Application Of P-Wave Seismic Reflection Methods Using The Landstreamer/Minivib System To Near-Surface Investigations

Landstreamer receiver arrays greatly increase the efficiency of shallow seismic reflection surveys, and their use is becoming more widespread, particularly for the acquisition of SH-wave<br>reflection or MASW data. This paper presents recent results using a P-wave landstreamer coupled to an IVI minivib source to acquire shallow seismic reflection profiles for near-surface investigations. The landstreamer/minivib system has proved to be an extremely efficient method of producing high-quality P-wave reflection data in a variety of geological settings. Comparison with traditional planted geophone data using an in-hole shotgun source show that, under optimum conditions for the in-hole shotgun source, the landstreamer data shows a decrease in the frequency of the reflection signal, but there may be an increase in the reflection frequencies where surface materials are dry and sandy. In either case, the advantages of greatly increased data production and the improved multi-channel capability (number of receivers and short offsets) are very significant. The technique has been successfully used to map buried valleys, and to define glacial stratigraphy.