Seismic Exploration

This illustration-rich book explains seismic data acquisition operations from a fundamental and practical standpoint, ranging from land to marine 2D methods to 3D seismic methods. Helpful to geologists, field crews, exploration managers, petroleum engineers, and geophysicists, each chapter concludes with exercises on field data recording problems.

Capitalizing on knowledge learned over decades and combining underlying theory with practical bases, this book presents a systematic analysis of the issues involved in high-resolution seismic exploration. Translated from the original Chinese edition published in 1993 by Petroleum Industry Press and now updated to reflect contemporary developments, the book is adept at clarifying the objectives and approaches toward better precision in seismic prospecting. It provides innovative views on fundamental concepts including: perspective resolution and perspective S/N; the empirical relationship between compressional velocity (Vp) and absorption coefficient (Q); constructing basin absorption models; understanding sand layer tracking; improving dynamic and static corrections of near-surface effects as well as deconvolution; achieving maximum effective bandwidth of seismic data; and regressive seismic impedance inversion. It is an excellent reference for those involved in seismic prospecting research, data processing, and geologic interpretation, and it is recommended for workers as well as professors and graduate students.

This book introduces simultaneous source technology and helps those who practice it succeed. Although the book does not include all developments, which would have en­tailed a much longer treatise, this work is written through the lens of decades of experiences and allows readers to understand the development of independent simultaneous sourcing. The relationships between data acquisition and data processing are discussed because never before have they been so intertwined as in this area. In addition to describing the underlying technologies, this book also is a user-guide which discusses survey design and acquisition and decribes the sensitivities of the processing algorithms which can allow simultaneous source technology to succeed. The audience for this book includes acquisition and pro­cessing geophysicists who will work with these data as well as those who require only an overview of the state of the art; and, even though they may not need the full technical details, they may want to know the limitations and advantages of using simultaneous sources.

Details the properties of 3D acquisition geometries and shows how they naturally lead to the 3D symmetric sampling approach to 3D survey design. Many examples are used to illustrate choices of acquisition parameters, and the link between survey parameters and noise suppression as well as imaging is an intrinsic part of the contents.

Seismic surveys are subject to many different design criteria, but often the parameters are established based on an outdated view of how data can be acquired and how it will be processed. This book highlights what is possible using modern acquisition methods, techniques, and equipment, and how these may impact seismic survey design and acquisition.

This book presents the essential principles and applications of seismic oil-exploration techniques. It concisely covers all stages in exploration activities (data field acquisition, data processing and interpretation), supplementing the main text with a wealth of (>350) illustrations and figures. The book concentrates on the physics of the applied principles, avoiding intricate mathematical treatment and lengthy theoretical reasoning. A further prominent feature is the inclusion of a separate chapter on 3D surveying techniques and another, equally important chapter on seismic digital signals and the aliasing problem, which is presented in an accessible form. The book is designed to meet the needs of both the academic and industrial worlds. University students and employees of oil-exploration companies alike will find the book to be a valuable resource.

All rock masses are seismically anisotropic, but we generally ignore this in our seismic acquisition, processing, and interpretation. The anisotropy nonetheless does affect our data, in ways that limit the effectiveness with which we can use it, as long as we ignore it. This book, produced for use with the fifth SEG/EAGE Distinguished Instructor Short Course, helps us understand why this inconsistency between reality and practice has been so successful in the past and why it will be less successful in the future as we acquire better seismic data (especially including vector seismic data) and correspondingly higher expectations of it. This book helps us understand how we can modify our practice to more fully realize the potential inherent in our data through algorithms which recognize the fact of seismic anisotropy.