Geophysical stamps 3: Geophone

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Back in May I bought some stamps on eBay. I'm not really a stamp collector, but when I saw these in all their geophysical glory, I couldn't resist them. They are East German stamps from 1980, and they are unusual because they aren't schematic illustrations so much as precise, technical drawings. I have already written about the the gravimeter and the sonic tool stamps; today I thought I'd tell a bit about the most basic seismic sensor, the geophone.

← The 35 pfennig stamp in the series of four shows a surface geophone, with a schematic cross-section and cartoon of the seismic acquisition process, complete with ray-paths and a recording truck. Erdöl and Erdgas are oil and gas, Erkundung translates as surveying or exploration. The actual size of the stamp is 43 × 26 mm.

There are four basic types of seismic sensor (sometimes generically referred to as receivers in exploration geophysics):

Seismometers — precision instruments not used in exploration seismology because they are usually quite bulky and require careful set-up and calibration. [Most modern models] are accelerometers, much like relative gravimeters, measuring ground acceleration from the force on a proof mass. Seismometers can detect frequencies in a very broad band, on the order of 0.001 Hz to 500 Hz: that's 19 octaves!

Geophones — are small, cheap, and intended for rapid deployment in large numbers. The one illustrated on the stamp, like the modern cut-away example shown here, would be about 4 × 20 cm, with a total mass of about 400 g. The design has barely changed in decades. The mean-looking spike is to try to ensure good contact with the ground (coupling). A frame-mounted magnet is surrounded by a proof mass affixed to a copper coil. This analog instrument measures particle [velocity], not acceleration, as the differential motion induces a current in the coil. Because of the small proof mass, the lower practical frequency limit is usually only about 6 Hz, the upper about 250 Hz (5 octaves). Geophones are used on land, and on the sea-floor. If repeatability over time is important, as with a time-lapse survey, phones like this may be buried in the ground and cemented in place.

Hydrophones — as the name suggests, are for deployment in the water column. Naturally, there is a lot of non-seismic motion in water, so measuring displacement will not do. Instead, hydrophones contain two piezoelectric components, which generates a current when deformed by pressure, and use cunning physics to mute spurious, non-seismic pressure changes. Hydrophones are usually towed in streamers behind a boat. They have a similar response band to geophones.

MEMS accelerometers — exactly like the accelerometer chip in your laptop or cellphone, these tiny mechanical systems can be housed in a robust casing and used to record seismic waves. Response frequencies range from 4–1000 Hz (8 octaves; theoretically they will measure down to 0 Hz, or DC in geophysish, but not in my experience). These are sometimes referred to as digital receivers, but they are really micro-analog devices with built-in digital conversion. 

I think the geophone is the single most important remote sensing device in geoscience. Is that justified hyperbole? A couple of recent stories from Scotland and Spain have highlighted the incredible clarity of seismic images, which can be awe-inspiring as well as scientifically and economically important.

Next time I'll look at the 50 pfennig stamp, which depicts deep seismic tomography.