Wave equation modelling for the shallow seismic refraction method

Abstract

Through the use of a numerical technique based on the finite difference method, synthetic seismograms for shallow seismic refraction models are calculated from the two-dimensional wave equation for inhomogeneous media. From the comparison of the travel times of the first events on the synthetic seismograms and the travel times calculated by ray path methods, it is concluded that the events predicted by ray theory occur, even though they are measured within the region a few wavelengths from the source where ray theory is not strictly applicable.