Decoupling of seismic reflectors and stratigraphic timelines: A modeling study of Tertiary strata from Svalbard

Geophysics ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. SM273-SM280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ståle Johansen ◽  
Espen Granberg ◽  
Donatella Mellere ◽  
Børge Arntsen ◽  
Torben Olsen

In sequence stratigraphic interpretations, the key premise is that stratal surfaces effectively represent geologic timelines. When applied to seismic sections, the fundamental assumption is that primary reflections generally mimic stratigraphic timelines. The main objective of this study was to test how well key reflectors in a seismic section couple to timelines. To achieve the high level of ground control needed for such testing, we combined photogrammetry and traditional sedimentologic fieldwork to optimize the geologic model. We relied further on petrophysical analysis to derive a numerical model suitable for the simulation of seismic data. In spite of laterally discontinuous vertical-impedance contrasts (VICs), false seismic continuity was created, and we observed frequent decoupling of seismic reflectors and stratigraphic timelines. These observations demonstrate how the low-frequency seismic method fails to image normal complexity in a stratigraphic unit. A seismic correlation test showed that the interpreters made numerous mistakes and that such mistakes are very difficult to avoid. The failure of a fundamental assumption, as illustrated here, creates serious problems for the sequence stratigraphic concept when applied to detailed correlation analysis on seismic sections.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunggu Jun ◽  
Hyeong-Tae Jou ◽  
Han-Joon Kim ◽  
Sang Hoon Lee

<p>Imaging the subsurface structure through seismic data needs various information and one of the most important information is the subsurface P-wave velocity. The P-wave velocity structure mainly influences on the location of the reflectors during the subsurface imaging, thus many algorithms has been developed to invert the accurate P-wave velocity such as conventional velocity analysis, traveltime tomography, migration velocity analysis (MVA) and full waveform inversion (FWI). Among those methods, conventional velocity analysis and MVA can be widely applied to the seismic data but generate the velocity with low resolution. On the other hands, the traveltime tomography and FWI can invert relatively accurate velocity structure, but they essentially need long offset seismic data containing sufficiently low frequency components. Recently, the stochastic method such as Markov chain Monte Carlo (McMC) inversion was applied to invert the accurate P-wave velocity with the seismic data without long offset or low frequency components. This method uses global optimization instead of local optimization and poststack seismic data instead of prestack seismic data. Therefore, it can avoid the problem of the local minima and limitation of the offset. However, the accuracy of the poststack seismic section directly affects the McMC inversion result. In this study, we tried to overcome the dependency of the McMC inversion on the poststack seismic section and iterative workflow was applied to the McMC inversion to invert the accurate P-wave velocity from the simple background velocity and inaccurate poststack seismic section. The numerical test showed that the suggested method could successfully invert the subsurface P-wave velocity.</p>


Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-56
Author(s):  
Saber jahanjooy ◽  
Mohammad Ali Riahi ◽  
Hamed Ghanbarnejad Moghanloo

The acoustic impedance (AI) model is key data for seismic interpretation, usually obtained from its nonlinear relation with seismic reflectivity. Common approaches use initial geological and seismic information to constraint the AI model estimation. When no accurate prior information is available, these approaches may dictate false results at some parts of the model. The regularization of ill-posed underdetermined problems requires some constraints to restrict the possible results. Available seismic inversion methods mostly use Tikhonov or total variation (TV) regularizations with some adjustments. Tikhonov regularization assumes smooth variation in the AI model, and it is incurious about the rapid changes in the model. TV allows rapid changes, and it is more stable in presence of noisy data. In a detailed realistic earth model that AI changes gradually, TV creates a stair-casing effect, which could lead to misinterpretation. This could be avoided by using TV and Tikhonov regularization sequentially in the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and creating the AI model. The result of implementing the proposed algorithm (STTVR) on 2D synthetic and real seismic sections shows that the smaller details in the lithological variations are accounted for as well as the general trend. STTVR can calculate major AI variations without any additional low-frequency constraints. The temporal and spatial transition of the calculated AI in real seismic data is gradual and close to a real geological setting.


Geophysics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. W1-W16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Liang ◽  
John Castagna ◽  
Ricardo Zavala Torres

Various postprocessing methods can be applied to seismic data to extend the spectral bandwidth and potentially increase the seismic resolution. Frequency invention techniques, including phase acceleration and loop reconvolution, produce spectrally broadened seismic sections but arbitrarily create high frequencies without a physical basis. Tests in extending the bandwidth of low-frequency synthetics using these methods indicate that the invented frequencies do not tie high-frequency synthetics generated from the same reflectivity series. Furthermore, synthetic wedge models indicate that the invented high-frequency seismic traces do not improve thin-layer resolution. Frequency invention outputs may serve as useful attributes, but they should not be used for quantitative work and do not improve actual resolution. On the other hand, under appropriate circumstances, layer frequency responses can be extrapolated to frequencies outside the band of the original data using spectral periodicities determined from within the original seismic bandwidth. This can be accomplished by harmonic extrapolation. For blocky earth structures, synthetic tests show that such spectral extrapolation can readily double the bandwidth, even in the presence of noise. Wedge models illustrate the resulting resolution improvement. Synthetic tests suggest that the more complicated the earth structure, the less valid the bandwidth extension that harmonic extrapolation can achieve. Tests of the frequency invention methods and harmonic extrapolation on field seismic data demonstrate that (1) the frequency invention methods modify the original seismic band such that the original data cannot be recovered by simple band-pass filtering, whereas harmonic extrapolation can be filtered back to the original band with good fidelity and (2) harmonic extrapolation exhibits acceptable ties between real and synthetic seismic data outside the original seismic band, whereas frequency invention methods have unfavorable well ties in the cases studied.


2021 ◽  
pp. 4802-4809
Author(s):  
Mohammed H. Al-Aaraji ◽  
Hussein H. Karim

      The seismic method depends on the nature of the reflected waves from the interfaces between layers, which in turn depends on the density and velocity of the layer, and this is called acoustic impedance. The seismic sections of the East Abu-Amoud field that is located in Missan Province, south-eastern Iraq, were studied and interpreted for updating the structural picture of the major Mishrif Formation for the reservoir in the field. The Mishrif Formation is rich in petroleum in this area, with an area covering about 820 km2. The horizon was calibrated and defined on the seismic section with well logs data (well tops, check shot, sonic logs, and density logs) in the interpretation process to identify the upper and lower boundaries of the Formation.  Seismic attributes were used to study the formation, including instantaneous phase attributes and relative acoustic impedance on time slice of 3D seismic data . Also, relative acoustic impedance was utilized to study the top of the Mishrif Formation. Based on these seismic attributes, karst features of the formation were identified. In addition, the nature of the lithology in the study area and the change in porosity were determined through the relative acoustic impedance The overlap of the top of the Mishrif Formation with the bottom of the Khasib Formation was determined because the Mishrif Formation is considered as an unconformity surface.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 363-375
Author(s):  
Mohamed A. Rashed ◽  
Ali H. Atef

AbstractVirtual resolution enhancement (VRE) is a new poststack cosmetic tool that can be applied to different types of seismic data. VRE emphasizes major reflections, enhances temporal resolution of seismic events, and suppresses reverberation noise, leading to better visualization of the entire seismic data. VRE is based on simple mathematical rule, and its parameters can be tweaked to suite the vast variety of seismic data available today. Although VRE does not reveal new or hidden features on seismic section, it significantly enhances the existing ones, which improves the interpretation and assists automatic horizon picking process. The only disadvantage of VRE is the long computational time. However, given the giant advances in the computational power and speed expected in the near future, this problem should be negligible. Tests conducted on seismic sections, collected from different regions in the world and went through different data acquisition and processing routines, prove the effectiveness of the VRE procedure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1226
Author(s):  
Abd Al-Salam Al-Masgari ◽  
Mohamed Elsaadany ◽  
Abdul Halim Abdul Latiff ◽  
Maman Hermana ◽  
Umar Bin Hamzah ◽  
...  

This study focuses on the sequence stratigraphy and the dominated seismic facies in the Central Taranaki basin. Four regional seismic sequences namely SEQ4 to SEQ1 from bottom to top and four boundaries representing unconformities namely H4 to H1 from bottom to top have been traced based on the reflection terminations. This was validated using well logs information. An onlapping feature on the seismic section indicates a new perspective surface separated between the upper and lower Giant formation, which indicates a period of seawater encroachment. This study focused extensively on deposition units from SEQ4 to SEQ1. The seismic facies, isochron map, and depositional environment were determined, and the system tract was established. This study was also able to propose a new perspective sequence stratigraphy framework of the basin and probable hydrocarbon accumulations and from the general geological aspect, SA-Middle Giant Formation (SEQ3) could act as potential traps.


Geophysics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1984-1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Saggaf ◽  
M. Nafi Toksöz ◽  
M. I. Marhoon

We present an approach based on competitive neural networks for the classification and identification of reservoir facies from seismic data. This approach can be adapted to perform either classification of the seismic facies based entirely on the characteristics of the seismic response, without requiring the use of any well information, or automatic identification and labeling of the facies where well information is available. The former is of prime use for oil prospecting in new regions, where few or no wells have been drilled, whereas the latter is most useful in development fields, where the information gained at the wells can be conveniently extended to the interwell regions. Cross‐validation tests on synthetic and real seismic data demonstrated that the method can be an effective means of mapping the reservoir heterogeneity. For synthetic data, the output of the method showed considerable agreement with the actual geologic model used to generate the seismic data; for the real data application, the predicted facies accurately matched those observed at the wells. Moreover, the resulting map corroborates our existing understanding of the reservoir and shows substantial similarity to the low‐frequency geologic model constructed by interpolating the well information, while adding significant detail and enhanced resolution to that model.


2021 ◽  
pp. 3612-3619
Author(s):  
Mohammed H. Al-Aaraji ◽  
Hussein H. Karim

      The seismic method depends on the nature of the reflected waves from the interfaces between layers, which in turn depends on the density and velocity of the layer, and this is called acoustic impedance. The seismic sections of the East Abu-Amoud field that is located in Missan Province, south-eastern Iraq, were studied and interpreted for updating the structural picture of the major Mishrif Formation for the reservoir in the Abu-amoud field. The Mishrif Formation is rich in petroleum in this area, with an area covering about 820 km2. The seismic interpretation of this study was carried out utilizing the software of Petrel-2017. The horizon was calibrated and defined on the seismic section with well-logs data (well tops, check shot, sonic logs, and density logs) in the interpretations process for identifying the upper and lower boundaries of Mishrif Formation. As well, mapping of two-way time and depth structural maps was carried out, to aid in understanding the lateral and vertical variations and to show the formation of the structural surfaces. The study found that Mishrif thickness increases toward the east, which means that it increases from the Abu-Amoud field in Nasiriyah towards the East Abu-Amoud field in Missan province.       The aim of the study is to draw a high-resolution structural image of the East Abu Amoud field in southeast Iraq and to show the types of the existing faults and structures in the study area.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Eduardo Soares Ferreira ◽  
Milton José Porsani ◽  
Michelângelo G. Da Silva ◽  
Giovani Lopes Vasconcelos

ABSTRACT. Seismic processing aims to provide an adequate image of the subsurface geology. During seismic processing, the filtering of signals considered noise is of utmost importance. Among these signals is the surface rolling noise, better known as ground-roll. Ground-roll occurs mainly in land seismic data, masking reflections, and this roll has the following main features: high amplitude, low frequency and low speed. The attenuation of this noise is generally performed through so-called conventional methods using 1-D or 2-D frequency filters in the fk domain. This study uses the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method for ground-roll attenuation. The EMD method was implemented in the programming language FORTRAN 90 and applied in the time and frequency domains. The application of this method to the processing of land seismic line 204-RL-247 in Tacutu Basin resulted in stacked seismic sections that were of similar or sometimes better quality compared with those obtained using the fk and high-pass filtering methods.Keywords: seismic processing, empirical mode decomposition, seismic data filtering, ground-roll. RESUMO. O processamento sísmico tem como principal objetivo fornecer uma imagem adequada da geologia da subsuperfície. Nas etapas do processamento sísmico a filtragem de sinais considerados como ruídos é de fundamental importância. Dentre esses ruídos encontramos o ruído de rolamento superficial, mais conhecido como ground-roll . O ground-roll ocorre principalmente em dados sísmicos terrestres, mascarando as reflexões e possui como principais características: alta amplitude, baixa frequência e baixa velocidade. A atenuação desse ruído é geralmente realizada através de métodos de filtragem ditos convencionais, que utilizam filtros de frequência 1D ou filtro 2D no domínio fk. Este trabalho utiliza o método de Decomposição em Modos Empíricos (DME) para a atenuação do ground-roll. O método DME foi implementado em linguagem de programação FORTRAN 90, e foi aplicado no domínio do tempo e da frequência. Sua aplicação no processamento da linha sísmica terrestre 204-RL-247 da Bacia do Tacutu gerou como resultados, seções sísmicas empilhadas de qualidade semelhante e por vezes melhor, quando comparadas as obtidas com os métodos de filtragem fk e passa-alta.Palavras-chave: processamento sísmico, decomposição em modos empíricos, filtragem dados sísmicos, atenuação do ground-roll.


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