INTRODUCTION

Seismic reflection profiling is an echo sounding technique. A controlled sound pulse

is issued into the Earth and the recording system listens a fixed time for energy
reflected back from interfaces within the Earth. The interface is often a geological
boundary, for example the change of sandstone to limestone. Once the travel-time to
the reflectors and the velocity of propagation is known, the geometry of the reflecting
interfaces can be reconstructed and interpreted in terms of geological structure in
depth. The principal purpose of seismic surveying is to help understand geological
structure and stratigraphy at depth and in the oil industry is ultimately used to reduce
the risk of drilling dry wells. The method is certainly not exact - many subjective
decisions are made during the course of acquisition, processing and interpretation of a
seismic survey. Experience and judgement are critical to success and often an iterative
approach is taken to improve the results over time as new information becomes
available e.g. new well locations.

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WHAT IS A REFLECTION ?

The following figure shows a simple earth model and resulting seismic section used to
illustrate the basic concepts of the method.
 The
terms source,

receiver and reflecting interface are introduced. Sound energy travels through
different media (rocks) at different velocities and is reflected at interfaces where the
media velocity and/or density changes. The amplitude and polarity of the reflection is
proportional to the acoustic impedance (product of velocity and density) change
across an interface. The arrival of energy at the receiver is termed a seismic event. A
seismic trace records the events and is conventionally plotted below the receiver with
the time (or depth axis) pointing down the page. Click here to see a movie illustrating
wave propagation. The colour background is the velocity field.

Only the two-way seismic travel time is measured, whereas the reflector structure is
in depth. Depth is the product of the one-way travel time and velocity, so seismic
velocity is required to determine the depth structure of the interface. As the velocity is
largely unknown, this represents a major ambiguity in the method. Velocity
interpretation is the key to solving many complex subsurface problems.

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WAVE PROPAGATION

For small deformations rocks are elastic, that is they return to their original shape
once a small stress applied to deform them is removed. Seismic waves are elastic
waves and are the "disturbances" which propagate through the rocks. The most
commonly used form of seismic wave is the P(primary)-wave which travels as a
series of compressions and rarefractions through the earth the particle motion being in
the direction of wave travel. The propagation of P-waves can be represented as a
series of wavefronts (lines of equal phase) which describe circles for a point source in
a homogeneous media (similar to when a stone is dropped vertically onto a calm water
surface). As the wavefront expands the energy is spread over a wider area and the
amplitude decays with distance from the source. This decay is called spherical or
geometric divergence and is usually compensated for in seismic processing. Rays are
normal to the wavefronts and diagrammatically indicate the direction of wave
propagation. Usually the shortest ray-path is the direction of interest and is chosen for
clarity. Secondary or S-waves travel at up to 70% of the velocity of P-waves and do
not travel through fluids. The particle motion for an S-wave is perpendicular to it's
direction of propagation (shear stresses are introduced) and the motion is usually
resolved into a horizontal component (SH waves) and a vertical component (SV
waves). Further types of surface seismic waves (e.g. Rayleigh, Love waves) exist but
are not important for seismic exploration except sometimes as sources of noise.

Huygen's principal is illustrated in the

adjacent figure. The principal states that
each point on a wavefront acts as a new
secondary source to form the next
wavefront. The figure shows just five
secondary sources. More would interfere
constructively to form the wavefront shown
in bold.

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REFLECTION STRENGTHS

The following table illustrates reflection strengths for various typical interfaces
encountered assuming normal incidence (the ray intersects the interface at right
angles). This is a good approximation if the source to receiver distance is much
smaller than the depth of the interface. The acoustic impedance for each interface (Z1
and Z2) is calculated by multiplying velocity and density. The reflection strength is
defined by the reflection coefficient which is computed from R=(Z2-Z1)/(Z2+Z1).
The table has been adapted from Sheriff and Geldart, Exploration Seismology Volume
1. Velocities are given in km/s and density values in g/cm3. A negative reflection
coefficient indicates a 180o phase reversal upon reflection.

Interface V1 D1 V2 D2 Z1/Z2 R Comments

Sandstone on 2.0 2.4 3.0 2.4 0.67 0.2 Hard interface.

Limestone

Limestone on 3.0 2.4 2.0 2.4 1.5 -0.2

Sandstone

Shallow Interface 2.1 2.4 2.3 2.4 0.93 0.045 Typical reflection.

Deeper Interface 4.3 2.4 4.5 2.4 0.97 0.022

Soft water 1.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.5 0.33

bottom

Hard water 1.5 1.0 3.0 2.5 0.2 0.67 Hardest interface.
bottom

Water surface 1.5 1.0 0.36 0.0012 3800 -0.9994 Almost perfect
reflection.

Shale over water 2.4 2.3 2.5 2.3 0.96 0.02

sand

Shale over gas 2.4 2.3 2.2 1.8 1.39 -0.16 Polarity reversal.
sand

Gas sand over 2.2 1.8 2.5 2.3 0.69 0.18

water sand
In marine data acquisition the water-seabed interface is usually the strongest in the
section and a large portion of the seismic energy can be trapped in the water layer
bouncing back and forward. These multiple reflections strongly affect the quality of
marine seismic data, particularly that acquired in higher latitudes where the seabed
tends to be harder.

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ATTENUATION

At each interface
the amount of
energy reflected is
proportional to the
acoustic impedance
contrast at the
interface. The
energy of the
original pulse
therefore decays by
divergence and also
with each reflection
as each input pulse
is continuously
reflected by
changes in impedance as it passes through the earth. The pulse also will change shape
as it travels through the earth due to the mechanisms of absorption, scattering and
dispersion because the higher frequencies are attenuated more rapidly. For example a
typical modern seismic source will input frequencies between 5-100Hz but a typical
reflection from a Jurassic target may be dominated by 30Hz signal. Several processing
routines will be used to attempt to compensate for attenuation of the wavefield as it
passes through the Earth. The previous figure compares a typical input sleeve airgun
source array pulse (a) and that recorded from a target reflection (b). Amplitudes have
been normalised for display purposes. High frequencies have been lost through the
various processes of attenuation. Further discussion on the time and frequency
domain is included later in the text.

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SNELL'S LAWS
 The adjacent figure
illustrates what
happens when a P-
wave is incident at
an angle upon an
impedance
contrast. Part of
the energy is
reflected back
towards the surface
(this is the most
interesting part),
part of the energy
is refracted and
transmitted
through the
interface (also
useful), and some of the energy is mode converted into S-waves. Snell's law states that
the angle of incidence () is equal to the angle of reflection and that the angle of
refraction ( ) is determined by the velocity contrast at the interface and can be
calculated from the formula shown. The Zoeppritz equations give the amplitudes of
the phases for a given angle of incident wave when the velocity and densities either
side of the interface are known. Such information is used in amplitude-versus-
offsetanalysis.

At most

interfaces the majority of energy is transmitted through the interface. At a particular

angle of incidence (c) called the critical angle, =90othere is no transmission and all
the energy is either reflected or travels along the boundary between the layers as
a head wave (shown in orange on the previous figure). The headwave travels much of
its time in the faster deeper layer and may arrive at the receivers before the direct
arrival (energy travelling directly between source and receiver). Figure (b) shows
wave propagation in a velocity gradient where continuous refraction results in a
curved ray-path. Usually this latter situation is represented by a series of constant
velocity layers.

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DIFFRACTIONS

The
adjacent
figure
illustrates
what
happens
when a
seismic
wave
encounters
an abrupt
interface
such as a
termination
due to
faulting.
For
constant
velocity a
hyperbolic
event called a diffraction is generated. The process of migration is used to collapse
diffractions and also to place dipping seismic events in their correct sub-surface
position. A reflector or indeed an entire seismic section can be thought of as
constructed of many diffracting points which constructively and destructively
interfere to produce the image (as in Huygen's principal).
 This concept is
illustrated both
schematically and
with a synthetic
seismic section in the
adjacent figure.

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SEISMIC DISPLAY

The seismic traces can be displayed in a variety of ways, but the commonest paper
display is to place the traces side by side and to shade in the positive part of the trace.
This is called a variable area and wiggle display. Click here for more details on
seismic display.