- This article is about artificial seismic sources. For natural seismic sources, see earthquake, volcano, and related articles.
A
seismic source is a device that generates controlled
seismic energy used to perform both
reflection and
refraction seismic surveys. A seismic source can be simple, such as
dynamite, or it can use more sophisticated technology, such as a specialized
air gun. Seismic sources can provide single pulses or continuous sweeps of energy, generating
seismic waves, which travel through a
medium such as
water or layers of
rocks. Some of the waves then
reflect and
refract and are recorded by receivers, such as
geophones or
hydrophones.
