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- Volume 62, Issue 2, 2014
Geophysical Prospecting - Volume 62, Issue 2, 2014
Volume 62, Issue 2, 2014
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Application of diffracted wave analysis to time‐lapse seismic data for CO2 leakage detection
Authors Faisal Alonaizi, Roman Pevzner, Andrej Bóna, Mohammad Alshamry, Eva Caspari and Boris GurevichABSTRACTTime‐lapse seismic analysis is utilized in CO2 geosequestration to verify the CO2 containment within a reservoir. A major risk associated with geosequestration is a possible leakage of CO2 from the storage formation into overlaying formations. To mitigate this risk, the deployment of carbon capture and storage projects requires fast and reliable detection of relatively small volumes of CO2 outside the storage formation. To do this, it is necessary to predict typical seepage scenarios and improve subsurface seepage detection methods. In this work we present a technique for CO2 monitoring based on the detection of diffracted waves in time‐lapse seismic data. In the case of CO2 seepage, the migrating plume might form small secondary accumulations that would produce diffracted, rather than reflected waves. From time‐lapse data analysis, we are able to separate the diffracted waves from the predominant reflections in order to image the small CO2 plumes. To explore possibilities to detect relatively small amounts of CO2, we performed synthetic time‐lapse seismic modelling based on the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) Otway project data. The detection method is based on defining the CO2 location by measuring the coherency of the signal along diffraction offset‐traveltime curves. The technique is applied to a time‐lapse stacked section using a stacking velocity to construct offset‐traveltime curves. Given the amount of noise found in the surface seismic data, the predicted minimum detectable amount of CO2 is 1000–2000 tonnes. This method was also applied to real data obtained from a time‐lapse seismic physical model. The use of diffractions rather than reflections for monitoring small amounts of CO2 can enhance the capability of subsurface monitoring in CO2 geosequestration projects.
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A genetic algorithm for filter design to enhance features in seismic images
ABSTRACTWe present a novel method to enhance seismic data for manual and automatic interpretation. We use a genetic algorithm to optimize a kernel that, when convolved with the seismic image, appears to enhance the internal characteristics of salt bodies and the sub‐salt stratigraphy. The performance of the genetic algorithm was validated by the use of test images prior to its application on the seismic data. We present the evolution of the resulting kernel and its convolved image. This image was analysed by a seismic interpreter, highlighting possible advantages over the original one. The effects of the kernel were also subject to an automatic interpretation technique based on principal component analysis. Statistical comparison of these results with those from the original image, by means of the Mann‐Whitney U‐test, proved the convolved image to be more appropriate for automatic interpretation.
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Retrieval of local surface wave velocities from traffic noise – an example from the La Barge basin (Wyoming)
Authors M. Behm, Garrett M. Leahy and R. SniederABSTRACTIn regions where active source seismic exploration is constrained by limitations of energy penetration and recovery, cost and logistical concerns, or regulatory restrictions, analysis of natural source seismic data may provide an alternative. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of using locally‐generated seismic noise in the 2–6 Hz band to obtain a subsurface model via interferometric analysis. We apply this technique to three‐component data recorded during the La Barge Passive Seismic Experiment, a local deployment in south‐western Wyoming that recorded continuous seismic data between November 2008 and June 2009. We find traffic noise from a nearby state road to be the dominant source of surface waves recorded on the array and observe surface wave arrivals associated with this source up to distances of 5 kms. The orientation of the road with respect to the deployment ensures a large number of stationary points, leading to clear observations on both in‐line and cross‐line virtual source‐receiver pairs. This results in a large number of usable interferograms, which in turn enables the application of standard active source processing methods like signal processing, common offset stacking and traveltime inversion. We investigate the dependency of the interferograms on the amount of data, on a range of processing parameters and on the choice of the interferometry algorithm. The obtained interferograms exhibit a high signal‐to‐noise ratio on all three components. Rotation of the horizontal components to the radial/transverse direction facilitates the separation of Rayleigh and Love waves. Though the narrow frequency spectrum of the surface waves prevents the inversion for depth‐dependent shear‐wave velocities, we are able to map the arrival times of the surface waves to laterally varying group and phase velocities for both Rayleigh and Love waves. Our results correlate well with the known geological structure. We outline a scheme for obtaining localized surface wave velocities from local noise sources and show how the processing of passive data benefits from a combination with well‐established exploration seismology methods. We highlight the differences with interferometry applied to crustal scale data and conclude with recommendations for similar deployments.
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Spectral decomposition and de‐noising via time‐frequency and space‐wavenumber reassignment
Authors Li Han, Mauricio D. Sacchi and Liguo HanABSTRACTThe reassignment method remaps the energy of each point in a time‐frequency spectrum to a new coordinate that is closer to the actual time‐frequency location. Two applications of the reassignment method are developed in this paper. We first describe time‐frequency reassignment as a tool for spectral decomposition. The reassignment method helps to generate more clear frequency slices of layers and therefore, it facilitates the interpretation of thin layers. The second application is to seismic data de‐noising. Through thresholding in the reassigned domain rather than in the Gabor domain, random noise is more easily attenuated since seismic events are more compactly represented with a relatively larger energy than the noise. A reconstruction process that permits the recovery of seismic data from a reassigned time‐frequency spectrum is developed. Two approaches of the reassignment method are used in this paper, one of which is referred to as the trace by trace time reassignment that is mainly used for seismic spectral decomposition and another that is the spatial reassignment that is mainly used for seismic de‐noising. Synthetic examples and two field data examples are used to test the proposed method. For comparison, the Gabor transform method, inversion‐based method and common deconvolution method are also used in the examples.
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A 27‐point scheme for a 3D frequency‐domain scalar wave equation based on an average‐derivative method
By Jing‐Bo ChenABSTRACTBased on an average‐derivative method and optimization techniques, a 27‐point scheme for a 3D frequency‐domain scalar wave equation is developed. Compared to the rotated‐coordinate approach, the average‐derivative optimal method is not only concise but also applies to equal and unequal directional sampling intervals. The resulting 27‐point scheme uses a 27‐point operator to approximate spatial derivatives and the mass acceleration term. The coefficients are determined by minimizing phase velocity dispersion errors and the resultant optimal coefficients depend on ratios of directional sampling intervals. Compared to the classical 7‐point scheme, the number of grid points per shortest wavelength is reduced from approximately 13 to approximately 4 by this 27‐point optimal scheme for equal directional sampling intervals and unequal directional sampling intervals as well. Two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the theoretical analysis. The average‐derivative algorithm is also extended to a 3D frequency‐domain viscous scalar wave equation.
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3D simultaneous joint PP‐PS prestack seismic inversion at Schiehallion field, United Kingdom Continental Shelf
Authors Anne‐Sophie Barnola and Mark IbramABSTRACTA workflow for simultaneous joint PP‐PS prestack inversion of data from the Schiehallion field on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf is presented and discussed. The main challenge, describing reasonable PS to PP data registration before any prestack or joint PP‐PS inversion, was overcome thanks to a two‐stage process addressing the signal envelope, then working directly on the seismic data to estimate appropriate time‐variant time‐shift volumes. We evaluated the benefits of including PS along with PP prestack seismic data in a joint inversion process to improve the estimated elastic property quality and also to enable estimation of density compared with other prestack and post‐stack inversion approaches. While the estimated acoustic impedance exhibited a similar quality independent of the inversion used (PP post‐stack, PP prestack or joint PP‐PS prestack inversion) the shear impedance estimation was noticeably improved by the joint PP‐PS prestack inversion when compared to the PP prestack inversion. Finally, the density estimated from joint PP and PS prestack data demonstrated an overall good quality, even where not well‐controlled. The main outcome of this study was that despite several data‐related limitations, inverting jointly correctly processed PP and PS data sets brought extra value for reservoir delineation as opposed to PP‐only or post‐stack inversion.
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Anisotropic permeability in fractured reservoirs from frequency‐dependent seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data
Authors Aamir Ali and Morten JakobsenABSTRACTAttempts have previously been made to predict anisotropic permeability in fractured reservoirs from seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data on the basis of a consistent permeability‐stiffness model and the anisotropic Gassmann relations of Brown and Korringa. However, these attempts were not very successful, mainly because the effective stiffness tensor of a fractured porous medium under saturated (drained) conditions is much less sensitive to the aperture of the fractures than the corresponding permeability tensor. We here show that one can obtain information about the fracture aperture as well as the fracture density and orientation (which determines the effective permeability) from frequency‐dependent seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data. Our workflow is based on a unified stiffness‐permeability model, which takes into account seismic attenuation by wave‐induced fluid flow. Synthetic seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data are generated by using a combination of a dynamic effective medium theory with Rüger's approximations for PP reflection coefficients in Horizontally Transversely Isotropic media. A Monte Carlo method is used to perform a Bayesian inversion of these synthetic seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data with respect to the parameters of the fractures. An effective permeability model is then used to construct the corresponding probability density functions for the different components of the effective permeability constants. The results suggest that an improved characterization of fractured reservoirs can indeed be obtained from frequency‐dependent seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data, provided that a dynamic effective medium model is used in the inversion process and a priori information about the fracture length is available.
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Borehole study of compressional and shear attenuation of basalt flows penetrated by the Brugdan and William wells on the Faroes shelf
Authors J. Schuler, P.A.F. Christie and R.S. WhiteABSTRACTWe investigated the seismic attenuation of compressional (P‐) and converted shear (S‐) waves through stacked basalt flows using short‐offset vertical seismic profile (VSP) recordings from the Brugdan (6104/21–1) and William (6005/13–1A) wells in the Faroe‐Shetland Trough. The seismic quality factors (Q) were evaluated with the classical spectral ratio method and a root‐mean‐square time‐domain amplitude technique. We found the latter method showed more robust results when analysing signals within the basalt sequence. For the Brugdan well we calculated effective Q estimates of 22–26 and 13–17 for P‐ and S‐waves, respectively, and 25–33 for P‐waves in the William well. An effective QS/QP ratio of 0.50–0.77 was found from a depth interval in the basalt flow sequence where we expect fully saturated rocks. P‐wave quality factor estimates are consistent with results from other VSP experiments in the North Atlantic Margin, while the S‐wave quality factor is one of the first estimates from a stacked basalt formation using VSP data. Synthetic modelling demonstrates that seismic attenuation for P‐ and S‐waves in the stacked basalt flow sequence is mainly caused by one‐dimensional scattering, while intrinsic absorption is small.
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Multiridge Euler deconvolution
Authors Giovanni Florio and Maurizio FediABSTRACTPotential field interpretation can be carried out using multiscale methods. This class of methods analyses a multiscale data set, which is built by upward continuation of the original data to a number of altitudes conveniently chosen. Euler deconvolution can be cast into this multiscale environment by analysing data along ridges of potential fields, e.g., at those points along lines across scales where the field or its horizontal or vertical derivative respectively is zero. Previous work has shown that Euler equations are notably simplified along any of these ridges. Since a given anomaly may generate one or more ridges we describe in this paper how Euler deconvolution may be used to jointly invert data along all of them, so performing a multiridge Euler deconvolution. The method enjoys the stable and high‐resolution properties of multiscale methods, due to the composite upward continuation/vertical differentiation filter used. Such a physically‐based field transformation can have a positive effect on reducing both high‐wavenumber noise and interference or regional field effects. Multiridge Euler deconvolution can also be applied to the modulus of an analytic signal, gravity/magnetic gradient tensor components or Hilbert transform components. The advantages of using multiridge Euler deconvolution compared to single ridge Euler deconvolution include improved solution clustering, increased number of solutions, improvement of accuracy of the results obtainable from some types of ridges and greater ease in the selection of ridges to invert. The multiscale approach is particularly well suited to deal with non‐ideal sources. In these cases, our strategy is to find the optimal combination of upward continuation altitude range and data differentiation order, such that the field could be sensed as approximately homogeneous and then characterized by a structural index close to an integer value. This allows us to estimate depths related to the top or the centre of the structure.
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Aeromagnetic surveying using a simulated unmanned aircraft system
Authors Raymond M. Caron, Claire Samson, Paul Straznicky, Stephen Ferguson and Luise SanderABSTRACTCarleton University and Sander Geophysics are developing an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for aeromagnetic surveying. As an early indication of the expected performance of the unmanned aircraft system, a simulated unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) was built. The simulated unmanned aircraft system is a T‐shaped structure configured as a horizontal gradiometer with two cesium magnetometers spaced 4.67 m apart, which is the same sensor geometry as planned for the unmanned aircraft system. The simulated unmanned aircraft system is flown suspended beneath a helicopter.
An 8.5 km2 area in the Central Metasedimentary Belt of the Grenville Province, near Plevna, Ontario, Canada, was surveyed with the simulated unmanned aircraft system suspended 50 m above ground. The survey site was chosen on the basis of its complex geological structure. The total magnetic intensity (TMI) data recorded were compared to that obtained during a conventional fixed‐wing survey and a ground survey. Transverse magneto‐gradiometric data were also recorded by the simulated unmanned aircraft system.
The simulated unmanned aircraft system total magnetic intensity data have a higher resolution than the conventional fixed‐wing data and were found to have a similar resolution to that of the ground survey data. The advantages of surveying with the simulated unmanned aircraft system were: (1) the acquisition of a detailed data set free of gaps in coverage at a low altitude above the terrain and (2) substantial saving of time and effort.
In the survey site, the 4.67 m simulated unmanned aircraft system gradiometer measured the transverse magnetic gradient reliably up to an altitude of 150 m above ground.
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Joint parameter estimation from magnetic resonance and vertical electric soundings using a multi‐objective genetic algorithm
Authors İrfan Akca, Thomas Günther, Mike Müller‐Petke, Ahmet T. Başokur and Ugur YaramanciABSTRACTMagnetic resonance sounding (MRS) has increasingly become an important method in hydrogeophysics because it allows for estimations of essential hydraulic properties such as porosity and hydraulic conductivity. A resistivity model is required for magnetic resonance sounding modelling and inversion. Therefore, joint interpretation or inversion is favourable to reduce the ambiguities that arise in separate magnetic resonance sounding and vertical electrical sounding (VES) inversions. A new method is suggested for the joint inversion of magnetic resonance sounding and vertical electrical sounding data. A one‐dimensional blocky model with varying layer thicknesses is used for the subsurface discretization. Instead of conventional derivative‐based inversion schemes that are strongly dependent on initial models, a global multi‐objective optimization scheme (a genetic algorithm [GA] in this case) is preferred to examine a set of possible solutions in a predefined search space. Multi‐objective joint optimization avoids the domination of one objective over the other without applying a weighting scheme. The outcome is a group of non‐dominated optimal solutions referred to as the Pareto‐optimal set. Tests conducted using synthetic data show that the multi‐objective joint optimization approximates the joint model parameters within the experimental error level and illustrates the range of trade‐off solutions, which is useful for understanding the consistency and conflicts between two models and objectives. Overall, the Levenberg‐Marquardt inversion of field data measured during a survey on a North Sea island presents similar solutions. However, the multi‐objective genetic algorithm method presents an efficient method for exploring the search space by producing a set of non‐dominated solutions. Borehole data were used to provide a verification of the inversion outcomes and indicate that the suggested genetic algorithm method is complementary for derivative‐based inversions.
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Transient process and optimal design of receiver coil for small‐loop transient electromagnetics
Authors Cigong Yu, Zhihong Fu, Huaiqing Zhang, Heng‐Ming Tai and Xuegui ZhuABSTRACTDistributed parameters of the receiver coils greatly affect transient electromagnetic signals over short time periods, causing a delay in the signal's effective sampling time and the loss of shallow exploration information. This paper investigates the influence of transient process on apparent resistivity calculation and analyses the relations between the error of apparent resistivity and receiver coil design. We find that, under the same effective area, different radii of the receiver coils lead to different levels of impact on the estimation of the apparent resistivity. An optimization model is proposed to determine the optimal receiver coil size that gives rise to the smallest estimation error of the apparent resistivity. The relationship between the optimal radius and the effective areas is developed, which serves as a guideline for the optimal receiver coil design. The results may provide a useful means for improving the accuracy of the small loop transient electromagnetic instrumentation for shallow‐depth mapping.
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Modelling of magnetic data for scaling geology
Authors A.R. Bansal and V.P. DimriABSTRACTInterpretation of magnetic data can be carried out either in the space or frequency domain. The interpretation in the frequency domain is computationally convenient because convolution becomes multiplication. The frequency domain approach assumes that the magnetic sources distribution has a random and uncorrelated distribution. This approach is modified to include random and fractal distribution of sources on the basis of borehole data. The physical properties of the rocks exhibit scaling behaviour which can be defined as P(k) = Ak−β, where P(k) is the power spectrum as a function of wave number (k), and A and β are the constant and scaling exponent, respectively. A white noise distribution corresponds to β = 0. The high resolution methods of power spectral estimation e.g. maximum entropy method and multi‐taper method produce smooth spectra. Therefore, estimation of scaling exponents is more reliable. The values of β are found to be related to the lithology and heterogeneities in the crust. The modelling of magnetic data for scaling distribution of sources leads to an improved method of interpreting the magnetic data known as the scaling spectral method. The method has found applicability in estimating the basement depth, Curie depth and filtering of magnetic data.
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Research Note: Full‐waveform inversion of the unwrapped phase of a model
More LessABSTRACTReflections in seismic data induce serious non‐linearity in the objective function of full‐ waveform inversion. Thus, without a good initial velocity model that can produce reflections within a half cycle of the frequency used in the inversion, convergence to a solution becomes difficult. As a result, we tend to invert for refracted events and damp reflections in data. Reflection induced non‐linearity stems from cycle skipping between the imprint of the true model in observed data and the predicted model in synthesized data. Inverting for the phase of the model allows us to address this problem by avoiding the source of non‐linearity, the phase wrapping phenomena. Most of the information related to the location (or depths) of interfaces is embedded in the phase component of a model, mainly influenced by the background model, while the velocity‐contrast information (responsible for the reflection energy) is mainly embedded in the amplitude component. In combination with unwrapping the phase of data, which mitigates the non‐linearity introduced by the source function, I develop a framework to invert for the unwrapped phase of a model, represented by the instantaneous depth, using the unwrapped phase of the data. The resulting gradient function provides a mechanism to non‐linearly update the velocity model by applying mainly phase shifts to the model. In using the instantaneous depth as a model parameter, we keep track of the model properties unfazed by the wrapping phenomena.
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Research Note: Transverse isotropy estimation from dipole sonic logs acquired in pilot and production wells
Authors S.A. Horne and J.J. WalshABSTRACTDipole sonic logs acquired in near‐vertical pilot wells and over the build section of nearby horizontal production wells are inverted to determine the five elastic constants characterizing a transversely isotropic formation, under the assumption of lateral homogeneity. Slowness values from a single depth in the vertical well are combined with data from the corresponding depth in the deviated well; these data are then inverted using nonlinear optimization to derive the five elastic constants. The technique is demonstrated on data from the Haynesville Shale in Texas. Estimates of the anisotropy are in line with a priori expectations; the Thomsen ε and γ parameters are well correlated and generally possess positive anellipticity, with Thomsen's ε greater than Thomsen's δ.
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