Shallow Shear Wave Reflection Seismic Applications in the Krueng Aceh River Delta

As part of the project "Management of Georisk" of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Hannover, high resolution shallow shear wave reflection seismic was applied in the Indonesian province Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam in cooperation with the Government of Indonesia and local counterparts. The investigations should support earthquake site effect classification for the reconstruction process and the groundwater exploration activities with the main focus for the city of Banda Aceh and the surrounding region of Aceh Besar. The shear wave seismic measurements were combined with standard geoengineering techniques like Cone Penetrometer Testings for a comprehensive site evaluation and have been supplemented partly by shallow P-wave seismic applications for the derivation of elastic subsurface parameters and the detection of groundwater spots. <br><br>Results show that high resolution shallow shear wave seismic is a useful tool to evaluate the subsurface stiffness in terms of international building codes for local site effect analysis. Furthermore, due to the resulting depth penetration of 100 m and more, this method lead to a better understanding of the sedimentation process for the Krueng Aceh river basin and can help to identify possible aquifer layers.<br><br>