BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGISTS 
VCL. 18, NO. 1 (JANUARY, 1934) PP. 106-118, 5 FIGS 
GRANITE AND LIMESTONE VELOCITY DETER- 
MINATIONS IN ARBUCKLE MOUNTAINS, 
OKLAHOMA! 
B. B. WEATHERBY, W. T. BORN, and R. L. HARDING? 
Tulsa, Oklahoma 
ABSTRACT 
Determinations of the velocity of elastic waves in the Tishomingo granite and 
Arbuckle limestone were made by seismic methods. The measurements on the granite 
were taken over both long and short spans in the same area, the former including dis- 
tances of 500 to 2,500 feet, the latter, distances of 5 f0 400 feet. Due to unusual pre- 
cautions, the short-span data are accurate to 2 per cent. The long-span data give a 
straight line time-distance graph within observational errors and yield a value of 17,950 
ft./sec. for the longitudinal wave velocity. The data taken over the shorter span show 
a definite curvature in the time-distance graphs, the longitudinal velocity varying 
from 14,880 to 17,150 feet per second, and the transverse velocity from 7,000 to 7,950 
ft./sec. From these data the elastic constants of granite are calculated. Laboratory 
measurements were made on two small rods of granite from the same locality, by a 
method giving results accurate to less than 1 per cent. The velocities so obtained were 
somewhat higher. Velocity measurements were made along and across the bedding 
plane of Arbuckle limestone in a region where the dip of the bed approaches 90°. The 
velocity along the bedding plane was 17,400 feet per second and across the bedding 
plane 13,400 feet per second. 
For some time the discrepancies between laboratory measure- 
ments of the elastic constants of rock samples and their measurements 
by seismic methods have been subject to discussion. At the present 
time, as far as the writers have been able to determine, there is no 
satisfactory explanation for this lack of agreement. 
It was with the idea that an explanation might be found that the 
present work was undertaken. Two profiles were run on an extensive 
outtrop of the Tishomingo granite in the Arbuckle Mountains near 
Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Elastic waves, which were generated by ex- 
plosions of dynamite, were recorded by an electrical seismograph, 
time and distance being the measured quantities. The first profile was 
started 500 feet from the shot point and was extended to 2,500 feet 
with the detectors placed at 200-foot intervals. 
The time-distance graph for this profile is a straight line within 
the limit of error, which is considered to be 1 per cent. The velocity 
shown by this set of data for the longitudinal wave is 17,950 feet per 
second. Although impulses, which were probably due to transverse 
* Read before the Geophysics Division of the Association at the Houston Meeting, 
March 24, 1933. 
2 Geophysical Research Corporation. 
628 106 
