Simply put, seismic exploration is a process used by geologists and geophysicists to identify and map the various geologic formations beneath the earth’s surface. More specifically, it involves the science of seismology. Seismology refers to the study of how energy, in the form of seismic waves, moves through the earth’s crust and interacts differently with various types of underground rock formations.
Geophysicists can artificially create seismic waves by vibrating the surface of the earth with large 60,000 pound vibroseis trucks. The vibroseis trucks move along a line and will typically make 3 or more vibrating sweeps at each source point. Each source point is positioned at a common distance from each other where an orderly grid is arranged with all source points aligned in one direction and all receiver points aligned orthogonal (in most cases) to the source points.
The seismic waves created by the vibroseis trucks travel through the earth and are reflected off of the various rock formations in different directions and velocities back to the earth’s surface. Geophones, or the receivers, are placed at the surface and spread out in orderly clusters, or arrays (that may be several miles in length), and record the seismic waves that are reflected back to the surface.
This data received by the geophones are then transmitted to a seismograph recording truck for storage on field tapes. After all the data has been shot and recorded, the field tapes are shipped to a geophysical processing shop where the data can be stacked and migrated into a large volume. This volume is subsequently shipped to an oil company’s geologist/geophysicist for interpretation and identification of traps within the geologic formations where oil and gas may reside.
The seismic data can drastically reduce the risks involved with drilling oil and gas wells. Seismic attributes like “bright spot anomalies” may give an indication of the presence of hydrocarbons within the geologic formations.
For further information on this topic, a good short video can be viewed at the link below: http://www.seitel.com/about-us/what-is-seismic
Blog written by Samson’s V.P. of Exploration, David Ninke.
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