Density, consistency and elasticity of the material affects the main characteristics of acoustic wave passing through the environment with varying mechanical properties. Seismic methods have methodological procedures of analysis of various types of acoustic waves whose applicability is closely related to the subject of the addressed issue. The record of seismic vibration is the information carrier on the characteristics of the specific section of the sub-surface environment. Wave velocity changes in the sub-surface environment, advancing waveenergy loss wave transformation at the contact area with different characteristics are the phenomena that provide information on the structural construction, zones and other parameters of the area characterised by different mechanical properties.

Seismic methods were built on the foundations of related scientific discipline dealing with earthquakes, i.e.seismology. In 1844, Irish civil engineer, Robert Mallet published an article titled „On the Mechanics of Earthquakes“, in which he describes the distribution of seismic wave in the environment and he was also the first to deal with the hypothesis which assumes the use of earthquake seismic waves to localise and describe geological structures in the Earth's crust, which is conditional in that time by hardly obtainable knowledge of the speed of propagation of seismic waves through different environments. During the next few decades, several seismologist tried to experimentally determine the velocities of seismic waves in various types of geological environments. Their findings have not produced the expected results but in many cases they substantially opposed each other which was accompanied by lively debates. In 1906, Austrian physicist Hans Bernndorf described the mechanism of the seismic ray spread in a layered environment. His conclusions were followed by German physicist, Emil Wiechert, who in 1907 outlined the structure of the Earth by analysing seismic waves, presented two structural models with approximate annual interval. The corrected second model was substantially similar to the globally accepted Gutenberg-Bullen's model that was launched half a century later.

Seismology, as such,does not have potential useable for applied geological research but the decades of experiments provide the necessary basis related to the scientific discipline whereby foundations were laid by German mining measurer and geophysicist, Ludger Mintrop. In 1911, Mintrop first generated a local seismic noise with the impact of quad-ton steelfrom fourteen metres, followed by a record of complete ( seismogramu (very precise record); all types (except for a small group of passive methods, in this context negligible) of seismic methods of applied geophysics used an artificial source for generating wave field – hammer, weights, an explosive charge or a vibrator. During the First World War, Mintrop developed a fast and efficient methodology for locating enemy artillery with the help of seismograph. In 1917 he patents this procedure as „Method for the determination of the location of artificial concussions“. His next patent in 1919 "Geological testing method" started to build another branch of the applied geophysics and in 1922 he patented the "Field seismograph".

Yet in the 1917 Canadian scientist, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden patented "Methods and Apparatus for Locating Ore-Bodies“a location method of geological bodies which is also based on the registration of artificially generated acoustic waves while generation and registration of seismic waves take place in exploratory wells which at that time appears to be a major disadvantage. In 1920, geologist and professor at University of Texas, Johan August Udden pointed-out this fact in his article comparing Mintropov's and Fessenden's method. He mainly refers to the economic factors of these methods. In the case of Fessenden's method, the implementation of the survey work is conditioned to the existence of exploration wells, on the contrary Mintropov's method provides exceptional savings of means a substantial increase in the efficiency of exploration activities without the existence or implementation of any mining works.

In 1921, Mintrop founded SEISMOS - the first company in the world dealing with the seismic prospecting.