IMPROVING STRUCTURAL SEISMIC INTERPRETATION

USING 3D CURVATURE ATTRIBUTES

Pascal Klein, Loic Richard, Huw James
Paradigm Geophysical
{pklein,lrichard,hjames}@paradigmgeo.com

SUMMARY
This paper presents a different approach to computing volumetric curvature and the application of volume
curvature attributes to seismic interpretation. Volume curvature attributes are geometric attributes computed at
each sample of a 3D seismic volume from local surfaces fitted to the volume data in the region of the sample. The
curvature attributes respond to bends and breaks in seismic reflectors. Because volume curvature focuses on
changes of shape rather than changes of amplitude it is less affected by changes in the seismic amplitude field
caused by variations in fluid and lithology and focuses more on variations caused by faults and folding. Tight folds
at seismic scale may indicate sub-seismic faults. Interpretation of the tight folds can also provide qualitative
estimates of basic fracture parameters such as fracture density, spacing and orientation. This knowledge of both
faults and fractures is valuable for the estimation of structural frameworks including closure and also for the
estimation of reservoir flow characteristics.
Our examples will use a data set from Offshore Indonesia.

INTRODUCTION
Seismic interpreters have used attribute volumes for
fault interpretation of 3D seismic data since they
became available. Coherency (Bahorich) is without
doubt the most popular attribute for this purpose.
More recently, curvature attributes have been found
to be useful in delineating faults and predicting
fracture distribution and orientation. Because
curvature is sensitive to noise and is a relatively
intensive computational task, calculations of
curvature were initially performed geometrically for
seismic horizon data. Very recently, algorithms of
volumetric curvature were formulated that make the
assumption that the structure is locally defined by an
iso-intensity surface. These approaches suppose
moreover that the orientation volumes (dip and
azimuth) are available. Donias et al. (Donias) propose
an estimate of the curvature based on the divergence
formulation of the dip-azimuth vector field calculated
in normal planes. Marfurt (Marfurt) use the fractional
derivatives of apparent dip on each time slice to
extract measurements of the curvature at each sample
of the 3D volume. West (West) gives a method where
individual curvatures are computed as horizontal
gradients of apparent dip for a given

number of directions, and are then combined to

generate a combined curvature volume.
This paper proposes a method to compute volumetric
curvatures and their application to structural closure
and qualitative estimation of basic fracture
parameters. The illustration and discussion use a data
set from Offshore Indonesia. Three-dimensional
seismic data and well logs were available for the
study. The original seismic data is zero-phase and
made of 300 inlines and 1300 crosslines with inline
spacing of 25 m, crossline spacing of 12.5 m, and a
sample rate of 4ms. The regional basin geometry is
made of pull-apart basins due to tectonic extrusion of
Southeast Asia in response to the collision of India
since the early Tertiary. The structural framework of
the basin consists of a number of extensional grabens,
half-grabens, normal faults, horsts and en-echelon
faults (Figure 1). Part of sedimentation was
syntectonic implying important thickness variations
in the sedimentary series. Literature describes four
tectonic periods which took place in the study area:
extension, quiescence, compression and another
period of quiescence.

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Figure 1: General overview of the data set from Offshore Indonesia. (a) time structure of the shallow event; (b)
amplitude map extracted along H1; (c) maximum curvature extracted along H1; (d) Time migrated amplitude
section.

METHODOLOGY
The proposed estimation of curvatures is performed
in three stages. First, for each volume sample, a small
surface is propagated around the sample within the
defined horizontal range of analysis. The surface zpositions are found by finding the maximum crosscorrelation value over a vertical analysis window
between the central trace and each surrounding trace
within the defined range for analysis. The crosscorrelations are back interpolated, using a parabolic
fit to determine the precise vertical shift of the
maximal cross-correlation. Then a least squares
quadratic surface z(x,y) of the form

orthogonal to the direction of maximum curvature is

called minimal curvature 2. The maximum and
minimal curvatures constitute the principal
curvatures.

z ( x, y ) = ax 2 + by 2 + cxy + dx + ey
is fitted to the data within the analysis range.
Finally, the set of curvature attributes are computed
from the coefficients of quadratic surface using
classic differential geometry (Roberts).
The curvature attributes most frequently used are the
normal curvatures, they are defined by orthogonal
planes to the surface (Roberts). The greatest normal
curvature is called maximum curvature 1. The
curvature taken in the direction which is horizontally

Figure 2: Principal curvatures and the dip curvature of a

regular surface at a given point.

The dip curvature d is the curvature extracted along

the dip direction and measures the rate of dip
variation within the direction of the maximum dip
(Figure 2).

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STRUCTURAL CLOSURE
The structural hydrocarbon traps are frequently
composed of 3 way dip closures occurring against
faults. The trapping efficiency of this kind in the
tectonic regime of the study area depends, among
other factors, on the reservoir juxtaposition on the upthrown block against the downthrown block. For this
reason, lateral continuity of the fault and vertical
displacement of the hanging wall from the foot wall
need to be carefully analyzed.
Curvature attributes allow quantifying and qualifying
most of these aspects and illuminate the analysis of
each structural trap.
Vertical throw in sub-vertical faulting is generally best
seen on vertical seismic sections, while strike slip
faults (lateral displacement) are better seen in
horizontal sections (slices). Horizontal sections
extracted from the three-dimensional curvature cube

shows en-echelon patterns with an average length of

the fault equal to 400 meters (Figure 4.c).
Dip curvature is an attribute which often highlights the
areas where the layer is broken. In an extensive
regime, positive values of this attribute correspond to
bottom-up shapes such as fault noses; negative
values correspond to synform shapes such as erosional
scours. High values of this attribute indicate the
deformation is brittle, relatively low values indicate
ductile deformation or no deformation at all. Limits
between ductile and brittle deformation may be
highlighted on maps by colour coding. Lateral
misalignment of these limits between the foot wall and
the hanging wall will reflect strike slip movement.
Qualification and quantification of the strike-slip
displacement is then possible. In the current case
study, sinistral movement was evidenced with a

Figure 3: Dip curvature and max curvature: image improvement. (a) Structural slice on coherency; (b) Structural
slice on dip curvature; (c) Structural slice on maximum curvature.
enable the interpreter to qualify vertical and strike slip
faulting displacement.
Minimum curvature and maximum curvature
attributes are highly sensitive to brittle deformation
especially in the fault nose areas. High values of major
curvature correlate directly with high values of brittle
deformation. High values of minimum curvature and
maximum curvature will be spatially arranged in such
a way that they will define geological lineaments
corresponding to faults.(Figure 3.c)
Lateral continuity, length, orientation, spacing
between faults are defined from the analysis of
lineaments on horizontal sections (slices) extracted
from the minimum and maximum curvature 3D
attribute cubes. The result of this analysis will help to
appraise the possible connectivity between both
blocks. In the present case study, lineament analysis

horizontal average throw equal to 150 meters (Figure

4.a).
Separation between strong negative and strong
positive values of the dip curvature attribute (red and
blue colours on Figure 4) measures the vertical
displacement. In the present case study, the vertical
displacement was varying from 35 to 110 milliseconds
(Figure 4.b).
Using the above-mentioned attributes, it has been
inferred that hydrocarbon trapping in the study area is
controlled by a series of normal north to south trending
en-echelon faults.
The major curvature and dip curvature attributes
suggest that the regime of constraint is a transtensional stress with northeast-southwest sinistral
shear.
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Figure 4: Dip curvature quantitative analysis, length, lateral throw and vertical displacement measurement. (a)
Lateral throw from dip curvature; (b) vertical displacement from dip curvature; (c) Length from dip curvature.

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION.
FRACTURE ANALYSIS.
Naturally -fractured reservoirs are an important
component of global hydrocarbon reserves. It is
important for the prediction of future reservoir
performance to detect zones of fracturing and, at least
qualitatively, estimate their basic parameters, for
example, the density and orientation of the fractures.
Fractures are usually difficult to resolve from seismic
amplitude data due to the seismic frequency content
which limits seismic resolution. In our example data
set, despite the fact that the fractures are poorly
illuminated, the curvature attribute detected the
fractured areas.
Fracture signatures derived from curvature attributes
are indicated by a relatively medium to high value of
the minimum curvature. Most of the lineaments
defined by the spatial arrangement of the minimum
curvature attribute correspond to fractures.
In the present case study, zones of fracturing are
mainly detected close to the major brittle fault events
(Figure 5).

Figure 5: Fracture area illuminated by the minimum

principal curvature; Structural slice on minimum
curvature.
The area of the zone affected by fracturing is
approximately equal to 0.8 km2 for the channel and 1
km2 for the western part from the main fault (Figure
6.b). Fractures are parallel to the main fault, and the
estimated density of fracturing is 50 to 60 meters in
the area of the channel and 90 to 100 meters in the
western part of the survey(Figure 6.b).

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CONCLUSIONS
The new technique proposed here to compute
volumetric curvature attributes performs calculations
in a single step, without requiring any precomputation of intermediate volumes such as dip and
azimuth.
Curvature attributes allow quantifying and qualifying
lateral continuity of the fault and its vertical
displacement. They support the analysis of structural
traps occurring against faults.
Geological model properties benefit from the
qualitative and quantitative information extracted
from the curvature attributes, such as fracture density
and orientation.
As a future perspective, a post processing of the
curvature attributes may be implemented in order to
sort out singular geological lineament orientations.
This approach could also be used to remove nongeological lineaments such as acquisition footprints
The curvature attributes can augment the coherency
attribute in the analysis of the geological scheme.

References

Figure 6: Basic parameters fracture estimation:

density and orientation (a) time migrated amplitude
section; (b) time slice on minimum curvature; (c) time
migrated amplitude section; (d) time slice on
coherency; (e) time slice on maximum curvature.

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Acknowledgements
We thank Paradigm for permission to publish this
work.

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