DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18183048
title: Database of a 4-km seismic and electric streamer survey: the embankment of the Po River near Crescentino, Piedmont, Italy.

description: This readme_crescentino_streamer.txt file was generated on 24 October 2025 by Andrea Vergnano. Feel free to contact us at the emails provided below if any question arises regarding the dataset.

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: Database of a 4-km seismic and electric streamer survey: the embankment of the Po River near Crescentino, Piedmont, Italy.

2. Author Information    A. Principal Investigator Contact Information        Name: Cesare Comina                Institution: University of Turin, Department of Earth Sciences            Address: Via Valperga Caluso 35, Turin, Italy        Email: cesare.comina@unito.it

    B. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information        Name: Valentina Socco            Institution: Polytechnic of Turin, Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure.        Address: Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, Turin, Italy        Email: valentina.socco@polito.it

    C. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information        Name: Andrea Vergnano        Institution: University of Turin, Department of Earth Sciences            Address: Via Valperga Caluso 35, Turin, Italy        Email: andrea.vergnano@unito.it

3. Date of data collection: March 2025 (multiple days)

4. Geographic location of data collection: Embankment of the Po River, south of Crescentino, in the province of Turin, Italy.

5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: This study was carried out within the GEOCHARME project (GEOphysical CHARacterization and Monitoring of Earthen dams and levees) – funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU within the PRIN 2022 program (D.D. 104 - 02/02/2022 Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca). This manuscript reflects only the authors’ views and opinions and the Ministry cannot be considered responsible for them.Authors are indebted with AIPO – Moncalieri section for support in the identification of relevant case histories for the project and for the sharing of independent geotechnical data.Field data acquisition was also supported by Techgea Srl within the GEOLEVEE Project, funded by the “Return - Multi-Risk sciEnce for resilienT commUnities undeR a changiNg climate” program (PNRR, Missione 4 “Istruzione e ricerca” – Componente 2 “dalla ricerca all’impresa”, Investimento 1.3, finanziato dall’Unione europea – Nextgeneration EU, pubblicato dal Politecnico di Milano con Decreto del Direttore Generale D.D. Rep. n. 7881/2024, Prot. n. 161661/2024 del 02/07/2024).

 

SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: No restriction or licences 

2. Links to publications that cite or use the data: Comina C., Vergnano A., Arato A., Naldi M., Chieppa D. and Socco L.V., 2025. Database of a 4-km seismic and electric streamer survey along the embankment of the Po river in Crescentino. Submitted to Earth System Science Data.

3. Recommended citation for this dataset: Please, cite the above publication that presents this dataset.

DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

1. Folder List: 

Electrical_Tomography_DataIn the Electrical_Tomography_Data folder there are 2 .csv files. One contains the raw electrical resistivity tomography data, and the other contains the geoloction of the electrodes used in this survey.

Seismic_Survey_DataIn the Seismic_Survey_Data folder you will find a series of .sg2 files containing the seismic data acquired with the streamer, one file per shot, and a .csv file with the geolocation of the geophones.

QGIS_topographyIn the QGIS_topography folder you will find a QGIS project (Database.qgz) as well as the topographical files used by QGIS. You will find topographical information about the study site, as well as geotechnical measurements and indication of past seepages in the embankment. Notable files include the position of the seepages, some coarse and detailed orthophotos, and a digita terrain model (DTM) with the altitude above sea level of the embankment area.

2. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? This dataset is uploaded on Zenodo public repository at the address: 10.5281/zenodo.18183049. In the future, in the case we notice that a correction or amendment to the database is necessary, we could upload a new version on Zenodo. In this case, the Zenodo page at 10.5281/zenodo.18183049 will tell you that a new version of this database exists. A new DOI address will be given to the new version, however, the Zenodo pages will be linked between each other, so it should be easy to find the latest version.

METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION

1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data:

Here we summarize the main methods. However, for further detail, refer to our publication that presents this dataset: 

Comina C., Vergnano A., Arato A., Naldi M., Chieppa D. and Socco L.V., 2025. Database of a 4-km seismic and electric streamer survey along the embankment of the Po river in Crescentino. Submitted to Earth System Science Data.

Surveys were executed by means of a combined seismic and electric streamer cable.For the seismic part, the streamer is constituted by 48, 4.5 Hz vertical geophones at 1 m spacing. The seismic source is a 40 Kg accelerated mass mounted on the survey vehicle. The first geophone is placed at a 6 m offset from the source. For the electric part, the streamer is similar to what reported in Arato et al. (2022) and is constituted by 13 active electrodes that can be used both as current and potential electrodes, placed at increasing spacings around their mid-point. The nearest electrodes are the ones around the streamer mid-point (7 electrodes at 2 m separation), while the farthest ones are at the extremes of the streamer (8 m separation). Electrodes are constructed in stainless steel and have the form of brushes in order to increase the contact surface to the ground and reduce electric resistances. A drip irrigation system completes the electric part of the streamer to further reduce contact resistances at the electrodes. The above described components together constitute the seismic-electric streamer. The resulting streamer total length is of about 50 m. The seismic and electric streamer is dragged by the survey vehicle that stores the equipment necessary for seismic and resistivity measurements (acquisition systems and water tank). The electrodes and geophones are connected to the acquisition systems (Syscal-Pro, Iris Instruments, georesistivimeter and DaQLink IV, Seismic Source, seismic acquisition device) placed in the survey vehicle by means of multipolar cables. The cables and the irrigation system are collected all together in a plastic coating for easier dragging. 

The seismic and electric streamer is moved along the studied embankment in different station positions at 8 m steps; at each moving step, a single seismic shot and an electric acquisition sequence are recorded. The survey step was established in order to obtain a good lateral resolution (shorter survey step) with as reduced as possible acquisition times (increased survey step). The final value adopted was chosen also analysing the results of numerical simulations of electrical resistivity data, given its ability to recognize anomalies with dimensions of the order of 1 m till the desired investigation depth. Each station position (the location of the electrode nearer to the survey vehicle, which correspond also to the first geophone) was acquired by means of a RTK GNSS antenna (Emlid Reach RS3). All the acquired position data are made available in the qgis project (Stations.gpkg) in absolute coordinates in the UTM WGS84 system, Fuse 32N. Position data are numbered starting from the eastern part of the embankment, as acquired during survey acquisition.

A total of 518 station positions were acquired during a 7 days survey campaign, with average survey length of 800 m/day, and about 15 stations per hour of effective acquisition. A relevant amount of time was dedicated to deploy the streamer each new day and to refill the water tank for the drip irrigation system. The acquired data covered the investigated embankment in a continuous way, except a small portion of about 50 m in the eastern part related to the crossing of a lateral road which prevented the positioning of the streamer.

2. Methods for processing the data: 

No processing was performed on the data. In this database, we provide raw data, as recorded by the instrument, and converted to open-format files. 

 

3. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: Most data are in plain text, comma separated .csv files, therefore, you should be able to open them with any text editor on any operating system. We suggest to use spreadsheet software for a better visualization, such as Libreoffice Calc or Microsoft Excel.Seismic data are stored in .sg2 format, one of the standard formats for storing seismic data. You cannot open it with a text editor, but any specialized software for geophysical data processing will open it, and also some libraries in the main programming languages can read and write sg2 files.For example, the software geopsy (geopsy.org) can easily read sg2 files.

See also: Pullan, S. E., 1990, Recommended standard for seismic (/radar) files in the personal computer environment: Geophysics, 55, no. 09, 1260-1271.

In the QGIS_topography folder you will find a QGIS project (Database.qgz) as well as the topographical files used by QGIS. QGIS is a geographical information system software that is open-source and available for all the main operating systems. We used the version 3.40 to create it, so slight issues may arise by using another version, but they should easily fixable. In any case, all data files in this folder are in open formats, such as .tif for the Digital Terrain Model (DTM), and .gpkg, an open format used by QGIS by default.

 

4. Standards and calibration information, if appropriate: 

We refer to the following standard for seismic data format (.sg2): Pullan, S. E., 1990, Recommended standard for seismic (/radar) files in the personal computer environment: Geophysics, 55, no. 09, 1260-1271.

 

5. Environmental/experimental conditions:Typical spring continental climate (5-15 °C daily fluctuations). The acquisitions were performed thoughout the day, in different days, therefore temperature fluctuations may arise in the shallowest soil layers, so that the measurements performed in the morning are subject to a slighly different temperature than those in the afternoon.

 

6. Describe any quality-assurance procedures performed on the data: Seismic data were generally of good quality with few geophones showing a reduced coupling in some specific locations. At some stations, we repeated the seismic shots when tractors passed during the acquisition. Bad quality shots are not included in the database. During the first survey days, some of the geophones showed malfunctioning (Figure 6). These were moved at the end of the streamer in order to not compromise the whole seismogram and were later substituted.

For the Electrical Resistivity data, for each new station position, contact resistances at electrodes were verified, and, in case of high contact resistances, the drip irrigation was continued. For each station, the measurements were stacked 3 times, then, if they had a standard deviation greater than 2%, the measurements were stacked 6 times instead.

7. People involved with field survey, processing, analysis and/or submission: Andrea Vergnano, Cesare Comina, Diego Franco, Alessandro Arato, Mario Naldi, Valentina Socco, Dario Chieppa.

field survey: Cesare Comina. Andrea Vergnano, Diego Franco, Alessandro Aratoprocessing/analysis Cesare Comina, Dario Chieppa, Andrea Vergnanosubmission/supervision: Cesare Comina, Valentina Socco, Mario Naldi

 

 

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [Electrical_Tomography_Data/Resistivity_data.csv]

1. Number of variables: 11

2. Number of columns:11 , Number of rows (excluding header row): 164724

3. Variable List:     1) meas_num. Number of measurement. Consider that each station or shot is composed of 318 measurements, or, in other words, our quadrupole sequence is composed of 318 measurements. Therefore, the 319th measurement belongs to the second station, etc.    2-5) A B M N are the conventional names for electrodes in which electrical current is injected (A and B) and electrodes in which electrical potential difference is measured (M and N). All electrodes can be used as both current and potential electrodes (not at the same time), and the integers in these columns refer to the electrode numbers. Since, for each station, we have 13 electrodes, and each station is composed of 318 measurements, at the 319th measurement and above you will find electrode numbers from 14 to 26, and so on.    6) Resistivity (or "Rho") in Ohm*m, calculated automatically by the instrument considering that the electrodes are spaced as in the following scheme:        ele_num    position        1    0        2    8        3    14        4    18        5    20        6    22        7    24        8    26        9    28        10    30        11    34        12    40        13    48    7) Standard deviation of the value of Resistivity, in %    8) Self potential measured at the M N electrodes (not reliable, since our electrodes were no unpolarizable)    9) Potential difference measured at the M N electrodes during the current injection at the A B electrodes, in milliVolt    10) Current injection in milliAmpere at the A B electrodes    11) Type of quadrupole: Wenner-Shlumberger, or Dipole-Dipole, or gapfiller (which means that this measurement is not a standard quadrupole, but was added in order to follow the logic of the instrument, that wans the potential measurements to be concatenated in order to make them faster).

4. Missing data codes: no missing data

5. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: everything should be explained here above.

 

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [Electrical_Tomography_Data/Electrodes_positions.csv]

1. Number of variables: 5

2. Number of columns: 5, Number of rows (excluding header row): 6734 

3. Variable List:

    1) num_shot. This indicates the number of the streamer's measurement sequence, or "shot", or "station". Every 8 meters, the streamer stopped and performed a shot. Each shot uses 13 electrodes (and performs 318 measurements, using different quadrupole combinations of these 13 electrodes). A total of 518 shots were performed.

    2) num_electrode_in_shot. This indicate the electrode index in the shot. 1 is the farthest from the pick-up carrying the streamer system, 13 is the nearest.

    3) num_elecrode_in_Resistivity_Data.csv. This column, which is just the numbers from 1 to 6734, represents the number of electrode that is used in the data file, called Resistivity_Data.csv. Therefore, one can assign electrode positions to the measurements contained in Resistivity_Data.csv using this file Electrodes_positions.csv.

    4) x(m)_EPSG32632. East position of the electrode in the coordinate reference system WGS84, UTM32N, which has EPSG code: 32632

    5) y(m)_EPSG32632. North position of the electrode in the coordinate reference system WGS84, UTM32N, which has EPSG code: 32632

4. Missing data codes: no missing data

5. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used:nothing that is not already explained above.

 

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [Seismic_Survey_Data/Shot(X).sg2]

These files are in the format sg2, one of the standard formats for storing seismic data. You cannot open it with a text editor, but any specialized software for geophysical data processing will open it, and also libraries in the main programming languages exist that can read and write sg2 files.For example, geopsy (geopsy.org) can easily read sg2 files.

See also: Pullan, S. E., 1990, Recommended standard for seismic (/radar) files in the personal computer environment: Geophysics, 55, no. 09, 1260-1271.

In these files, there is information about the receivers and the shot positions. However, please consider instead this information:

The shot position is always at 6 meters from the geophone number 1.each shot is composed of 48 geophones, from the nearest to the shot, to the farthest.the x-y geolocation of all the geophones is in the geophones_positions.csv file, in the same folder.

 

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [Seismic_Survey_Data/geophones_positions.csv]

1. Number of variables: 4

2. Number of columns: 4, Number of rows (excluding header row): 24864

3. Variable List:

    1) num_shot. This indicates the number of the streamer's measurement, or "shot", or "station". Every 8 meters, the streamer stopped and performed a shot. Each shot uses 48 electrodes. A total of 518 shots were performed.

    2) num_geophone_in_shot. This indicate the geophone index in the shot. 1 is the farthest from the pick-up carrying the streamer system, 48 is the nearest.

    3) x(m)_EPSG32632. East position of the geophone in the coordinate reference system WGS84, UTM32N, which has EPSG code: 32632

    4) y(m)_EPSG32632. North position of the geophone in the coordinate reference system WGS84, UTM32N, which has EPSG code: 32632

4. Missing data codes: no missing data

5. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used:nothing that is not already explained above.

 

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [QGIS_topography/DPSH1.txt and following (DPSH2, 3, ...)]

These files are data files from Dynamic Probing Super Heavy testing, a geotechnical measurement technique to measure soil strength. It consists in counting the number of shots needed to drive a a 63.5 kg hammer from a height of 75 cm to advance a cone into the ground by 20 cm. For details, please see ISSMFE Techn. Committee (1988). Standard Penetration Test (SPT): International Reference Test procedure.

1. Number of variables: 2

2. Number of columns: 2, Number of rows: variable

3. Variable List: 1) depth of the test2) number of shots

4. Missing data codes: no missing data

5. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: no specialized formats or abbreviations.