Coal Industry (patents) Limited

David J Buchanan

Peter J Jackson

Iain M Mason

Richard Davis

An area of a seam is defined and a series of shot locations and detectors are arranged along one side of the area to determine reflected signals. Transmitted signals are also received from a line of shot locations on the other side of the area. The signals received are processed according to an adaptive lag-summing technique to give a map showing the geological faults in the seam.

Mapping faults in a geological seam

Faults in a mineral seam are located by an in-seam seismic technique which involves locating shots and detectors in the seam and firing the shots sequentially. The detectors pick up the reflections of the shots from faults and a common reflection point is determined by analyzing the seismic traces from the detectors.

Method of stacking seismic data

Faults in an underground coal seam are located by firing a shot at one point in the seam and detecting the seismic reflections in an array of geophones. Signals from the geophones are recompressed and analyzed according to an exponential formula to give a holograph of the seam and to predict the fault pattern.

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Burton-on-Trent, United Kingdom

David J Buchanan