This thesis is concerned with the development of the cross-hole seismic reflection surveying method with particular application to the shallow Coal Measures strata found in opencast coal mining prospects in the U.K.A field acquisition technique developed for shallow boreholes utilising explosive sources and hydrophone receivers is described. Data have been acquired from several test sites in northern England. Data-processing techniques including wavefield separation and waveshaping deconvolution have been developed for cross-hole data and the theories behind these techniques are discussed. Methods of imaging cross-hole reflection data including the 'VSP-CDF transformation and Generalised Kirchhoff migration are applied to computer- generated synthetic data and to real data in order to yield a depth section of the seismic reflectivity between the boreholes. Finally, the data-processing and imaging techniques developed are applied to real data acquired at British Coal Opencast exploration sites in northern England between 1987 and 1990
