On the use of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute's prototype seabed‐coupled shear wave vibrator for shallow soil characterization – I. Acquisition and processing of multimodal surface waves

SUMMARY Pure shear wave data are only very rarely acquired for offshore site investigations and exploration. Here, we present details of a novel, seabed‐coupled, shear wave vibrator and field data recorded by a densely populated, multicomponent ocean‐bottom cable, to improve shallow soil characterization. The prototype shear wave vibrator uses vibroseis technology adopted for marine environments through its instalment on top of a suction anchor, assuring seabed coupling in combination with self‐weight penetration. The prototype is depth rated to 1500 m water depth, and can be rotated while installed in the seabed. The philosophy is to acquire fully complementary seismic data to conventional P ‐ and P ‐to‐ S ‐converted waves, in particular for 2‐D profiling, VSP (vertical seismic profiling) or monitoring purposes, thereby exploiting advantages of shear waves over compressional waves for determining, for example, anisotropy, small‐strain shear modulus and excess pore pressures/effective stress. The source was primarily designed for reservoir depths. However, significant energy is emitted as surface waves, which provide detailed geotechnical information through mapping of shear wave velocities in potentially high resolution of the upper soil units. To fully utilize pure shear wave content, a proper analysis of surface waves is paramount, due to the proximity of surface wave propagation speed with shear wave velocities. The experiment was carried out in the northern North Sea in 364 m water depth. Cable dragging was necessary to obtain close receiver spacing (2.5 m effective spacing), with total line length of 600 m. Frequency–waveform transforms reveal both Scholte and Love waves. Up to six surface wave modes are identified, that is, fundamental mode and several higher surface wave modes. The occurrence of these two different dispersive surface wave types with well‐resolved higher modes allows for a unique analysis and inversion scheme for high‐resolution mapping of physical properties in the shallow subsurface as well as anisotropy, which is discussed in an accompanying paper. The data presented in this paper are thus a unique (long and densely populated receiver array allows for multimodal Love and Scholte surface waves from the marine environment) but challenging (marine operations) marine data set.