Groundwater Monitoring with Passive Seismic Interferometry

Abstract

Passive seismic interferometry takes advantage of natural ambient seismic noise generated by the wind, the storms and the human activities (e.g. cars, trains and hereafter pumps) to recover the slight variations of the seismic wave velocity induced by changes in the groundwater level. Here we compare the seismic measurements with actual piezometric data acquired on the Crépieux-Charmy (Lyon, France) groundwater exploitation field. We show the excellent correspondance between variations in the groundwater level and seismic velocity variations. We present hereafter the time and space monitoring of an hydraulic dome formed to prevent biological and chemical pollutions to enter the exploitation field. The horizontal resolution is solely limited by the number of seismic stations used, and is about 30 m in the present study. The vertical resolution of seismic measurement is impaired by spurious artifacts linked to the intermittent sources of noise. In average, the sensitivity of the seismic velocity change corresponds to a 50 cm change of waterlevel. This study confirms the possibility of groundwater monitoring in an industrial context with ambient seismic noise.