Seismic data interpretation

Common error & Solutions

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra, Geophysicist

 Seismic waves: Types and their Character

Seismic waves can be classified in to two classes:

Body waves & surface waves
 Body waves which propagate through the rock matrix and further can be subdivided in to two classes as P wave & S wave) as per
their particle motion in the rock matrix during its propagation.
 Surface waves which travel along the surface of the medium.
 Velocities of P- and S-waves (Vp and Vs) are determined by several aspects of a material called elastic constants (or moduli).
 Velocities of surface waves are governed mainly by the shear modulus of materials. S waves are transverse waves which involve
movement of the ground perpendicular to the velocity of propagation. They travel only through solids, and the absence of
2 detected S waves at large distances from earthquakes was the first indication that the Earth has a liquid core. S waves travel
typically 60% of the speed of P waves. They are typically more damaging than the P waves because they are several times higher
in amplitude.
 The waves which move the surface up and down are called Rayleigh waves and are sometimes described as "ground roll". Waves
whose amplitude of motion is parallel to the surface are called Love waves. Rayleigh waves travel at roughly 90% of the speed of
the S waves.
 Love waves involve the motion of the ground side-to-side, perpendicular to the propagation velocity. They usually travel slightly
faster than the Rayleigh waves.
 Love waves cannot exist in a uniform solid, and can only occur when there is a general increase of S- wave velocity with depth.
By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,
Geophysicist
 Physical laws that governs the seismic velocities:

Body waves are reflected and transmitted at interfaces where seismic velocity and/or
density change, and they obey Snell's law.

The velocities of P- and S-waves are given below in terms of the density (ρ) and elastic coefficients of a
material:

Vp = √((K+4/3G)/ρ)

Here K (bulk mod.) & G (Mod. of Rigidity) both are always positive,
Therefore Vp > Vs

Vs =√(G/ρ) By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
 Characteristic of seismic waves:

Body waves are reflected and transmitted at

interfaces where seismic velocity and/or density
change, and they obey Snell's law.

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
 Regional effect on velocity & density function
Acoustic waves ( P wave & S wave) in subsurface are affected by
density of rock matrix in following ways:

Where ρ: density of rock

There are a few more general rules to the velocity ranges of common materials: Vp: P wave velocity
5 Vs: Shear wave velocity
o Unsaturated sediments have lower values than saturated sediments.
μ: lame constant
o Unconsolidated sediments have lower values than consolidated sediments.

o Velocities are very similar in saturated, unconsolidated sediments.

o Weathered rocks have lower values than similar rocks that are unweathered.

o Fractured rocks have lower values than similar rocks that are unfractured.

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
 Regional velocity & density function in the subsurface

6
Vp = √((K+4/3G)/ρ)
K & G are correlated with density ρ in such a way that elastic wave velocity increases
with depth in subsurface. How ever when brine replaces gas in a rock , the density
increases without any increase in shear modulus, and shear velocity drops. Thus when
other factors are similar, velocity varies inversely with density.

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
 Common mistakes during seismic data analysis
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seismic sections that resemble geologic cross-sections, geologists and geophysicists not experienced in seismic
interpretation are often greatly tempted to read geology more or less directly from the seismic section. In this
process they ignore few crucial things , like
in complex geological setup rapid changes in lithology or velocity, or irregular surface or near-surface conditions,
serious errors may result from the literal interpretation of seismic sections.

1. Pitfalls associated with velocity occur because seismic data are presented in travel time rather than depth.

2. Pitfalls associated with geometry occur because reflections from a three-dimensional space are plotted in a
two-dimensional section.

3. Pitfalls associated with recording and processing occur because all recorded events are not of geologic origin,
and improper processing can mask geology.

Courtesy: https://doi.org/10.1190/1.9781560802365.ch1

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
1.Common pit falls in interpretations due to velocity: Low velocity channel
fill sediments

Pay sand

Here in this seismic section first well A was hydrocarbon producer

8 from the pay sand. Two developments wells B & C, which appears to
be structurally up at pay level with respect to oil producer well A,
were drilled but after drilling they were found structurally down with
As the seismic wave passes through the fast layer like salt dome, respect to well A and both are water bearing. This is only due to low
volcanic intrusion, sills or dike incased between low velocity velocity anomaly caused by channel fill sediments just above the pay
level at well-A.
sediments we find pull up underneath it.

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
1.Common pit falls in interpretations due to velocity:

Due to the lateral changes in velocity as we pass across a fault plane we

will have distortion in the gathers causing mis-stacking and distortion of
the reflectors, creating a shadow area around the fault.
9
a geological model of a normal fault and its seismic response are
illustrated. Theoretically, due to the downward relative movement of the
hangingwall, intervals with quite different interval-velocities are
juxtaposed, which has important consequences on the seismic response.
The footwall reflectors below the fault plane (area of a lateral velocity
changing) will be pulled down, since, at same level, the velocity interval
in the hanging wall is smaller.
By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,
Geophysicist
1.Common pit falls in interpretations due to velocity:

10 The geological model of a reverse fault and its likely seismic response is
depicted. As illustrated, the reflectors of the footwall are pulled-up due to
On this seismic line from offshore Angola, the pull-down of the yellow a lateral change of the interval-velocities.
marker (bottom of the evaporitic interval) is induced by the lateral
change of the interval-velocity created by the normal fault which limits a
Upper Tertiary depocenter. Indeed, such a fault put limestones
(upthrown block) and shales (downthrown block in juxtaposition.

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
1.Common pit falls in interpretations due to velocity:

11 This seismic line from onshore France illustrates a seismic artifact

associated with a thrust fault, that is to say, an apparent anticline
The seismic response of a mathematical model of a reverse fault, in structure under the reverse fault plane. In spite of the evidence of the
which the sediments of the hangingwall are denser than those of the seismic pull-up, “explorationists” drilled a wildcat on such an artifact
footwall, corroborates the hypothesis that the reflectors below the fault thinking that they were testing a large under-thrust structural trap.
plane are pulled-up creating the common illusion of an anticline Actually, in certain basins, as we will see later, there are prolific
structure petroleum traps under reverse and thrust faults, hence explorationists
must always test their interpretations by time-depth conversions.

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
1.Common pit falls in interpretations due to velocity:

12 This seismic line through Cuisiana #2A (discovery well), in the

Colombia foothills, was drilled by an international consortium
Note all time-depth conversions corroborate anticline structures below the thrust composed of BP, Total and Triton, in order to test the anticline
faults. In this particular example, coming, as the previous line, from the Colombia structure under upper thrust-faults. However, before drilling, several
foothills, a nice antiform structure (that is to say a potential structural trap) is time-depth conversions corroborated the hypothesis advanced by
recognized on the pre-stack section. The same potential structure is also certain explorationists that the sub-thrust antiform was a real
recognized on the pre-stack migrated version, just under the fault plane, which compressional structure and not a seismic artifact induced by the
should make the interpretation questionable. Finally, the pre-stack migrated hanging wall.
depth versions strongly falsify the hypothesis of a sub-thrust structure. Actually,
the sub-thrust sediments are undeformed and not shortened. By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,
Geophysicist
1.Common pit falls in interpretations due to velocity:

13 On this reef geological model, above a planar limestone sole

Notice that in the geological model the compressional wave
velocity, in the blue interval (limestone with a local reefal
(light blue), a reef with a compressional wave velocity of 5490 development) changes significantly. It is much higher (around
m/s, is laterally bounded by shaly sediments (yellow) with a 5500 m/s) in the reef than in the surrounding sediments. Such a
much lower velocity (3660 m/s), which are overlain by even reef is supposed to be tight. The seismic response of such a
slower sediments (brown interval, 3050 m/s). The seismic model, on the right part of the figure shows that not only the
answer of such a model is roughly depicted on the right. The bottom of the reef, but all others markers below are pulled-up.
horizon associated with the bottom of the reef shows a
significant pull-up.
By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,
Geophysicist
2. Pitfalls associated with geometry occur:

14
The lens effects caused by some rock layers such as salt which focuses
some raypaths and diffuses others. This is why with subsalt we may have
(A) with flat lying events the CMP is midway between the shot and the only small incident angles and it can be difficult to do subsalt AVO.
receiver. (B) if the reflector is dipping the CMP does not lie half way
between the shot and receiver, but is smeared across the dipping
reflector. This causes the velocities between flat lying events and dipping
events to be different (taken from Liner, 2002).

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
2. Pitfalls associated with geometry occur:

15 One of the classical pitfalls of seismic data with is what is called

“bow-tie” features, because they look like “bow-ties”. Before we
On the left are the seismic events before migration with the diffractions. collapse the “bow-tie” it appears at first that it will be two
The termination of the seismic reflectors creates a point source and anticlines but in fact it becomes a syncline.
diffractions come off of it. After the migration the diffractions are
collapsed and the fault is apparent.

By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,

Geophysicist
3. Pitfalls associated with recording and processing occur :

Shallow level data gap

Poor imaging below the

sub basaltic layer

Poor migration of data

due to insufficient
offset spread during
recording
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1. The data gap during seismic data acquisition produces some artifacts like vertical strip or vertical fault as can be seen in first seismic
section.
2. In case of basaltic exposure on the surface, imaging below sub-basalt requires deep attention during processing. This may produce
highly fictious images.
3. In the case of complex geology seismic designing prior to data acquisition is also very crucial. In case of insufficient offset and azimuth
seismic data may present very unrealistic subsurface image.
By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,
Geophysicist
 3. Pitfalls associated with recording and processing occur :

Basalt on Surface

Poor imaging due

to insufficient
Vertical fault like offset, poor
feature due to data
gap at shallow level. azimuth and less
effective energy
source

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1. The data gap during seismic data acquisition produces some artifacts like vertical strip or vertical fault as can be seen in first seismic
section.
2. In case of basaltic exposure on the surface, imaging below sub-basalt requires deep attention during processing. This may produce
highly fictious images.
3. In the case of complex geology seismic designing prior to data acquisition is also very crucial. In case of insufficient offset and azimuth
seismic data may present very unrealistic subsurface image.
By: Sharad Kumar Mishra,
Geophysicist