Depth Imaging Of Foothills Seismic Data

Describing exploration problems in complex overthrust environments and then developing practical solutions in terms of migration methods and applications, this book conveys heuristic descriptions of mathematical algorithms and provides case history applications from overthrust belts. Examples derived from model and real data sets are provided. This book evolved from a project of the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists Superfund, a fund designed to support exploration geophysics research at Canadian universities. The project's purpose was to study the seismic depth imaging of complex geologic structures in the Canadian Foothills. This book is intended for seismic processors, interpreters, and researchers. It begins with a description of exploration problems in complex overthrust environments and then develops practical solutions in terms of migration methods and applications. The book conveys heuristic descriptions of mathematical algorithms and provides case-history applications from overthrust belts. In addition to conventional poststack and prestack depth-migration approaches, the book examines migration from topography and anisotropic migration methods while providing examples derived from model and real data sets. Because of the increasing interest in Foothills oil and gas exploration, the book should provide valuable information for practitioner and theoretician alike.

Includes discussions of fundamental concepts, explained using heuristic descriptions of seismic modelling, deconvolution, depth migration, and tomography; processing and contouring pitfalls; and developments in time-lapse seismology, borehole geophysics, multicomponent seismology, and integrated reservoir characterization.

Seismic modelling and imaging of the earth's subsurface are complex and difficult computational tasks. The authors of this volume present general numerical methods based on the complete wave equation for solving these important seismic exploration problems.

The importance of seismic wave research lies not only in our ability to understand and predict earthquakes and tsunamis, it also reveals information on the Earth's composition and features in much the same way as it led to the discovery of Mohorovicic's discontinuity. As our theoretical understanding of the physics behind seismic waves has grown, physical and numerical modeling have greatly advanced and now augment applied seismology for better prediction and engineering practices. This has led to some novel applications such as using artificially-induced shocks for exploration of the Earth's subsurface and seismic stimulation for increasing the productivity of oil wells. This book demonstrates the latest techniques and advances in seismic wave analysis from theoretical approach, data acquisition and interpretation, to analyses and numerical simulations, as well as research applications. A review process was conducted in cooperation with sincere support by Drs. Hiroshi Takenaka, Yoshio Murai, Jun Matsushima, and Genti Toyokuni.

Written for practicing geophysicists, “Land Seismic Case Studies for Near-Surface Modeling and Subsurface Imaging” is a comprehensive guide to understanding and interpreting seismic data. The culmination of land seismic data acquisition and processing projects conducted by the author over the last two decades, this book contains more than nearly 800 figures from worldwide case studies—conducted in both 2D and 3D. Beginning with Chapter 1 on seismic characterization of the near-surface, Chapter 2 presents near-surface modeling by traveltime and full-wave inversion, Chapter 3 presents near-surface modeling by imaging, and then Chapter 4 includes detailed case studies for near-surface modeling. Chapter 5 reviews single- and multichannel signal processing of land seismic data with the key objective of removing surface waves and guided waves that are characterized as coherent linear noise. Uncommon seismic data acquisition methods, including large-offset acquisition in thrust belts to capture the large-amplitude supercritical reflections, swath-line acquisition, and joint PP and SH- SH seismic imaging are highlighted in Chapter 6, and Chapter 7 presents image-based rms velocity estimation and discusses the problem of velocity uncertainty. The final two chapters focus exclusively on case studies: 2D in Chapter 8 and 3D in Chapter 9. An outstanding teaching tool, this book includes analysis workflows containing processing steps designed to solve specific problems. Essential for anyone involved in acquisition, processing, and inversion of seismic data, this volume will become the definitive reference for understanding how the variables in seismic acquisition are directly reflected in the data.

This is an informal review of the principle techniques and issues associated with prestack depth imaging. The intended audience for this book would be those seismic interpreters, processors, managers, and explorationists who require basic familiarity with the technology that has so greatly expanded the range of geologic structures that can be successfully imaged. The emphasis of the book is on velocity-model building techniques that are the key to successful depth imaging.