How do we monitor a dam’s structural integrity?

Ambient seismic noise interferometry

Dams are some of the largest man-made structures on earth. Tailings dam are designed to contain the waste slurry remaining after processing ore from mines, these structures fail far more regularly than normal water storage dams. In recent years, catastrophic tailings dam failures have occurred, causing significant damage to the environment and even loss of life. Ambient seismic noise interferometry uses ambient seismic vibrations to create virtual sources and has been widely applied over the past decade to monitor volcanoes, landslides, geothermal reservoirs and active faults. Since these virtual sources contain information about the entire medium between sensors, this method is able to detect very small changes in the seismic velocity of the medium, for example, seepage in a tailings dam due to heavy rainfall. This research is in collaboration with the Institute of Mine Seismology.

 

Ambient seismic noise interferometry