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Geological Process Mapping from Seismic Data
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 77th EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2015, Jun 2015, Volume 2015, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Geological processes leave their traces in the rock layers in the subsurface. Seismic data can map these traces through impedance contrast measurements collected in seismic data cubes. Limitations in the resolution of traditionally acquired, processed and interpreted seismic data leads to the assumption that geological processes measured by seismic impedance contrast can only be interpreted as stationary time snapshots. The concepts of geomorphology and stratigraphy are common techniques used when interpreting seismic data for geology. This concept has been developed for single time seismic surveys, but it is also applied to time-lapse seismic data where two distinct but fixed time snapshots are considered. The advent of high-vertical-resolution processing of seismic data in colour domain provides sufficiently dense horizon images so that both continuous geological processes can be mapped and discontinuous processes can be detected from seismic data. The methodology has been demonstrated on the phases of a mass flow cycle from deepwater Gulf of Mexico where long periods of smooth and quasi-continuous changes in the sediment deposition have been separated by two events of very sudden changes in the flow and deposition pattern. Using the new technique such sudden changes can be resolved within a few 10s of meters.