1887

Abstract

Summary

Until recently in offshore engineering projects, geophysical data has mostly been used to define interfaces between geological units to correlate with geological and geotechnical data; with the intervening acoustic character only typically used in a qualitative sense. Seismic inversion provides an opportunity to make use of valuable information between mappable seismic reflections, such as frequency content. Here we provide an end-user's view of how we think seismic inversion can be useful (in geohazards assessment and in geotechnical engineering), some of the potential shortcomings and prioritised areas for development, and outline the need to involve back seat drivers (geologists and geotechnical engineers) on a journey that is currently steered largely by geophysicists. It is crucial that end-users are engaged during the development of seismic inversion models, provide steer on the selection of parameters to be predicted (and on the acceptable levels of uncertainty), provide input to in any model training and conditioning, in order that they can feel confident in the end outputs. If this can be achieved, and uncertainties can be effectively communicated and quantified, then there is a promising future for seismic inversion as part of the broader toolbox available for offshore geotechnical engineering and geohazards assessment.

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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201901924
2019-06-03
2024-04-26
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