes time-zero correction, dewow filter, migration, elevation correction. Multi-offset acquisition with 100 MHz antennae and offsets ranging from 1 m to 16 m are used for reflection tomography to create 2 D electromagnetic wave velocity models. Seismic surveys are performed with 72 geophones spaced at two meters using a sledge hammer source with shot points at each receiver point. We couple p- wave refraction tomography with Rayleigh wave inversion to compute Vp/Vs ratios. The two geophysical datasets are then compared with stratigraphic information to illustrate the influence of lithological parameters (e.g. stratification, grain-size distribution, porosity, and sorting) on geophysical properties of unsaturated pyroclastic deposits. Future work will include joint petrophysical inversion of the multiple datasets to estimate porosity and water content in the unsaturated zone.