POINTE AUTOMATIQUE*

The automatic picking of seismic sections replaces the slow and painstaking task of manual reflection plotting with rapid and economical processing by computer. Essentially, reflection picking is a decision‐making problem which also can be considered as a sort of filtering. Mathematically this means multiplying the seismic data matrix by a more or less complex decision operator.

For the sake of economy, we give an initial solution for simple cases which only require easily automatized decision‐making criteria.

We describe another more elaborate method for use in examining seismic phenomena which are more difficult to spot.

The process used is based on the recognition of shapes and consists first of all of determining a series of characteristics capable of identifying each reflection on each trace and then of comparing these different characteristics from trace to trace so as to be able to judge the continuity or discontinuity of the reflections.

Automatic picking thus leads to a schematic time‐section in which only the horizons found by calculation are retained. An automatic migration program then transforms this time‐section into a depth‐section.