A 'natural field' seismic technique is possible to attain by observing microseisms with a suitably designed array and by digitally processing the data to obtain estimates of the phase velocities of Rayleigh waves. Wavelengths of interest in detecting depth to the basement of sedimentary basins are in the range 2 to 20 km, and correspond to wave periods from 1 to 7 s. An array of five or seven seismometers deployed as an expanding cross configuration simplifies field procedures and is adequate for phase velocity measurements of Rayleigh waves in the required wavelength range, provided high-resolution frequency-wavenumber spectral analysis is used. This analysis can be implemented on a minicomputer in the field.Results obtained from observation in a sedimentary basin of known structure show predominantly fundamental-mode Rayleigh wave propagation. The scatter of velocity estimates is small enough to allow inversion by curve matching, and depth to the basement can be computed to an accuracy of + or -30 percent without requiring restrictive assumptions of a seismic velocity structure.

The finite nature of typical small seismic arrays used in conjunction with spatial autocorrelation (SPAC) processing for observing the microtremor wavefield causes predictable perturbations of the SPAC spectrum when sources of seismic noise are confined to a restricted range of azimuths. Such perturbations are especially evident at higher frequencies where wavelengths are on the order of the array radius. The effects are readily modeled and show that the triangular array geometries commonly used for microtremor studies require azimuthal distributions of wave energy on the order of 60° or greater to have a high probability of being free of such perturbations. The imaginary component of the SPAC spectrum, which is ideally zero for a sufficiently dense circular array and/or a sufficiently isotropic wavefield, is in practice often nonzero and provides three quality-control indicators: (1) an indication of insufficient spatial averaging, (2) an empirical measure of the level of statistical uncertainty in SPAC spectral estimates, and (3) an indication of departures from plane-wave stationarity of the seismic noise wavefield.

High levels of ambient noise and safety factors often limit the use of "active-source" seismic methods for geotechnical investigations in urban environments. As an alternative, shear-wave velocity-...