Abstract The geophone, a type of seismometer whose design principle is based on electromechanical transduction, is the most widespread type of vibrations sensing device used to record seismic waves propagating in the subsurface from the source to the receiver station in land seismic exploration. By design, the geophone is equivalent to a high-pass frequency-filter that accurately records seismic energy arrivals within a certain frequency range above its characteristic resonance frequency. Below the resonance frequency, the geophone sensitivity to the impinging seismic signal amplitude and phase degrades rapidly compromising the accurate recording of the low frequency seismic wave. A thorough technical review of the seismometer design, from the physics first principles and the electromechanical design are presented. The design of an optimal inverse geophone is formulated using methodologies originally developed in earthquake seismology for seismograph signal restitution, to expand the usable frequency band of data recorded with conventional geophones in land seismic exploration far below their resonance frequency. The effectiveness of the filter is demonstrated through application to data acquired in a high-channel-count(HCC) land seismic survey.
Diallo et al. (2026) studied this question.