High-resolution Imaging of the Floridan Karst Aquifer System With Full-wave Ambient Noise Tomography
Description:
Subsurface structural heterogeneities affect hydraulic properties, storage, and connectivity. Therefore, a detailed understanding of shallow subsurface structure is essential for groundwater availability, planning, and contamination management in groundwater aquifer systems. We investigate the Floridan Aquifer System, a karst aquifer, using full-wave ambient noise tomography (FWANT). We reprocess openly available dense seismic nodal array data from the River Rise seismic array, which covers part of the Floridan Aquifer System with an aperture of ~500 m. The array, with 70 nodal stations spaced at 40–50 m, provides high spatial sampling suitable for resolving fine-scale heterogeneity in the shallow subsurface. FWANT exploits Rayleigh‑wave empirical Green’s functions extracted from ambient noise cross-correlations and incorporates full-wave simulations to jointly constrain three-dimensional P‑ and S‑wave velocity structures. From preliminary data processing, we successfully extracted high-quality Rayleigh‑wave signals over a broad frequency range of 2–30 Hz, with dominant energy between 5 and 30 Hz. The expected structural sensitivity ranges from the near surface to approximately 200-250 m depth, covering the unconsolidated sediments and the upper part of the aquifer. We will construct high-resolution Vp, Vs, and Vp/Vs models and assess the lithology, porosity, bulk connectivity, and fluid saturation, offering insights into the distribution of permeable zones and hydraulically active karst features within the aquifer. This study will examine the feasibility of FWANT for high-resolution aquifer characterization in karst environments and other complex shallow groundwater systems.
Session: New Frontiers in Seismic Observations and Modeling with Innovative Methods and Emerging Data on Earth and Other Planets [Poster]
Type: Poster
Date: 4/17/2026
Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)
Presenting Author: Xiaotao Yang
Student Presenter: No
Invited Presentation:
Poster Number: 122
Authors
Xiaotao Yang Presenting Author Corresponding Author xtyang@purdue.edu Purdue University |
Marty Frisbee mdfrisbee@purdue.edu Purdue University |
Tieyuan Zhu tuz47@psu.edu Pennsylvania State University |
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High-resolution Imaging of the Floridan Karst Aquifer System With Full-wave Ambient Noise Tomography
Category
New Frontiers in Seismic Observations and Modeling with Innovative Methods and Emerging Data on Earth and Other Planets