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Enhancing Imaging of the Sub-Andean Foothills Geology Using Magnetotelluric. A Case History of a Magnetotelluric Campaig
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 80th EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2018, Jun 2018, Volume 2018, p.1 - 5
Abstract
“Exploration on the Tarija Basin in South America is mainly focused on the deep Devonian-age Huamampampa and Santa Rosa formations, where structural hydrocarbon traps of hanging wall anticlines formed due to continued thrusting. The seismic surveys conducted in this area generally provide seismic records with poor signal-to-noise ratio that subsequently result in noisy stack sections that are difficult to interpret and to jump-correlate. Hence mapping the thrust anticline core with a satisfactory degree of confidence is challenging and the economic risk related to misinterpreting the structural setting is unacceptable. However, that risk can be reduced by complementing the exploration program with other geophysical data that do not suffer the same limitations in terms of illumination and SNR that are affecting the seismic data.
A magnetotelluric acquisition and modeling campaign, was carried out with the objective to improve the imaging of the Paleozoic section and map the top of the Huamampampa sandstone reservoir. The recorded data were modeled and inverted following an iterative approach, starting from unconstrained inversion and then deriving the geological constrains that were included in the subsequent inversion step. The geological interpretation of the final magnetotelluric inversion results allowed to better image the expected complexity of the structures.”