P-wave Seismic Source Comparison On a Kansas River Point Bar Simulating Sable Island, Canada

Summary Among the many choices made in designing a seismic survey, the type of source selected for that particular environment is one of the most important. This paper provides preliminary comparisons of the overall effectiveness of several sources on a point bar. This particular environment was selected to simulate Sable Island, located off the east coast of Canada, as closely as possible. The near-surface can be geologically characterized as unconsolidated sand with a water table approximately 2 feet below the surface. Data were collected on a 1 km by 120 m point bar along the Kansas River, several miles downstream of Wamego, Kansas. Reflection events can be observed as shallow as 100 ms and as deep as 650 ms. The specific geologic units responsible for these events are unknown and not important for this study.