Application of seismic interferometry to extract P- and S-wave propagation and observation of shear-wave splitting from noise data at Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada

We extract downward-propagating Pand S-waves from industrial noise generated by human and/or machine activity at the surface propagating down a borehole at Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, and measure shear-wave splitting from these data. The continuous seismic data are recorded at eight sensors along a downhole well during steam injection into a 420–470-m-deep oil reservoir. We crosscorrelate the waveforms observed at the top sensor and other sensors to extract estimates of the direct Pand S-wave components of the Green’s function that account for wave propagation between sensors. Fast high-frequency and slow low-frequency signals propagating vertically from the surface to the bottom are found for the vertical and horizontal components of the wave motion, which are identified with Pand S-waves, respectively. The fastest S-wave polarized in the east-northeast–westsouthwest direction is about 1.9% faster than the slowest S-wave polarized in the northwest-southeast direction. The direction of polarization of the fast S-wave is rotated clockwise by 40° from the maximum principal stress axis as estimated from the regional stress field. This study demonstrates the useful application of seismic interferometry to field data to determine structural parameters, which are Pand S-wave velocities and a shear-wave-splitting coefficient, with high accuracy.