Thinly-Bedded Near-Surface Dolomitic Limestones and Their Seismic Imaging Implications

This study explores the relatively unidentified role of near-surface dolomitic strata as wavefield complexity and multiple generators for the subsurface seismic reflection images. A Late Jurassic Arabian dolomitic limestone outcrop and a Paleocene to Miocene dolomitic limestones-clastic strata encountered in a near-surface well are investigated. The result shows that the collective arrangement of near-surface dolomitic strata with other lithologies acts as “screening” layers that generate reverberation, preventing primary energy from properly propagating down to the deeper reflectors. Failure to address them degrades the migrated image quality or might lead to a completely inaccurate subsurface image.