Print this pageUsing High-Resolution Reflection Seismic To Image Free
Phase
DNAPL'S At the M-Area, Savannah River Site
WADDELL, MICHAEL G., TOM J. TEMPLES
One of the most difficult problems in designing a remediation plan for
cleaning up DNAPL contamination is locating the "pools" of free phase DNAPL. The
modeling of a DNAPL saturated sand verses a water saturated sand suggests with
120Hz frequencies or higher there would be an AVO anomaly. Acquisition
parameters for imaging the DNAPL was derived from an AVO model, which was based
upon previously acquired seismic and well data. This would allow the data set to
be processed using AVO techniques. The seismic line was located in such a manner
that it started in area where the unconsolidated sand was water filled and
crossed a known pool of free phase DNAPL saturated sand and continue back into a
water saturated sand. Using a weighted stacking processing technique ( Smith and
Gidlow, 1987) a fluid factor stack was generated from the data set. The results
from the fluid factor stack indicated an anomaly at the depth and location of
the known free phase DNAPL plume. The initial results suggest that under certain
conditions, free phase DNAPL can be imaged using high resolution reflection
seismic if there is enough free phase
product in the ground.