The influence of relief on the amplitude and velocity of acoustic surface waves as applied to the tasks of passive seismic prospecting

Today, in geophysics, passive technologies of surface-wave tomography and methods that analyze the amplitude characteristics of surface waves are widely used. Unfortunately, the issues of taking into account the influence of the relief on the results of these methods have not yet been given due attention. The existing solutions are poorly corresponding to the real tasks of geophysics. Numerical models have been created for the study of surface waves. Their correctness is confirmed by comparison with the results of laboratory experiments. A study of the scattering of surface waves on the features of the relief of various shapes and sizes, including for the seabed and ice-covered water, has been carried out. It is shown that the effect of the relief at certain parameters can change the structure of the field more strongly than local inhomogeneities of the medium. A positive relief can lead to a significant change in the effective velocity of surface waves due to the effect of splitting of these waves discovered both by numerical simulation and laboratory experiment. [This work was financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 18-05-70034).]