Geology 554 - Interpretation Project

Big Injun Sand & Trenton-Black River plays,

Central Appalachian Basin, WV

Part 1 Access and Basic Interpretation of the Seismic Data

Using Kingdom

T. H. Wilson (2005)

2D Fault/Horizon Interpretation Using

Seismic Micro-Technologys Kingdom Suite
Seismic Micro-Technology's Kingdom software is accessed through
the Windows Start Programs Menu. In your program list select
Kingdom Suite and then left-click on Kingdom.
NOTE: Left clicking the mouse is used to start, continue and end an
activity. Right clicking is ONLY used for displaying various pop-up
menus.
Project files are opened from the initial Kingdom Suite window
(Figure 1). Click on Project then Open Project in the drop-down
menus.

Figure 1: The initial Kingdom Suite display window provides

access to new and old project files.
This exercise uses the 554Expl data set, which is accessed through
the network drive. In this exercise, we begin with a general
introduction to the data and then continue with the fault
interpretations. Generally one would pick the faults first to prevent
the computer from carrying reflectors directly across faults during
horizon interpretation.

Procedures:
When you open a project under Kingdom, the basic windows layout
will contain a 3D basemap (right) and project tree (left) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Basic window layout showing project tree and 3D grid

basemap.

1. Left click on one of the lines to activate it. In this example,

position the mouse arrow on Line 6. Right click and select
Display 2D Line 6. The seismic line will now appear as
shown below in Figure 3.

*Color display options will be covered in class, so

you might want to take some notes.

Figure 3: Display of line 6 with color bar.

2. If you prefer another colorbar, left click on View and Colors.
Click on File and Open and select a different colorbar. In most
cases, the name of the colorbar describes the colors and the
number of colors in the colorbar. For example, the default
colorbar, brwbl50.clm, is a blue-white-brown colorbar with 50
colors. Close the color editor once you are satisfied with a
colorbar. Alternatively, you can click on the turquoise arrows
left or right and go from color bar to color bar.
3. If you want to see wiggle traces, left click on View and Type of
Plot and select Wiggle Variable Area. You may need to
change the display scale to obtain the desired view. The variable
area wiggle trace display will appear as shown below (Figure 4).
Note the other display formats for future reference.

Figure 4: Variable area wiggle trace display format of Line 110.

4. To change the display scales, left click on View and Set
Display Scales or click on the scale bar at the top of the seismic
line display window. Try 8 traces per inch and 25 inches per
second to provide a close-up (Figure 5) view of waveform
character in the vicinity of the well shown above (Figure 4).
Use the scroll bars to position yourself within the line.

Figure 5: Close-up view obtained using 8 traces/ inch and 25 inches/second.

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5. You can orient yourself to geographical directions by

moving the cursor on the seismic window (Figures 4 or 5) and
watching the cursor movement on the map. If the direction is
backwards hit the R key on the keyboard to reverse the line
direction.
6. The colorbar may or may not be displayed on the seismic
window. To display colorbar, left click on View and Toolbars
and then Color Bar. A check indicates on.
7. Display features can also be accessed directly using the
buttons (Figure 6) in the upper left corner of the trace window.

Figure 6: Shortcut buttons on the line display window. Buttons,

left to right, select seismic line, wiggle overlay, vertical seismic
display scale, color bar editor, a toggle switch to display the
color bar, and two zoom control buttons. The drop down
window at right allows the user to select from time or data type.
8. On the seismic line, there are two fairly prominent faults. We
will be trying to keep track of at least two faults and now would
be a good time to assign a name to them. To assign the faults,
right click on the seismic window and select Fault
Management. From there, select the Create tab (Figure 7) and
enter a name and color for the easternmost fault. Left click on
Apply. Enter a name and color for the major fault and then
either OK or Apply. Create new faults if desired, You're now
in the fault picking mode with the last created fault active.

Figure 7: Fault surface management window.

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9. Display the fault toolbar to allow for quicker selection of the

faults you wish to pick. To do this left click on View and
Toolbars and then Faults. All the displayed faults are present,
including Unassigned. Hot keys or short-cut keys are available:
D enters the user into the fault digitization mode, A assigns
a fault, and "S" de-assigns.

Faults Toolbar
Faults digitizing window

10. To start picking your fault, make sure your line is oriented
west (left) to east (right) left click on the Margin fault. To
begin digitizing hit the D-key and then left click on the fault
break that courses through the seismic data. A rubber band
should appear as you go from point to point (Figure 8).
Continue left clicking points along the fault until you either
need to scroll vertically or horizontally to view fault extensions
outside your current view (Figure 8). Use the scroll bar to move
the display so that more of the fault is visible. Continue until
you can no longer pick this fault. Double click to end.
If you enter a point you dont like, you can back up or delete
the last point by hitting the Esc key

To follow the fault downward through the data, drag the rubber
Figure 8: Individual
points
digitized
along
fault
appear
as black
squares connected
band over
to the
scroll bar
andthe
slide
down
as you
normally
by a thin black line (or rubber band).
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would. Your fault interpretation may look something like the

following (Figure 9):

Figure 9: East Margin fault digitized on Line 6.

11. Create another fault (unless you already did). Left click on
the second fault displayed in the Faults digitizing menu to
activate it and then hit the D" key to begin digitization. Begin
picking the second fault. If you choose to pick some of the other
faults on the Faults Toolbar, simply activate (click on) the
appropriate named or unassigned fault, hit the D key and start
picking. The two faults you just picked should appear as shown
in the view below (Figure 10). The number of points used to
digitize the fault will vary from interpreter to interpreter.

Figure 10: Faults just digitized on the northwestern end of Line 6

appear as shown above. Note that the green fault is still active.
12. If you want to edit some of your picks, the fault is active so
long as the square dots are present. Note that the green fault in
the above display (Figure 10) is currently active. When a fault is
selected for further editing, little handles appear on each
digitized point. To move individual points, activate the fault and
then left click-and-hold on the digitized fault point. As you
move the mouse, the digitized point will also move. If you move
a small distance, you may have to use the Esc key to undo the
rubber band.
13. If you would like to move the entire fault line, first activate
the fault and then hold the Ctrl key and then left click and hold
on any part of the fault line. Move the line to wherever you like
and then release the mouse button and Ctrl key.
14. To delete a fault segment, make it active and then hit the
delete key on your keyboard.
15. To add points, left click on an existing point, add the
appropriate intervening points, and double click on another
existing point.

16. To remove consecutive points, left click on an existing

point, skip the 'bad' points and double click on an existing point.
17. If you'd like to change the active fault, left click on the
new fault to activate it or select from the Faults Menu. If the
new fault has no existing digital points, you must hit "D" on
either the keyboard or Faults Menu.
18. To assign an unnamed fault, activate the fault name,
activate the unassigned fault line and then hit the A-key.
19. To de-assign a named fault, activate the fault line and then
hit the S-key.
20. Once the faults have been picked on this line, you can begin
picking the faults on the remaining lines in the database.
Since there is a sparse distribution of lines, you may want to
keep track of fault extents on individual lines. This may help
you determine what fault you are dealing with on the remaining
lines. For example, to locate the Margin fault on the base map,
just double click the Margin Fault in the Properties Window
Fault list (Figure 11).

Click on Margin Fault

in your Faults list

Figure 11:When you double click Margin Fault in your Parameter Window Faults list, a
fault segment display will appear.

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Figure 12: Closeup view of the fault segment on Line 6. Colors represent
two-way travel times to the fault surface. Color bar is shown at right.

Note that a color strip appears on the line (Figure 12). The
colors portray travel time to the fault along its extent.
Complete your digitization of the Margin and 2nd fault, and
double click individual faults in the Properties Window Fault
listing. The Margin fault is shown below

Figure 13: Fault segment view of the East Margin fault observed in our seismic data set.
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21. Fault surfaces can be interpolated between lines, but the

interpreter should exercise caution and not accept the validity of
the interpolated fault surface without close scrutiny. In fact, in
cases such as this one where large gaps separate individual
seismic lines, the interpolations almost certainly introduce
spurious fault plane features (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Interpolated fault surface.

To view the interpolated fault surface use map window control

icons (Figure 15) in the upper left corner of the map window
(Figure 14). From the drop down window select Fault Surface.

Figure 15: Shortcut icons available on the map display window.

Buttons, left to right, allow the user to Select fault surface to
display, Select Contour Overlay, Set Contour Parameters,
Set Scales, Edit Colorbar, Show Colorbar, magnification
control buttons, and a selection window that allows you to
switch back and forth from Fault Surface and Fault Segment
displays.

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The problems with contour interpolation across large gaps in the

data can be minimized using options in the fault management
window.
Right click on the map view and select Fault management
window. Click on the display folder in that window and
examine the various options available to help control the fault
surface display. Note the Surface Smoothing option (see Figure
16 below). Set that to high. And OK to exit.

Figure 16: The display folder in the fault management window.

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The smoothed map (Figure 17) provides a more reasonable view

of the likely fault surface geometry.

Figure 17: Smoothed fault surface time contours for the East Margin fault.

Assignment: Complete your mapping of the East Margin fault

and the 2nd fault out.

Be prepared to show progress on this

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