TY - JOUR A1 - Overduin, Pier Paul A1 - Haberland, Christian A1 - Ryberg, Trond A1 - Kneier, Fabian A1 - Jacobi, Tim A1 - Grigoriev, Mikhail N. A1 - Ohrnberger, Matthias T1 - Submarine permafrost depth from ambient seismic noise JF - Geophysical research letters N2 - Permafrost inundated since the last glacial maximum is degrading, potentially releasing trapped or stabilized greenhouse gases, but few observations of the depth of ice-bonded permafrost (IBP) below the seafloor exist for most of the arctic continental shelf. We use spectral ratios of the ambient vibration seismic wavefield, together with estimated shear wave velocity from the dispersion curves of surface waves, for estimating the thickness of the sediment overlying the IBP. Peaks in spectral ratios modeled for three-layered 1-D systems correspond with varying thickness of the unfrozen sediment. Seismic receivers were deployed on the seabed around Muostakh Island in the central Laptev Sea, Siberia. We derive depths of the IBP between 3.7 and 20.7m15%, increasing with distance from the shoreline. Correspondence between expected permafrost distribution, modeled response, and observational data suggests that the method is promising for the determination of the thickness of unfrozen sediment. KW - submarine permafrost KW - ambient noise KW - Siberia KW - continental shelf Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL065409 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 42 IS - 18 SP - 7581 EP - 7588 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lontsi, Agostiny Marrios A1 - Jose Sanchez-Sesma, Francisco A1 - Camillo Molina-Villegas, Juan A1 - Ohrnberger, Matthias A1 - Krüger, Frank T1 - Full microtremor H/V(z,f) inversion for shallow subsurface characterization JF - Geophysical journal international N2 - The H/V spectral ratio has emerged as a single station method within the seismic ambient noise analysis field by its capability to quickly estimate the frequency of resonance at a site and through inversion the average profile information. Although it is easy to compute from experimental data, its counter theoretical part is not obvious when building a forward model which can help in reconstructing the derived H/V spectrum. This has led to the simplified assumption that the noise wavefield is mainly composed of Rayleigh waves and the derived H/V often used without further correction. Furthermore, only the right (and left) flank around the H/V peak frequency is considered in the inversion for the subsurface 1-D shear wave velocity profile. A new theoretical approach for the interpretation of the H/V spectral ratio has been presented by Sanchez-Sesmaet al. In this paper, the fundamental idea behind their theory is presented as it applies to receivers at depth. A smooth H/V(z, f) spectral curve on a broad frequency range is obtained by considering a fine integration step which is in turn time consuming. We show that for practical purposes and in the context of inversion, this can be considerably optimized by using a coarse integration step combined with the smoothing of the corresponding directional energy density (DED) spectrum. Further analysis shows that the obtained H/V(z, f) spectrum computed by the mean of the imaginary part of Green's function method could also be recovered using the reflectivity method for a medium well illuminated by seismic sources. Inversion of synthetic H/V(z, f) spectral curve is performed for a single layer over a half space. The striking results allow to potentially use the new theory as a forward computation of the H/V(z, f) to fully invert the experimental H/V spectral ratio at the corresponding depth for the shear velocity profile (Vs) and additionally the compressional velocity profile (Vp) using receivers both at the surface and in depth. We use seismic ambient noise data in the frequency range of 0.2-50 Hz recorded at two selected sites in Germany where borehole information is also available. The obtained 1-D Vs and Vp profiles are correlated with geological log information. Results from shallow geophysical experiment are also used for comparison. KW - Inverse theory KW - Interferometry KW - Site effects Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggv132 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 202 IS - 1 SP - 298 EP - 312 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER -