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Seismic Wave Attenuation in Fluid-Saturated Porous Media

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Scattering and Attenuations of Seismic Waves, Part I

Part of the book series: Pageoph Topical Volumes ((PTV))

Abstract

Contrary to the traditional view, seismic attenuation in Biot’s theory of fluid-saturated porous media is due to viscous damping of local (not global) pore-fluid motion. Since substantial inhomogeneities in fluid permeability of porous geological materials are to be expected, the regions of highest local permeability contribute most to the wave energy dissipation while those of lowest permeability dominate the fluid flow rate if they are uniformly distributed. This dichotomy can explain some of the observed discrepancies between computed and measured attenuation of compressional and shear waves in porous earth. One unfortunate consequence of this result is the fact that measured seismic wave attenuation in fluid-filled geological materials cannot be used directly as a diagnostic of the global fluid-flow permeability.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808 L-156, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA

    James G. Berryman

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  1. James G. Berryman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Keiiti Aki

  2. Physics Dept. & Richter Seismological Lab., University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA

    Ru-Shan Wu

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© 1988 Springer Basel AG

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Berryman, J.G. (1988). Seismic Wave Attenuation in Fluid-Saturated Porous Media. In: Aki, K., Wu, RS. (eds) Scattering and Attenuations of Seismic Waves, Part I. Pageoph Topical Volumes. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7722-0_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7722-0_21

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-7643-2254-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-7722-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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