Seismic imaging of a historic quay wall using a high-resolution S-wave reflection survey

Abstract

The structural health of historic quay walls needs to be evaluated well in light of the new conditions they are subjected to. For that, information about their current subsurface structure and condition of their subsurface constructional elements, but also information about the surrounding subsurface structure is crucial. Such information can be supplied by seismic imaging and characterization. We show preliminary results from a high-resolution S-wave survey we performed at a historic quay wall in Overamstel, the Netherlands. We recorded data along four lines – two parallel and two perpendicular to the quay wall. We used a sledge-hammer and a beam as a source and 10-Hz horizontal-component geophones, both oriented in the crossline direction. We show that applying simple processing along the two parallel lines to obtain stacked sections already allowed extracting useful structural information of the subsurface.