Interpretation of strong seismic attenuation in quartz sand in the kiloHertz range

Clarisse Bordes (1, 2) , Tobias Müller (3) , Qiamo Qi (2) , Mahyar Madadi (2) , Boris Gurevich (2) , Julia Holzhauer (1) , Daniel Brito (1)

1 LFCR - Laboratoire des Fluides Complexes et leurs Réservoirs
2 DEG - Department of Exploration Geophysics
3 CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [Canberra]

When a seismic wave propagates in a porous medium, dissipation can occur due to relative fluid displacements and/or heterogeneities of the frame. Numerous theoretical models were proposed in the last decades to describe the mechanisms involved in attenuation and dispersion of seismic waves. In this study we propose to interpret attenuation of both fast and slow P waves recorded closely to the Biot frequency. The experiment consists in propagating seismic waves (kiloHertz range) in quartz sand filled with water. Even if the Biot theory is well suited for the prediction of attenuation levels of the slow P wave, it fails in expecting the very strong attenuation for the fast P wave. In this study, we explore different dissipation phenomena which could be involved in this very strong attenuation.

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]

Clarisse Bordes, Tobias Müller, Qiamo Qi, Mahyar Madadi, Boris Gurevich, et al.. Interpretation of strong seismic attenuation in quartz sand in the kiloHertz range. 3rd Workshop of Rock Physics, Apr 2015, Perth-Fremantle, Australia. ⟨hal-01164865⟩