Geoelectrical and seismic prospections in hydrogeology: Model and master curves for the evaluation of porosity and water saturation

The prevailing purpose of geoelectrical exploration is the location of acquifers, as resistivity is strongly sensitive to the presence of water. Through this method valuable information on the structure and volume of storage rocks may be acquired. However, the evaluation of saturation and porosity, which plays a strong role in the estimation of hydraulic parameters, is hitherto affected by a large uncertainty. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out expensive and often numerous drillings, in addition to the calibration ones. In this paper we argue how the uncertainty can be substantially reduced by carrying out a joint seismic and geoelectrical prospection.to profitably utilize the results of a joint seismic and geoelectrical survey, a model is proposed in which the geophysical characteristics of all the phases possibly present in underground rocks, i.e., matrix, clay, water and air (whose percentages give porosity and saturation degree of an acquifer) are taken into account. The four phases are considered contiguous, in parallel as regards the electrical conductivity and in series as regards the propagation of elastic waves. On the basis of the formulas related to the model, theoretical curves for porosity, degree of saturation and percentage of clay have been obtained, which enable us to calculate these parameters.As a test of the suggested methodology, porosity and saturation have been evaluated in an area of the Campi Flegrei Caldera (Napoli) of which porosity data were available after core drillings. The test was performed by practising a joint electrical and seismic prospection using the more customary and less expensive techniques of Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) and Seismic Refraction. Our data permit us to produce porosity and saturation maps for two depths; the comparison between the porosity, derived from the maps in the points where core drillings have been made, and the porosity values found on the cores, shows a good agreement for the more superficial layer; for the greater depth, we derived lower values of porosity, probably due to difficulties of laboratory reproduction of thein situ condition of the cores. These results suggest that our model has value in water research.