Labs of Sı́smica y Sismologı́a

Week 3

Seismic refraction
Objectives
1. Plot and interpret refraction seismic data
2. Test impact of velocities and thicknesses on travel-time curves
Getting started:
Copy content of zip file “lab3” in a directory to start the lab.

1 - Refraction for 2 layers over a half-space

1. Use the function “refraction 2layers.m” to calculate and plot the arrival
times for a velocity model of your choice.
2. Check how thicknesses change the travel-time curves, critical distance and
cross-over distance.
3. Check how the velocity v1 changes the travel-time curves, critical distance
and cross-over distance.
4. Check how the velocity v2 changes the travel-time curves, critical distance
and cross-over distance.

2 - Refraction for 3 layers over a half-space

1. Use the function “refraction 3layers.m” to calculate and plot the arrival
times for a velocity model of your choice.
2. If you set the 2nd layer velocity lower than the 1st layer velocity, what
happens?
3. If the velocity of the 3rd layer is much much higher than the velocity of
the 2nd layer, what happens?
4. If the thickness of the 2nd layer is very small, what happens?
Lab inspired from practice of Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, “Seismic refraction in
MATLAB”.