Geophysics 438

Introductory Lecture

Introduction
Overview of Class What are we going to
do?
What is data?
Data Conditioning
Gains
Frequency Content
Filtering

Seismic Profiles

Seismic Section J. Ahmad

West

East

1 km

1 km

Seismic Profile

GPR
Turtle Mountain

GPR Profile
Basson, U., 2000.
Imaging of active fault
zone in the Dead Sea
Rift: Evrona Fault Zone
as a case study. Thesis
submitted for the degree
of Ph.D., Tel-Aviv
University, Raymond &
Beverly Sackler, Faculty
of Exact Sciences,
Department of
Geophysics & Planetary
Sciences, 196 p.

GPR Hyperbola

Scattered from buried tank nice image from www.naevageophysics.com/gpr.html

A look ahead Data Processing

Start

Acquire
Data

Data
Acceptable?

Residual
Static
Correction

Dynamic
Correction

Velocity Analysis

NO

Correction
Acceptable?

CMP
Stack

Additional
Corrections
e.g. Migration

Preprocessing
Edit, mute, filter
Deconvolve, gain, field statics,
Geometries, etc. etc.

CMP sorting

Output for
interpretation

What is data???
Analog
Digital Data: Sampling:
Time sampling
Amplitude sampling dynamic range, clipping
What are bits??

How is data stored in computer?

Integers
Floating Point
ASCII (???) - strings

10

Time Sampling
600
500
400

200
100
0
-100

600

-200

500

-300

10

15

20
Time

25

30

35

400

40

300
Amplitude

Amplitude

300

200
100
0
-100
-200
-300

10

15

20
Time

25

30

35

40

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1
0.8

0.6

0.6

0.4

0.4

0.2

Amplitude

Amplitude

1
0.8

0
-0.2

0.2
0
-0.2

-0.4

-0.4

-0.6

-0.6

-0.8
-1

-0.8
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
0.6
Time seconds

0.7

0.8

0.9

-1

0.8

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.4

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
0.6
Time seconds

0.7

0.8

0.9

0.4

0.2

Amplitude

Amplitude

0
-0.2

0.2
0
-0.2

-0.4

-0.4
-0.6

-0.6
-0.8

-0.8
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
0.6
Time seconds

0.7

0.8

0.9

-1

0.8

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.4

0.4

0.2

0.2

Amplitude

Amplitude

-1

0
-0.2
-0.4

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
0.6
Time seconds

0.7

0.8

0.9

0
-0.2
-0.4

-0.6

-0.6

-0.8
-1

0.1

-0.8
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
0.6
Time seconds

0.7

0.8

0.9

-1
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4
0.5
0.6
Time seconds

0.7

0.8

0.9

13

Methods of Sampling

14

Attenuation of Seismic Waves

How can attenuation be measured?

What physical mechanisms are important?
Global flow (Biot, de la Cruz Spanos)
Local flow (squirt flow)
Either? Both?
Dislocations

A( r ) = A exp( ( )r )
( ) =
Scattering
V 2
Friction
V

f
Q ( ) =

=
1
o

2 Vo

2
o

o2

2 Vo

1 + Q 2 1
1 + Q 2

Vo

15

Attenuation Estimates Thanks to Gabe Solano

Theoretical Background
Amplitude can be modeled as:
frequency
v wave velocity
Q Quality factor
f

(1)

Q is the quality factor. The higher the Q,the less a wave is

attenuated.
For sedimentary rocks it varies from 20 to 150.
5

16

Amplitude
Intensity = energy/m^2
For sound dB = 10log10(I/Io)
Amplitude = particle displacement, particle
velocity, particle acceleration, pressure,
stress.
dB = 20log10(A/Ao)

17

Decay
.

( R2 R1 )
e

-10

Relative Amplitudes dB

R
y 2 = y1 2
R1
.

-20
-30
-40

S urf

ace
Wa v
e

Bo
dy
Wa
ve

-50

De
c

Dec
ay

ay

100

10

-60
-70
-80
-90

-100
-1
10

10

10

10

10

Source-Receiver Offst Distance (m)

18

Gains
Ao2 2
E=
2

Define Energy E and

Intensity F vs Amplitude
A (particle displacement)
Correct for amplitude
decay with time
Geometrical Spreading:
1/r2

Intensity
Amplitude 1/r

Attenuation (intrinsic +
scattering)

E is the average over one wavelength of the total energy conveyed

per unit wavefront (in units that reduce to J/m3 and as such is
analogous to an energy density)

F=

2 Ao2 VP
2

2 Ao2 Z
2

F has units of kg/s3 which is dimensionally the same as the intensity:

the power per unit area in Watts/m2

19

Empirical Approaches
Scale by tn
Scale by exp(Bt)
Automatic Gain Control
N

A=

a
i =1

2
i

20

Another Way to Look at Time

Series
There are two ways we can describe
a seismic trace.
Normal Way - s(t): time domain
Another Way - S(f): frequency domain

Why bother?? - Many advantages

when looking for noise. Often the
seismic signal will have a very
different frequency than the noise.

21

Frequency Content

Examples
Seismic Reflections - often 10-100 Hz
Ground Roll Noise - 3 - 20 Hz
Air Wave Noise - 100-400 Hz
Electrical Noise - 60 Hz & 50 Hz

Frequency filtering can help to separate these leaving the desired

information.

22

Fouriers idea

..\..\G326\Lectures\Fourier\add_cosines.m
..\..\G326\Lectures\Fourier\make_boxcars.m
..\..\G326\Lectures\Fourier\make_triangles.m

23

24

Fourier Transform
Pair

Generally S() is a
complex function

25

Useful Properties of the Fourier Transform Pair

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Addition x(t) + y(t) X(f) + Y(f)

Multiplication x(t)y(t) X(f) * Y(f)
Convolution x(t)*y(t) X(f)Y(f)
Autocorrelation x(t)*x(-t) |X(f)2|
Derivative dx(t)/dt iX()

Other consideration: A broad function in one domain

corresponds to a narrow function in the other
domain. Implication for deconvolution, data
acquisition, resolution want to maximize the
bandwidth as much as possible

26

27

Considerations
Bandpass filter should not be too sharp
this causes problematic ringing (Gibbs
phenomena) that can obscure data.
For trapezoidal filter, rule of thumb is
slope should be equal to of an octave.
Unfortunately there is no clean separation
of data and noise, a bandpass filter
must be designed to try to minimize the
loss of crucial information.

28

29

Mechanics of FFT

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