Method and apparatus for finding horizons in 3D seismic data
US5251184A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 23, 1992 |
| Grant date | Oct 5, 1993 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 23, 2012 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01V1/301
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A method and apparatus of rapidly generating horizon maps from a three dimensional volume of seismic traces is disclosed. During batch processing of the digital data representing trace wavelets, "1"'s are "0"'s are determined for each seismic trace of the volume. A bit volume is produced of which a "1" at a depth of a trace indicates that a horizon exists at that depth and at other depths of "1"'s of adjacent traces which are within a predetermined depth. In a real time mode, an explorationist selects a seed point thereby identifying a "1" on a particular trace at a particular depth. An automatic scanning procedure finds all other "1"'s at depths of adjacent traces. Each found "1" of adjacent traces is redesignated a seed point and the process is continued until no more "1"'s can be found. A horizon map is created from the depths of each found "1". An alternative method and apparatus is disclosed by which such bit volume is replaced with a compressed trace volume where each bit of the bit volume is replaced with a numerical value corresponding to the precise depth location of the attribute extremum represented by the bit. Such depth values are stored consecutively to form compresse…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.