Geology 228/278

Applied and Environmental

Geophysics
Lecture 3
Physical properties of earth materials
in near-surface environment

Outline
1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties
3. electrical properties: electric conductivity
4. Magnetic properties: permeability and susceptibility
5. Dielectric polarization: dielectric permittivity
6. Mix model: analytic model and empirical model
Analytic mix model
Empirical mix model
Archie's law and Waxman-Smits relationship
CRIM model

7. Note on effective materials

Introduction
People live on the surface of the earth, standing on rock and soil,
inside a bubble of gas, growing food in and from the fluid and solid
constituents, and exploiting natural resources like minerals, water
and petroleum. How well the occurrence and behavior of the
physical and chemical properties and processes in rocks, soils and
fluids are understood determines how well
buildings and dams are supported by their foundations (civil
engineering);
food is grown (agriculture);
resources are developed (petroleum, mining and
hydrogeological engineering);
the environment is protected (waste management and
environmental remediation); and
energy or data are transmitted (power, electrical engineering
and telecommunications).

Petrophysics is the study of the

physical and chemical properties
that describe the occurrence and
behavior of rocks, soils and fluids.
This course concerns the
PHYSICAL properties.

Outline
1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties
3. electrical properties: electric conductivity
4. Magnetic properties: permeability and susceptibility
5. Dielectric polarization: dielectric permittivity
6. Mix model: analytic model and empirical model
Analytic mix model
Empirical mix model
Archie's law and Waxman-Smits relationship
CRIM model

7. Note on effective materials

Include the density and

the elastic properties of the earth materials
These material properties are described by elastic modulii.

Youngs modulus E
Youngs modulus is the stress needed to compress the solid
to shorten in a unit strain.

F/A
E=
x / x
Poissons ration
Poissons measures the relativity of the expansion in the
lateral directions and compression in the direction in which
the uni-axial compression applies.

y / y
=
x / x

Bulk Modulus K
Imagine you have a small cube of the material making up
the medium and that you subject this cube to pressure by
squeezing it on all sides. If the material is not very stiff, you
can image that it would be possible to squeeze the material
in this cube into a smaller cube. The bulk modulus
describes the ratio of the pressure applied to the cube to the
amount of volume change that the cube undergoes. If k is
very large, then the material is very stiff, meaning that it
doesn't compress very much even under large pressures. If
K is small, then a small pressure can compress the material
by large amounts. For example, gases have very small Bulk
Modulus . Solids and liquids have large Bulk Modulus.

F/A
K=
v / v

Shear Modulus
The shear modulus describes how difficult it is to deform a
cube of the material under an applied shearing force. For
example, imagine you have a cube of material firmly
cemented to a table top. Now, push on one of the top edges
of the material parallel to the table top. If the material has a
small shear modulus, you will be able to deform the cube in
the direction you are pushing it so that the cube will take on
the shape of a parallelogram. If the material has a large
shear modulus, it will take a large force applied in this
direction to deform the cube. Gases and fluids can not
support shear forces. That is, they have shear modulii of
zero. From the equations given above, notice that this
implies that fluids and gases do not allow the propagation of
S waves.

F/A
=
y / x

Youngs modulus E
Youngs modulus is the stress needed to
compress the solid to shorten in a unit
strain.

E=

z / z

Poissons ration
Poissons measures the relativity of the
expansion in the lateral directions and
compression in the direction in which the
uni-axial compression applies.

r / r
=
z / z

Shear Modulus (cont.)

F/A
=
x / y

Seismic Velocities related to material properties

Vp- P-wave (compressive wave) velocity
Vs- S-wave (shear wave) velocity

So, seismic velocities are determined by the mechanic properties of the

materials in which the seismic waves propagate through.

Seismic velocity vs materials mechanic properties

Any change in rock or soil property that causes , , or K to change
will cause seismic wave speed to change. For example, going from
an unsaturated soil to a saturated soil will cause both the density and
the bulk modulus to change. The bulk modulus changes because airfilled pores become filled with water. Water is much more difficult to
compress than air. In fact, bulk modulus changes dominate this
example. Thus, the P wave velocity changes a lot across water table
while S wave velocities change very little.
Although this is a single example of how seismic velocities can
change in the subsurface, you can imagine many other factors
causing changes in velocity (such as changes in lithology, changes in
cementation, changes in fluid content, changes in compaction, etc.).
Thus, variations in seismic velocities offer the potential of being able
to map many different subsurface features.

From: Sheriff and Geldart, Exploration Seismology, p69.

Property
P-wave velocity
S-wave velocity
Vp/Vs
Porosity
Dielectric Permittivity
Magnetic Permeability
Resistivity
Bulk Modulus
Shear Modulus
Poisson's Ratio ()
Young's Modulus
Density

Units
km/s
km/s

ohm-m
GPa
GPa
N/m2
g/cm3

Iron
5.92
3.23
1.83
221
17.834
9E-08
100.2
95.2
0.14
22.564

Unsaturated Sand
4.18
3.42
1.22
0.36
6.25
1.0
1E+04
37
44
0.08
6.74
2.65

Saturated Sand
2.73
1.37
1.99
0.36
25
1.0
1E+02

3.01

Values From:
Carmichael, Robert S.. 1989. Practical handbook of physical properties of rocks and minerals.
Mavko, G., and others. 1998. The rock physics handbook: tools for seismic analysis in porous
media.
Schon, J.H.. 1996. Physical properties of rocks: fundamentals and principles of petrophysics
Calculated from field data at Otis MMR, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Seismic Refraction Results

Profile Parallel to the Tennis Courts

Outline
1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties
3. electrical properties: electric conductivity
4. Magnetic properties: permeability and susceptibility
5. Dielectric polarization: dielectric permittivity
6. Mix model: analytic model and empirical model
Analytic mix model
Empirical mix model
Archie's law and Waxman-Smits relationship
CRIM model

7. Note on effective materials

The electric conductivity of earth materials

The electric property of materials is described by
electric conductivity or electric resistivity.
Conductor: > 105 S/m;
Semi-conductor: 10-8 < < 105 S/m;
Insulator: < 10-8 S/m;

Electric Resistivity
Ohms Law:

V = RI
where V-voltage, I-current, and R-resistance. The Resistance is
proportional to the length of 2 points, and inversely proportional to the area
of the cross-section on which the current flow through. The proportional
coefficient, , is the resistivity, a material property to describe the capability
to resist the electric current flow.

L
R=
A

Ohms Law (discovered in 1827)

V = IR

Georg Simon Ohm

(1787-1854)

It's Resistivity, NOT Resistance

L
R=
A
RA
=
L
So the unit for resistivity is ohm-meter

Resistivity of Earth Materials

Although some native metals and graphite conduct
electricity, most rock-forming minerals are electrical
insulators. Measured resistivities in Earth materials are
primarily controlled by the movement of charged ions in
pore fluids. Although water itself is not a good conductor
of electricity, ground water generally contains dissolved
compounds that greatly enhance its ability to conduct
electricity. Hence, porosity and fluid saturation tend to
dominate electrical resistivity measurements. In addition
to pores, fractures within crystalline rock can lead to low
resistivities if they are filled with fluids.

The resistivities of various earth materials are shown below.

Material
Air
Pyrite
Galena
Quartz
Calcite
Rock Salt
Mica
Granite
Gabbro
Basalt
Limestones
Sandstones
Shales
Dolomite
Sand
Clay
Ground Water
Sea Water

Resistivity (Ohm-meter)

3 x 10^-1
2 x 10^-3
4 x 10^10 - 2 x 10^14
1 x 10^12 - 1 x 10^13
30 - 1 x 10^13
9 x 10^12 - 1 x 10^14
100 - 1 x 10^6
1 x 10^3 - 1 x 10^6
10 - 1 x 10^7
50 - 1 x 10^7
1 - 1 x 10^8
20 - 2 x 10^3
100 - 10,000
1 - 1,000
1 - 100
0.5 - 300
0.2

Electric Conductivity
Electric conductivity is the reciprocity of
the electric resistivity :

= 1/

Outline
1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties
3. electrical properties: electric conductivity
4. Magnetic properties: permeability and
susceptibility
5. Dielectric polarization: dielectric permittivity
6. Mix model: analytic model and empirical model
Analytic mix model
Empirical mix model
Archie's law and Waxman-Smits relationship
CRIM model

7. Note on effective materials

Magnetic Permeability
The magnetic constitutive relation:

B = H = 0 r H = 0 (1 + )H
where
B - magnetic flux density
H Magnetic field
- Magnetic Permeability
0 magnetic permeability in vacuum
r relative magnetic permeability
magnetic susceptibility

B = 0 H + 0 M = 0 H + 0 H = 0 (1 + )H = 0 r H

Magnetic Susceptibility of rocks, minerals and iron steel

more rocks have a wide range: 1 ppm to 0.001;
Magnetite ore can be as high as 150;
Some minerals are diamagnetic (negative );
Iron, steel have the values of 10 -100.

Outline
1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties
3. electrical properties: electric conductivity
4. Magnetic properties: permeability and susceptibility
5. Dielectric polarization: dielectric permittivity
6. Mix model: analytic model and empirical model
Analytic mix model
Empirical mix model
Archie's law and Waxman-Smits relationship
CRIM model

7. Note on effective materials

The dielectric properties of a material are defined by an

electrical permittivity, . The permittivity is dependent
upon a materials ability to neutralize part of an static
electrical field. For this, a dielectric material must
contain localized charge that can be displaced
by the application of a electric field (and in doing store
part of the applied field). This charge displacement is
referred to as polarization. Such a charge displacement
is time dependent in most materials so that a complex
permittivity is required to adequately describe the
system, * = + i. Since the polarization mechanisms
that occur in these materials depend on frequency,
temperature, and composition so will this complex
permittivity.

Dielectric Permittivity
The dielectric constitutive relation:

D = E = 0 r E
where
D electric displacement density
E electric field
0 electric permittivity in vacuum
r relative electric permittivity
electric permittivity

Mechanisms involved in Dielectric Polarization include:

Electron polarization;
Atomic polarization;
Molecular polarization;

Index of refraction (n) and dielectric constant r

r = / 0 = n , or n = r
2

Value of the complex dielectric constant

= '+i "

is the parameter responsible for the observed

phenomena in dielectric polarization
Loss tangent

tan = /

There are two more microsopic

effects that cause ground to be
chargeable
1)Membrane polarization
2)Electrode polarization

Membrane polarization
Membrane polarization occurs when
pore space narrows to within several
boundary layer thicknesses.

Charges accumulate when an electric

field is applied.

Result is a net charge dipole which

adds to any voltage measured at the
surface.

Electrode polarization

Electrode polarization occurs when pore

space is blocked by metallic particles.
Again charges accumulate when an
electric field is applied.

The result is two electrical double layers

which add to the voltage measured at
the surface.

Domestic microwave
Oven f = 2.45 GHz
GPR f < 1.5 GHz

Variation of ' and " with frequency for water

There is a clear maximum in the dielectric loss for water at

a frequency of approximately 20GHz, the same point at
which the dielectric constant ' goes through a point of
inflexion as it decreases with increasing frequency.
The 2.45GHz operating frequency of domestic ovens is
selected to be some way from this maximum in order to
limit the efficiency of the absorption.
Too efficient absorption by the outer layers would
inevitably lead to poor heating of the internal volume in
large samples.

In his theoretical expressions for ' and " in terms of other

material properties, formed the basis for our current
understanding of dielectrics. The dielectric constants, ' and
" are dependent on both frequency and temperature, the
first of which is expressed explicitly in the Debye equations
whilst temperature is introduced indirectly through other
variables:

( s )
= +
(1 + 2 2 )
( s )
=
(1 + 2 2 )
where and s are the dielectric constants under
high frequency and static fields respectively.

Since infra-red frequencies are often regarded as infinite for

most purposes, results from atomic and electronic
polarizations, whilst s results from the sum of all the polarization
mechanisms described in a later section. The relaxation time, ,
was derived by Debye from Stoke's theorem:

4r
=
kT

where r is the molecular radius, the viscosity, k

Boltzman's constant, and T the temperature. If the Debye
equations are plotted against wt with arbitrary values for
and s as shown in the last Figure, then the similarity
of these expressions to the experimental values shown in
the next Figure is clear.

Debye expressions for ' and " calculated as a function of [].

Outline
1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties
3. electrical properties: electric conductivity
4. Magnetic properties: permeability and susceptibility
5. Dielectric polarization: dielectric permittivity
6. Mix model: analytic model and empirical model
Analytic mix model
Empirical mix model
Archie's law and Waxman-Smits relationship
CRIM model

7. Note on effective materials

Table 1. Representative physical properties of basic constituents and composites of soil

Porosity
(%)

Water
Saturation
(%)

Dielectric
Constant

Electrical
Conductivity
(mS/m)

EM
Velocity
(m/ns)

Attenuation
(Np/m)

Air

0.300

Water

81

0.033

0.021

47.7

Dry Sand

30

0.1

0.150

0.009

106

Wet Sand

30

100

17.2
25

21.3
10

0.072
0.060

0.97
0.38

1.0
2.6

Dry Clay

30

10

0.150

0.94

1.1

Wet Clay

30

100

17.7
16

31.3
100

0.071
0.075

1.40
4.71

0.7
0.2

Average Soil

30

16

20

0.075

0.94

1.1

Material

Liu and Li: J. Appl. Geophys., 2001.

Skin
depth
(m)

Table 1. Electromagnetic properties of some earth and engineered materials

Material

fresh water
salt water
freshwater ice
air
clay (dry)
clay (saturated)
sand (dry)
sand (saturated)
dry concrete

conductivity

(miliS/m)

dielectric
constant

dielectric
permittivit
y
(picoF/m)

electromagnetic
wave velocity
v
(m/s)

skin
depth

(m)

transition
frequency

reference

t
(MHz)

12-50

81

735

33.3

95.1-22.8

16-68

Brewster & Annan (1994)

150

81

716

33.3

7.6

209

Daily, et al (1995)

3.17

168.5

Arcone (1984)

2.5x10-14

1.0

8.85

300.0

0.28x10-11

Balanis (1989)

1-10

10

88.5

94.9

141-14.1

11-113

Telford et al (1990)

100-1,000

62.0

113.4

0.98-0.1

161-1614

Ulrikesen (1982)

0.001

4.5

39.8

141.4

63,412

0.25x10-1

Patel (1993)

0.1

30

266

54.8

4,227

0.38

Ulrikesen (1982)

5.6

49.6

126.8

Matthews et al (1998)

dry soil

3.9

34.5

151.9

13.7

116

Wakita et al (1996)

wet soil (20%)

13

14.4

127.4

79.0

15.6

102

Wakita et al (1996)

granite (dry)

1 x10-5

44.2

134.2

7x106

0.23x10-3

Ulrikesen (1982)

granite (wet)

1 x10-1

62

113.4

7,045

1.6

Ulrikesen (1982)

Texas aggregates

0.0012

5.1

45.1

132.8

59,889

0.27x10-1

Saarenketo at al (1996)

6.8

60.2

115.0

2.3

20.4

197.8

asphalt
PCE

5.6x10-9

Hugenschmidt et al (1996)
5.8x109

0.27x10-6

Brewster & Annan (1994)

Schematic representation of soil matrix indicating

relationship between air (A), soil particles (B) and water (C).

Parallel Plate
Capacitors

Dielectric
Plates

Dielectric plates arranged a) parallel and b) perpendicular to the

electrodes. The analytical mix model are:

1 1 2
= +
1 2
parallel model

= 1 1 + 2 2
series model

There are other theoretical models appears work

quite well for sediments filled with water, one
popular one is the complex refraction index model
(CRIM):
n

n = 1n1 + 2 n2 + ... = i ni

or

i =1

= 1 1 + 2 2 + ... = i i
i =1

The Complex Refraction Index Model (CRIM)

The wavelength of the signal is much
larger than the typical size of the
heterogeneity (pore size)
Contains two of a few pore materials
(air, ice, water, and possible others),
and the solid matrix
0=1, ice = 3.6, wat = 81,
asph = 2.6-2.8, aggreg = 5.5-6.5

b = (1 ) g + S w + (1 S ) a )

Archies Law (for formation

without or little clay content)
Archie's Law (Archie, 1942) describes the relationship
between electrical resistivity and porosity, fluid saturation,
and fluid type in a rock. The injection of current and
measurement of voltage can result in determination of
porosity, saturation and fluid type. However, the
geometric factor and parameters in Archie's Law have
many of built in assumptions. These include
considerations of the rugosity of the borehole wall,
properties of the drilling mud, invasion of the mud into the
formation, morphology of the porosity, connectivity of the
pores, wettability of the rock, presence or absence of clay
minerals, and more. Depending upon the choices made
about these assumptions, different interpretations result
for porosity, saturation and fluid type.

Archies law

= a S w
m

effective formation resistivity;

wpore water resistivity;
porosity;
S saturation;
a 0.5-2.5;
m 1.3-2.5;
n ~2.

Maxwell-Smits relationship (empirical for shaly sand)

1
= ( w + BQv )
F
effective formation conductivity;
wpore water conductivity;
constant coefficient;
F Formation factor;
Qv Cation exchange capacity;

1. Electrical conductivity and hydraulic conductivity

From Ohms law

V
dV
I = = A
R
dL
From Darcys law

dH
Q = kA
dL

Outline
1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties
3. electrical properties: electric conductivity
4. Magnetic properties: permeability and susceptibility
5. Dielectric polarization: dielectric permittivity
6. Mix model: analytic model and empirical model
Analytic mix model
Empirical mix model
Archie's law and Waxman-Smits relationship
CRIM model

7. Note on effective materials

Property
P-wave velocity
S-wave velocity
Vp/Vs
Porosity
Dielectric Permittivity
Magnetic Permeability
Resistivity
Bulk Modulus
Shear Modulus
Poisson's Ratio ()
Young's Modulus
Density

Units
km/s
km/s

ohm-m
GPa
GPa
N/m2
g/cm3

Iron
5.92
3.23
1.83
221
17.834
9E-08
100.2
95.2
0.14
22.564

Unsaturated Sand
4.18
3.42
1.22
0.36
6.25
1.0
1E+04
37
44
0.08
6.74
2.65

Saturated Sand
2.73
1.37
1.99
0.36
25
1.0
1E+02

3.01

Values From:
Carmichael, Robert S.. 1989. Practical handbook of physical properties of rocks and minerals.
Mavko, G., and others. 1998. The rock physics handbook: tools for seismic analysis in porous
media.
Schon, J.H.. 1996. Physical properties of rocks: fundamentals and principles of petrophysics
Calculated from field data at Otis MMR, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

The effective medium theory

(wavelength >> size of heterogeneity)

v EM =

1 d1 1 d 2 1
=
+
E d E1 d E 2

d1
d2
= 1 + 2
d
d

The ray theory (wavelength ~ size of heterogeneity)

d1 1 d 2 1
1
=
+
v RT
d v1 d v 2

Elastic property and seismic velocity of porous media effective medium theory
As long as the sizes of the pores, or the grains, or any other
significant heterogeneities associated with the pores, are much
smaller than the wave length of the seismic waves, or any other
means to detect the changes in elastic properties, we can use the
effective medium theory to get the overall mixed, or bulk, property of
the porous media consisting of solid matrix and pore fluids.
If the means to measure the material property has a resolution close
to the size of the heterogeneity, we need to adapt the corresponding
assumption. In using the seismic wave methods again, it is the ray
theory. The following compares the differences.

TABLE 1. Material Properties

Material
Steel
Concrete

Density
(kg/m3)
7.9
2.4

Dynamic
Modulus
(Pa)
2.4 x 1011
3.5 x 1010

P-velocity
(m/sec)
5512
3819

References
Mavko, G, T. Mukerji, and J. Dvorkin, The Rock Physics Handbook,
Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Knight, Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 29:229-255, 2001.
Topp, Davis, and Annan, Water Resource Res. 16(3):574-582, 1980.
Debye. P. Phys. Zs. 36, 100, 1935.
Homework:
1, what is the seismic S-wave velocity in the near surface earth given:
Density = 2500 kg/(mmm), the shear modulus = 10^10 Pa.
2, if the Poissons ratio is 0.25 (this is known as the Poisson condition
which can be a nominal value for the Poissons ratio of earth materials),
what is the P-wave velocity in the same material as in Question 1 (check
the relations of elastic parameters in the table).
3, for water the relative dielectric constant is 81, what is the velocity of
radar wave in water? How many time of this value is slower than that in
the air?
4, for a soil sample the resistivity is 100 ohm-meter, what is its
conductivity?