Identifying large vulnerable water reservoirs using passive seismic monitoring
- Author(s)
- Richard Kramer, Yang Lu, Q.-Y. Wang, Stefano Serafin, A. Ceppi, Götz Bokelmann
- Abstract
Seismic waves capture important insights into subsurface behavior. We introduce an adapted coda-wave interferometry approach to monitor the spatial variability of semi-daily periodic seismic velocity changes on a regional scale, applied to data collected across South and Central Europe. Our results reveal a broad spatial correlation between seismic velocity changes and air pressure fluctuations, suggesting that air pressure is the dominant driving force. Specifically, air pressure fluctuations modulate saturation levels within the capillary zone through the dynamic interplay between fluid and gaseous phases, producing significant seismic velocity changes. The mechanism explains the large variations observed in regions with high connectivity between the surface and saturated zone. We associate this enhanced interaction with the high vulnerability of shallow water resources. We propose inspecting semi-daily periodic seismic velocity changes as a new tool for gaining a regional view of water reservoir vulnerability.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Meteorology and Geophysics
- External organisation(s)
- Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre (EOST), Politecnico di Milano
- Journal
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters
- Volume
- 653
- ISSN
- 0012-821X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119223
- Publication date
- 2025
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105122 Seismic
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geochemistry and Petrology, Geophysics, Space and Planetary Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/18d43fc8-116b-42dd-926c-95fe8a51242c