Thursday, December 18, 2014

New Donations: SWN and CGG

This was a great month for UA Geosciences.  We received a 3D seismic project donation from SWN (thanks to Damien Friend for championing), and HR-10 seismic analysis software from CGG (thanks to Brian Russell).

SWN Desoto 3D data includes 9 sq. mi. of seismic data and inversion attributes such as acoustic impedance (AI).  Cool colors are low AI and hot colors are high values. The green Low-AI interval is the Mississippian Fayetteville Shale, a prolific gas producer.  Within the Fay Shale interval an anomalously low AI interval is evident, likely a zone more rich in organic matter. 
AI data allows more intuitive correlation between seismic and stratigraphic column for surface exposures in the Ozark plateau of N Arkansas. 
There is a natural connection between the SWN data donation and the HR-10 software donation, namely acoustic impedance.  A key strength of HR-10 is ability to do AI inversion of seismic plus well data.  This is a good space for UA geology graduate students to work, inversion is an important skill, much in demand in the petroleum industry. Here is a figure from HR-10 documentation.

AI and seismic data from HR-10 post-stack inversion tutorial.