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Identification of underground river with microtremor method in Dersono

karst area, Pacitan
To cite this article: A S Bahri et al 2021 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 649 012001

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

Identification of underground river with microtremor method

in Dersono karst area, Pacitan

A S Bahri1, M I U S Abdullah1, S A Aliyan1, M S Purwanto1, A Widodo1, A

Hilyah1, M H M Fajar1, P V Hardyani1, Sunardi2, E W Alita3, M Rahmat1 and I
Nurfitriana1
1 Geophysical Engineering Department, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya, Indonesia
2 PPIMadiun, BPSDM Transportation, Ministry of Transportation, Madiun, Indonesia
3
Regional Research and Development Agency of Pacitan Regency, Pacitan, Indonesia

e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Many islands in Indonesia are formed due to the lifting of the seafloor which forms
limestone lithology and forms karst morphology. The karst region has a large freshwater
potential that accumulates in the underground river system. The existence of an underground
river system as a water reservoir is very important in fulfilling the needs of the community,
especially in island countries such as Indonesia that have many karst regions. Research to map
the position and distribution of underground rivers is carried out by applying geophysical
methods. One of the geophysical methods applied is the microtremor method. The working
principle of this method is the identification of underground rivers based on Particle Motion
method and Time Frequency Analysis (TFA). That analysis resulted in the particles movement
direction that perpendicular to the vibration source which is identified as the underground river.
The existence of the underground river is then validated based on the TFA parameters of the
underground river karst region. The results of the Particle Motion analysis at the research
location show the character of the river flow pattern that has a Northeast-Southwestern
orientation, and based on TFA there is amplitude continuity in the river flowed area with a
frequency range of 4 - 5 Hz and an amplitude of 2,000 dB – 20,000 dB on component Z (vertical).

1. Introduction
Many islands in Indonesia are formed due to the lifting of the seafloor which forms limestone lithology
and forms karst morphology. In the southern part of Java, famous for Gunung Sewu which has a karst
morphology. Gunung Sewu Mountain area stretches from Parangtritis to Pacitan with an area of
approximately 1,400 km [1,2]. The karst region has a large freshwater potential that accumulates in the
underground river system. The existence of an underground river system as a water reservoir is very
important in fulfilling the needs of the community, especially in island countries such as Indonesia that
have many karst regions. Pacitan Karst area has underground river potential which is the resilience of
water resources.
The study was conducted in the Dersono region which is one of the areas that is often hit by drought
in Pacitan. Dersono karst region is formed from reef limestone units, layered bioclastic limestone, and
napal which are part of the Middle Miocene to Late Miocene Wonosari Formation [3]. The only source
of water used by residents for their daily needs is the source of water that appears on the edge of the
Maron river in the western part of the village. Based on the results of field surveys that have been
conducted, caves or luweng (vertical cave) are found scattered in several locations in the village of
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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

Dersono. This indicates the existence of underground river flows that are interconnected between these
vertical caves.
The method used in this study is the application of one of the geophysical sciences, namely
microtremor. Microtremor exploits natural events and not short-duration events such as earthquakes and
explosions [4,5]. Microtremor was applied to determine the dynamic characteristics (dominant
frequency and amplification factor) of the soil layers spearheaded by Kanai and Tanaka in 1954 [6,7].
This method is applied because underground streams can be interpreted as a continuous vibratory source
that has the characteristic microtremor data. The microtremor data includes frequency, resultant
movement of particles and amplitude [8]. In this study the microtremor data generated will be processed
using two methods, namely the Particle Motion method and time frequency analysis (TFA). In this study
the Particle Motion method is used to detect continuous vibrating sources in the area which will later be
interpreted as underground rivers. Furthermore, TFA is used to analyze the frequency recorded during
the measurement time so that it can be used to identify the character of underground rivers at the study
site.

2. Methodology
The research location is in Dersono area, Pringkuku District, Pacitan Regency. The location of this study
is 226 km from the city of Surabaya and is included in the Pacitan karst area which is in the southern
part of the island of Java. The location of data collection in this study was divided into two locations.
Following is the acquisition design at locations 1 and 2, as shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1. Location 1 acquisition design

Figure 2. Location 2 acquisition design

At location 1 measurements were made in the area around Luweng Tangggung to a water source
located near the Maron river. The location of Luweng Tanggung is at the MT-2 point which is located

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

at coordinates 496031.7 E 9093542.4 N. Whereas the position of the water source is at MT-6 located at
coordinates 495716.5 E 9093591.5 N.
At location 2, measurements were made in areas between Luweng Tati to Luweng Jomblang. The
Luweng Tati location is at point M-1 which is located at coordinates 497650.2 E 9093057.3 N. While
the location of Jomblang luweng is at point M-14 which is located at coordinates 496631.4 E 9092369.3
N. This research was conducted at 36 measurement points with distance between measurement points ±
100 m. This measurement is carried out for 7 days with a measurement time at each point for 30 minutes.
Data acquisition results are also processed using Geopsy, a software to analyze particle motion at
each point. This processing produces an output in the form of a resultant movement of particles which
later becomes the basis for estimating the direction of the vibrating source which is the basis for
interpretation of the direction of underground river flow. TFA is also processed to analyze the
continuous frequency and amplitude distribution during measurement [9]. TFA produces output in the
form of frequency values with continuous amplitudes at each point [10]. This value is the basis for the
identification of the character of underground rivers in the research location as well as validation of the
existence of underground rivers based on the character of the results of previous studies.

3. Results and Discussions

3.1 Particle Motion
Particle motion data processing is carried out to identify the direction of the vibratory source, where in
the study area is indicated as an underground river flow. This is consistent with the initial hypothesis
that river flow is a continuous source of vibration so that trend particle motion can be used to estimate
the direction of underground river flow. This is due to the underground river flow that is the source of
the vibration causing the movement of particles away from that point so that the trend particle motion
will have a direction that is perpendicular to the direction of the underground river flow at that point.

3.1.1 Particle motion in location

In particle motion data processing at location 1, there are three calibration points taken during the study.
These are namely the MT-2 point which is located directly above the luweng in the field, MAL point
which is above luweng but the measurement is on the hill, and MT-6 point which is above luweng and
adjacent to the surface of the ground water that comes out of the tube. These three points are taken as
the reference for each condition flowed by the underground river below the measurement point.
Following are the results of particle motion data processing at the three calibration points.
Figure 3 show that the resultant particle motion is interpreted by black lines which are vibrations that
appear during the time span of measurements overlapping in the middle so that it can be analyzed that
the resultant direction of the particle's motion is centered. This is due to the calibration points of the
source of vibrations originating from the underground river just below the point of measurement so that
the direction of particle motion does not have a dominant and centered direction at that point. In addition
to the three calibration points above, at location 1 measurements were also made at nine other points
around the luweng location to estimate the direction of underground river flow at that location. Here are
the results of processing particle motion at these nine points.

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 3. Resultant particle motion, (a) MT-2 point, (b) MAL point and (c) MT-6 point

Figure 4. Resultant particle motion at 9 measurement points

other than calibration point at location 1
Figure 4 above shows the response of particle motion that is different for each point. This indicates
the influence of the existence of underground rivers at the study site in location 1. Whereas for points
that have a centralized particle motion trend there are two possibilities namely the point is directly above
the underground river flow so that it has a similar response as in the calibration point or the point is not
at all crossed or close to the flow of the underground river so that it is not affected by the movement of
particles caused by underground rivers. Therefore, the response of particle motion recorded purely from
underground endogenous motion of that point so that the response of the particle motion is centered.

3.1.2 Particle motion in location 2

Particle motion processing at location 2 has a difference with processing at location 1. This is due to the
absence of certainty of the existence of underground rivers at that location so that measurements cannot
be made at the calibration point for underground river systems at site 2. However due to the research of
locations 1 and 2 are relatively close together (± 1 km) then the results of particle motion calibration at
location 1 can still be considered relevant. This is because if there is an underground river at location 2
it will tend to be like the underground river system at location 1. Figure 5 in the following presents the
resultant movement of the resulting particle processing data at location 2.

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

Figure 5. Resultant particle motion at the measurement point at location 2

3.1.3 The direction of underground river flow
In the particle motion method, it can be estimated the direction of underground river flow based on the
combined direction of the resultant particle motion at each location. The following is the result of
plotting the resultant direction of each point and the approximate direction of underground river flow at
locations 1 and 2.

Figure 6. Estimated direction of underground river flow based on

resultant particle motion at location 1

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

Figure 7. Estimated direction of underground river flow based on

resultant particle motion at location 2

Figure 6 shows the correlation between the resultant particle motion with the direction of the flow of
the underground streams that are around it. In addition, in Figure 6 we can see that the points MT-1 and
MT-7 have a resultant direction that is centered to resemble the response shown at the calibration point.
This is because at both points, they are located relatively far from the vibrating source that originates
from the underground stream, so the movement of the particles is not affected by the underground river
flow at that location. This is supported by the correlation of points around MT-1 and MT-7 which show
the resultant particle motion parallel to the two points. This further indicates the absence of vibrating
sources originating from MT-1 and MT-7 that exceeds the vibratory source Originating from the
underground river system. At location 1 the underground river flow originates from MT-2 and finally
appears at MT-6 before finally joining the Maron river.
The same principle as at location 1 is also applied at location 2 to produce an estimate of the direction
of underground river flow as in Figure 7. The direction of underground river flow at location 2 has a
relatively different direction when compared to location 1. If at location 1 the direction of flow tends to
have an east-west direction while at location 2, the direction of flow tends to have a northeast-southwest
direction. This is in accordance with the direction of the Grindulu fault which is the cause of the
existence of a weak zone in the area.

3.2 Time Frequency Analysis

The time frequency analysis (TFA) process is carried out with Geopsy software by analyzing the three
microtremor signals at each point in the frequency range according to the results of the HVSR processing
over time. Following are the TFA results at several points representing the research location.

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

Figure 8. TFA results on M10

Figure 8 shows the results of TFA processing at the M10 measurement point located in the hilly area
of the study site. This point was chosen to be a calibration of TFA results in hilly areas because based
on particle motion analysis shows this point is one of the points that is passed by underground river
flows. The results of TFA processing on M10 show the existence of continuous amplitude values in the
4 - 5 Hz frequency range. This value then becomes validation of the existence of underground rivers at
that location because it matches the characteristics that have been previously defined through research
[11]. The same analysis is also carried out at point M14 which represents the field area and M20 which
represents the study site above luweng.

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

Figure 9. TFA results on M14

Based on the results of TFA processing at point M14 it is then found the result of continuous
amplitude in the same frequency range as point M10, which is in the range of 4 - 5 Hz. This proves that
underground rivers at the study site have the same frequency range values at various locations. However,
different results are seen in the continuous amplitude value at point M14. This can be observed in Figure
9 which illustrates the results of TFA processing at M10 showing a continuous amplitude value at
frequencies of 4 - 5 Hz ranging from 2,000 – 6,000 dB. but at point M14 the continuous amplitude value
at the same frequency range has a value of nearly 20,000 dB. This magnification of the amplitude value
occurs because the field area has a thicker layer of soil when compared to hilly areas. This causes a
change in the wave propagation medium from the hard rock layer to the softer layer so that one of the
wave properties applies that will experience amplitude amplification when moving from a dense
medium to a less dense medium. Almost the same amplitude value also occurs in the measurement
results at point M20 as shown in Figure 10.

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

Figure 10. TFA results on M20

Figure 10 shows the value of the TFA processing at point M20 which is located just above the
luweng. TFA processing results at point M20 show continuous amplitude values in the same frequency
range of 4 - 5 Hz as seen at points M10 and M14. However, at the M20 point the resulting amplitude
has a value of around 20,000 dB as at point M14. This is because point M20 has a location character
that is almost the same as point M14, which is in a field with a thickness of topsoil layer thicker than
the hilly area.
Based on the results of TFA processing at the study site, it is found that the frequency value always
has a continuous amplitude . This continuous amplitude indicates the character of underground river
data at the study site in general. The sample results shown above are representative of each location
which generally consists of hilly areas, fields, and above luweng locations. Based on the three images,
it can be observed that the amplitude of the underground river at the study site has a continuous value at
a frequency of 4 - 5 Hz with an amplitude value ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 dB. So that this value can
be concluded as a character of frequency and amplitude data on underground streams at the study site.

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Sustainable Islands Development Initiatives – International Conference 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 649 (2021) 012001 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/649/1/012001

4. Conclusions
Based on the observation and analysis conducted in this study, primary conclusions can be drawn as
follows:
1. The results of the mapping of underground rivers based on resultant analysis of particle motion,
shows the flow of the river at location 1 has East-West orientation lead to Maron river and at
location 2 has a Northeast-Southwest orientation.
2. Based on the results of time frequency analysis (TFA), the vertical component (Z) becomes a
component to see the character of the amplitude continuity of the TFA results. This is because the
vibrations generated by the river flow create a continuous amplitude of the surface with an
amplitude value of 2,000 – 20,000 dB and in the frequency range of 4 - 5 Hz as a typical value of
underground rivers in the study area.

Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the many people who have contributed to this research. Special thank go to the
Director of Research and Community Service Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education
(DRPM Kemenristekdikti) for the financial support provided to this research.

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