Making seismic data come alive

Seismic reflection data foster geological intuition when they resemble geology. With a simple workflow based on modern seismic attributes and tools for interpretive processing and display, it is straightforward to display seismic data to look more like geology. This workflow combines structural and stratigraphic attributes through volume blending with illumination. Illumination imparts a 3D texture to the display, enhancing structural elements in the data. Two important structural attributes are relative amplitude change and seismic shaded relief; they look illuminated naturally. Shaded relief is especially useful as it makes time slices look like apparent topography and vertical sections look like canyon walls, thereby revealing faults, anticlines, diapirs, channels, and other features.