Geological Insights from Seismic Refraction in the South Thomson Orogen: A Comparative Study of Delay-Time, Plus-Minus, and GRM Methods

The South Thomson Project was initiated to enhance the understanding of the geology and mineral potential of the South Thomson Orogen. One approach the South Thomson Project is utilizing to advance this knowledge is by gathering seismic refraction data at 16 selected locations to evaluate cover thickness (i.e., the distribution of lithology and sedimentary basin layers over the underlying geological structures). Seismic refraction data was acquired using a typical linear array with 48 geophones and a 40 kg drop weight as the energy source. Cover thickness estimates were derived from refracted data using Delay-time, plus-minus, and GRM techniques. This led to the extraction of a three-layer model, which was interpreted separately for each method. Numerical results demonstrate that GRM outperform the others, by providing more accurate estimation on subsurface features.