Application of surface-wave tomography to mineral exploration: a case study from Siilinjärvi,Finland |
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| Authors: | Federico Da Col Myrto Papadopoulou Emilia Koivisto Łukasz Sito Mikko Savolainen Laura Valentina Socco |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Land and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy;2. Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;3. Geopartner s.p. z.o.o, Krakow, Poland;4. Yara Suomi Oy, Siilinjärvi, Finland |
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| Abstract: | In order to assess the feasibility and validity of surface-wave tomography as a tool for mineral exploration, we present an active seismic three-dimensional case study from the Siilinjärvi mine in Eastern Finland. The aim of the survey is to identify the formation carrying the mineralization in an area south of the main pit, which will be mined in the future. Before acquiring the data, we performed an accurate survey design to maximize data coverage and minimize the time for deployment and recollection of the equipment. We extract path-averaged Rayleigh-wave phase-velocity dispersion curves by means of a two-station method. We invert them using a computationally efficient tomographic code which does not require the computation of phase-velocity maps and inverts directly for one-dimensional S-wave velocity models. The retrieved velocities are in good agreement with the data from a borehole in the vicinity, and the pseudo three–dimensional S-wave velocity volume allows us to identify the geological contact between the formation hosting most of the mineralization and the surrounding rock. We conclude that the proposed method is a valid tool, given the small amount of equipment used and the acceptable amount of time required to process the data. |
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| Keywords: | Mineral exploration Surface waves Tomography |
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