Seismic Refraction

Unexpected rock can be a serious headache in the world of civil construction leading to budget and scheduling issues.

The Non-invasive subsurface imaging technique of seismic refraction can help to alleviate those woes by creating a high-accuracy density map of the ground beneath your feet revealing both rock hazards and potential sinkholes.

How it Works:

Seismic refraction works by releasing harmless sound waves into the ground and recording their arrival times across an array of 3” long pins (geophones) that are inserted into the soil at uniform locations. The arrival times of the sound waves allows seismic processing programs to determine the speed at which the sound waves moved through various layers of strata, thus determining the density of each strata layer below the surface. This process is very useful to civil construction since it not only allows for the rock to be quantified, but it also can determine if a rock is rippable or will require drilling and blasting. Multiple heavy equipment resources like the CAT Performance Handbook rate the ‘rippability’ of a particular rock based on its seismic velocity, the information that is acquired through seismic refraction

Affordable and Non-Invasive:

Unlike invasive rock identification methods using heavy equipment, seismic refraction equipment can fit in a suitcase and seismic refraction surveys leave no surface disturbance. Mantega can also package seismic surveys with drone imaging and topographic verification further increasing the value per dollar spent.