A field test of land 3-C geophone planting techniques

Henry C. Bland

Three component geophone plant techniques are an important part of land 3-C acquisition. Correctly-planting a 3-C geophone is time consuming, and potentially costly. A field experiment is conducted to see if 3-C geophone planting technique has an impact on recorded data quality. A field experiment was designed to test four geophone plant techniques: (1) careful insertion of the geophone while maintaining correct orientation and plant, (2) planting of the geophone without regard to precise orientation, then reorienting the phone, (3) planting of the geophone without regard to level, then re-leveling the geophone, and (4) planting the geophone without regard to orientation or level, then re-orienting and re-leveling the geophone. A field experiment is performed using a vibratory source and spike-shaped 3-C geophone cases. Analysis of the data indicates that, for the test area, the geophone plant technique had little effect on the signal to noise ratio or the frequency content of the recorded signal. We conclude that the soil conditions at the test site were permissive of poor plant technique, and that under these or similar conditions, a two-part or three-part geophone plant technique is acceptable. We propose a repeat test under different soil conditions.