Geophysical Exploration of Crustal Structure

(MC, 2025 Fall semester)

Japanese | English

[Schedule] [Note] [Exercise] [Submission of reports and homeworks] [References]

What's New

Scopes

Geophysical exploration is a promising tool of obtaining the information from the subsurface to understand the structures, properties, and activities of the Earth's crust by measuring physical response of the underground. Understanding the Earth's interior begins with looking underground. In presentations at earth sciences conferences, you will see seismic reflection and resistivity sections. Even geologists should know what these sections represent. Geophysicists, like you, can not leave them as a black box even if you do not have special interests in data processing.

This course deals with Exploration Geophysics. Due to the limited time, the lecture mainly focuses on basic theory and concepts. Applications and real implementations will be set aside. A computer exercise on data processing is included to help understand lectures.

Knowledge of applied mathematics and physics, which includes elasticity, wave theory and electromagnetics, is preferable. They will help you understand the course easily. These basic subjects are common in seismology, geodeasy, and so on.

This course aims to learn the attitude toward extracting target information from the observed data and to understand the importance of basic mathematics and physics.

Schedule

The schedule will be updated occasionally.

No. Date Contents Explanation
1
 Oct. 08 Basics of geophysical exploration
2
 Oct. 15 Basics of elastic wave theory
3
 Oct. 22 Basics of elastic wave theory (cont'd)
4
 Oct. 29 Basics of seismic reflection method
5
 Nov. 05 Seismic data analysis (Filters)
6
 Nov. 12 Seismic data analysis (Filters, cont'd)
7
 Nov. 19 Seismic data analysis (processing)
8
 Nov. 26 Seismic data analysis (Migration)
9
 Dec. 03 Interpretation of seismic section
10
 Dec. 10
 Data processing excercise (1)
  • Data processing of real 2D seismic data using Seismic Un*x
  • Contents: Data manupilation, display, filter, gain.
  • Excercise 6
  • Students are encouraged to proceed to the exercise in advance. The time required is about 0.5 hour.

  • You may continue with Exercise 7 when finished.
10
 Dec. 10
 Data processing excercise (2)
  • Data processing of real 2D seismic data using Seismic Un*x
  • Contents: Vvelocity analysis, CMP stacking, migration, depth conversion.
  • Excercise 7
  • Students feel free to proceed to the exercise in advance. The time required is about 1.5 hour.
  • The lecturer is present in the room and provide assistance during the class.

  • Visit here for your final products (report).
  • Deadline: Jan 10, 2026.
11
 Dec. 17 Basics of electromagnetic theory
12
 Dec. 24 Electromagnetic method (Magnetotelluric method)
13
 Jan. 14 Application of geophysical exploration
14
 Jan. 21 Topics on geophysical exploration
  • Discussion on th excercise results.
  • Application of seismic reflection method to earth science
  • Topics are on request.
    • Full waveform inversion (FWI)
  • Handout (FWI)
15
 Jan. 28 Topics on geophysical exploration
  • Topics to be determined and on request.

Note

Exercise

Exercise on data processing of seismic reflection method. Updated occasionally.

Submission of reports and homeworks

References

Last modified: Tue Jan 20 18:26:30 JST 2026