ESS 467  Seismic Exploration

 

This course is designed to introduce Earth Science students to seismic reflection data collection, processing and interpretation.  Seismic reflection methods are widely used in the petroleum industry, in ground water and other environmental investigations, and in geology and oceanographic research.  The emphasis will be on the practical rather than theoretical aspects of data acquisition, processing and interpretation.  Topics will include basic principles (seismic waves, source wavelets, reflectivity, rock properties), the primary data processing steps (filtering, deconvolution, time-depth conversion, normal moveout, stacking, f-k filtering, migration), and both lithologic and structural interpretation methods (sonic well logs, amplitude-variation-with-offset, inversions, fault-bend folding, fault propagation folding, modeling).  At the end of the course, students will be familiar with how seismic reflection profiles are produced, how to interpret seismic reflection data, and common errors in seismic processing and interpretation. 

 

3 lectures and 1 lab per week. 

 

Instructors:

Thomas Pratt (tpratt@ocean.washington.edu)

David Muerdter (davem@emeraldgrc.com)

 

Prerequisites:  ESS 211; Physics 123; Math 126, 136, or 307; or permission of instructor

 

Course Outline

Week   Lectures                                                                   Lab

1.               Basic principles, waves, data acquisition                     Field acquisition of seismic data

2.               Rock properties, well data & synthetics                      Sonic logs, 1-D seismic modeling

3.               Digital signal processing,  wavelets, reflectivity            Introduction to seismic processing

4.               Amplitude, filtering, deconvolution                              Filtering and deconvolution

5.               Normal moveout, f-k filtering, stacking                       Creating a stacked section

6.               Interpretation, structural analysis, faults                       2-D seismic interpretation on paper

7.               Migration, 3-D imaging, time vs. depth                       Migrating data

8.               Seismic stratigraphy, amplitude, AVO                        Computer 3-D seismic interpretation

9.               Interpretive processing, seismic inversion                    Computer 3-D seismic interpretation

10.           Seismic attributes & modeling, fault propagation         Interpreting structures and faults