U.S. patent application number 12/623034 was filed with the patent office on 2010-06-17 for method for geophysical and geological interpretation of seismic volumes in the domains of depth, time, and age.
Invention is credited to Ganglin Chen, Dominique G. Gillard, Matthias Imhof.
Application Number | 20100149917 12/623034 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 41340452 |
Filed Date | 2010-06-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100149917 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Imhof; Matthias ; et
al. |
June 17, 2010 |
Method For Geophysical and Geological Interpretation of Seismic
Volumes In The Domains of Depth, Time, and Age
Abstract
A method of transforming geologic data relating to a subsurface
region between a geophysical depth domain and a geologic age domain
is disclosed. A set of topologically consistent surfaces is
obtained that correspond to seismic data. The surfaces are
enumerated in the depth domain. An age is assigned to each surface
in the depth domain. The age corresponds to an estimated time of
deposition of the respective surface. An age mapping volume is
generated. An extent of the age domain is chosen. A depth mapping
volume is generated. Both the age mapping volume and the depth
mapping volume are used to transform geophysical, geologic, or
engineering data or interpretations between the depth domain and
the age domain and vice versa. The geophysical, geologic, or
engineering data or interpretations transformed by at least one of
the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume are
outputted.
Inventors: |
Imhof; Matthias; (Katy,
TX) ; Chen; Ganglin; (Houston, TX) ; Gillard;
Dominique G.; (Houston, TX) |
Correspondence
Address: |
EXXONMOBIL UPSTREAM RESEARCH COMPANY
P.O. Box 2189, (CORP-URC-SW 359)
Houston
TX
77252-2189
US
|
Family ID: |
41340452 |
Appl. No.: |
12/623034 |
Filed: |
November 20, 2009 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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PCT/US2009/041671 |
Apr 24, 2009 |
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12623034 |
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61128547 |
May 22, 2008 |
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61131484 |
Jun 9, 2008 |
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61169122 |
Apr 14, 2009 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
367/53 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G01V 2210/66 20130101;
G01V 1/302 20130101; G01V 2210/48 20130101; G01V 2210/63 20130101;
G01V 2210/641 20130101; G01V 1/345 20130101; G01V 2210/643
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
367/53 |
International
Class: |
G01V 1/00 20060101
G01V001/00 |
Claims
1. A method of transforming geologic data relating to a subsurface
region between a geophysical depth domain and a geologic age
domain, comprising: obtaining seismic data; obtaining a set of
topologically consistent surfaces that correspond to the seismic
data; enumerating the surfaces in the depth domain; assigning an
age to each of the surfaces in the depth domain, the age
corresponding to an estimated time of deposition of the respective
surface; generating an age mapping volume; choosing an extent of
the age domain; generating a depth mapping volume; using both the
age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to transform
geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or interpretations
between the depth domain and the age domain, and between the age
domain and the depth domain; and outputting the geophysical,
geologic, or engineering data or interpretations transformed by at
least one of the age mapping volume and the depth mapping
volume.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein a push mode is used to transform
between at least one of the depth domain and the age domain, and
the age domain and the depth domain.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein a pull mode is used to transform
between at least one of the depth domain and the age domain, and
the age domain and the depth domain.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying specified
layers of the depth domain having a predetermined age range by
incorporating an opacity control.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein incorporating an opacity control
comprises rendering transparent layers other than the specified
layers such that the specified layers are visible.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the age mapping
volume and the depth mapping volume is generated by interpolating
from each of the surfaces and their respective assigned ages.
7. The method of claim 6, further comprising applying a filter to
the ages when generating at least one of the age mapping volume and
the depth mapping volume.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the age mapping volume is
generated by optimizing a function that minimizes differences
between surfaces, their ages, and the age mapping volume.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the age mapping volume is
generated by optimizing a function of the form A i = 1 N ( .intg.
.intg. S i L A ( n ^ s , n ^ a ) S ) + B i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S
i L B ( a s , a ) S ) + C .intg. .intg. .intg. V L C ( n ^ d , n ^
a ) V + D .intg. .intg. .intg. V L D ( a ) V + E .intg. .intg.
.intg. V L E ( a , a 0 ) V = min ##EQU00008## where {circumflex
over (n)}.sub.s is a unit normal vector of a surface S, {circumflex
over (n)}.sub.a is a unit normal vector of the age mapping volume
defined at the location of a surface element dS, N is the size of
the set, L.sub.A is a measure of parallelism between {circumflex
over (n)}.sub.s and {circumflex over (n)}.sub.a, L.sub.B compares
the age a.sub.s assigned to each surface to ages of the age mapping
volume a defined at the location of the surface element dS, L.sub.c
is a measure of parallelism between a unit normal vector
{circumflex over (n)}.sub.d of a seismic volume V and the unit
normal vector {circumflex over (n)}.sub.s, dV is a volume element
of part or all of the seismic data, L.sub.D is a measure of
smoothness, L.sub.E defines a misfit between the age mapping volume
a and a reference age mapping volume a.sub.0, and A, B, C, D and E
are weighting parameters.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the depth mapping volume is
generated by optimizing a function that minimizes differences
between surfaces, their ages, and the depth mapping volume.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the depth mapping volume is
generated by optimizing a function of the form A i = 1 N ( .intg.
.intg. S i L A ( m ^ s , a ^ ) S ) + B i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S i
L B ( d s , d ) S ) + C .intg. .intg. .intg. W L C ( m ^ d , a ^ )
W + D .intg. .intg. .intg. W L D ( d ) W + E .intg. .intg. .intg. W
L E ( d , d 0 ) W = min ##EQU00009## where a denotes a unit vector
in the direction of the age axis, {circumflex over (m)}.sub.s and
{circumflex over (m)}.sub.d denote the normals of surfaces and
seismic data transformed from the depth domain to the age domain
defined at the location of a surface element dS, N is the size of
the set, d.sub.s denotes the depth of the surface defined at the
location of the surface element dS, d denotes the depth mapping
volume, L.sub.A is a measure of parallelism between a and
{circumflex over (m)}.sub.s, L.sub.B compares the depth d.sub.s
assigned to each surface to depths of the depth mapping volume d
defined at the location of the surface element dS, L.sub.C is a
measure of parallelism between a unit normal in the age domain and
a unit normal vector {circumflex over (m)}.sub.d of a seismic
volume Win the age domain, dW is a volume element of part or all of
the age domain, L.sub.D is a measure of smoothness, L.sub.E defines
a misfit between the depth mapping volume d and a reference age
mapping volume d.sub.0, and A, B, C, D and E are weighting
parameters.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of topologically
consistent surfaces are obtained by skeletonization.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein the surfaces are enumerated in
the depth domain using a push-down strategy.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein the surfaces are enumerated in
the depth domain using a pull-up strategy.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein the outputting comprises
displaying at least a portion of at least one of the depth domain
and the age domain.
16. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming attributes of
the subsurface region from one of the age mapping volume, the depth
mapping volume, or data in the depth domain or the age domain.
17. The method of claim 1, further comprising: using at least one
of the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to compute a
thickness of one or more isopachs; and outputting the computed
thickness.
18. The method of claim 1, further comprising: using at least one
of the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to determine
a presence of an enclosure volume; and outputting information
identifying the enclosure volume.
19. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is
computer-implemented.
20. A computer program product having computer executable logic
recorded on a tangible, machine readable medium, the computer
program product comprising: code for obtaining a set of
topologically consistent surfaces that correspond to seismic data
relating to a subsurface region; code for enumerating the surfaces
in a depth domain; code for assigning an age to each of the
surfaces in the depth domain, the age corresponding to an estimated
time of deposition of the respective surface; code for generating
an age mapping volume; code for choosing an extent of the age
domain; code for generating a depth mapping volume; code for using
both the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to
transform geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or
interpretations between the depth domain and the age domain, and
between the age domain and the depth domain; and code for
outputting the geologic, geophysical, or engineering data or
interpretations transformed by at least one of the age mapping
volume and the depth mapping volume.
21. A method of managing hydrocarbon resources, comprising:
obtaining a set of topologically consistent surfaces that
correspond to seismic data relating to a subsurface region;
enumerating the surfaces in a depth domain; assigning an age to
each of the surfaces in the depth domain, the age corresponding to
an estimated time of deposition of the respective surface;
generating an age mapping volume; choosing an extent of the age
domain; generating a depth mapping volume; using both the age
mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to transform
geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or interpretations
between the depth domain and the age domain, and between the age
domain and the depth domain; using the geophysical, geologic, or
engineering data or interpretations transformed by at least one of
the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to predict a
presence of hydrocarbons in the subsurface region; and managing
hydrocarbon resources based on the predicted presence.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a Continuation-in-Part of International
Application PCT/US2009/041671, filed in the United States Receiving
Office on 24 Apr. 2009 and titled "Seismic Horizon
Skeletonization", which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional
application 61/128,547 which was filed on May 22, 2008; U.S.
Provisional application 61/131,484 which was filed on Jun. 9, 2008
and U.S. Provisional application 61/169,122 which was filed on Apr.
14, 2009.
FIELD
[0002] This invention relates generally to the field of geophysical
and geologic prospecting, and more particularly to the analysis of
seismic data. Specifically, the invention is a method to create
objects such as surfaces and geobodies, and to automatically
analyze them with the purpose of highlighting regions with a
potential to contain hydrocarbons. One particular embodiment of the
invention is the simultaneous creation and analysis of many
stratigraphically consistent surfaces from seismic data
volumes.
BACKGROUND
[0003] It is advantageous in seismic data processing and
interpretation to reduce a seismic data volume to its internal
reflection-based surfaces or horizons. Collectively, these surfaces
form the skeleton of the seismic volume. Many methods have been
described to extract or track one horizon or surface at a time
through a volume of seismic data. Most of these methods create
surfaces that eventually overlap themselves. Thus, the same surface
may have multiple depths (or reflection times) associated with the
same spatial position. Some methods prevent multi-valued surfaces
by discarding all but one value per location. Typically, they store
only the first one encountered during the execution of the process
and simply do not record later ones. Moreover, if multiple surfaces
are tracked, one surface may overlay another surface at one
location, while the opposite relationship occurs at another
location. Collectively, these situations may be termed
topologically inconsistent. The published approaches to date, some
of which are summarized below, largely ignore topological
consistency.
[0004] In "The Binary Consistency Checking Scheme and Its
Applications to Seismic Horizon Detection," IEEE Transactions on
Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 11, 439-447 (1989),
Cheng and Lu describe a method to extract the seismic skeleton from
two dimensional data. Problems introduced by the third dimensions
are neither discussed nor resolved. The procedure uses an iterative
approach where strong horizons are tracked initially, while weaker
ones are tracked in later iterations. At any iteration, the
tracking is confined to areas delineated by horizons already
tracked in earlier iterations. Tracking is preformed by correlating
multiple neighboring traces simultaneously. Combining the two
approaches allows incorporation of the geologic fabric into the
results. This method is also described in "An Iterative Approach to
Seismic Skeletonization," Lu and Cheng, Geophysics 55, 1312-1320
(1990).
[0005] In "Seismic Skeletonization: A New Approach to
Interpretation of Seismic Reflection Data," Journal of Geophysical
Research-Solid Earth 102, 8427-8445 (1997), Li, Vasudevan, and Cook
describe the utility of using the seismic skeleton for the
interpretation of seismic data. The seismic skeleton is two
dimensional, and when a horizon splits, the decision regarding
which branch to follow is not geologically motivated. Instead, the
method attempts to correlate events across three neighboring traces
in such a way that dip changes are minimized. The method includes
only iterative growing of horizons.
[0006] Further, "Adaptation of Seismic Skeletonization for Other
Geoscience Applications," Vasudevan, Eaton, and Cook, Geophysical
Journal International 162, 975-993 (2005), is a continuation of the
earlier work, realizing that skeletonization has geoscience
applications beyond seismic processing and interpretation.
[0007] In "Branch And Bound Search For Automatic Linking Process Of
Seismic Horizons," Huang, Pattern Recognition 23, 657-667 (1990),
Huang discloses a two dimensional method of horizon growth allowing
horizons to cross and penetrate each other, which violates the
stratigraphic paradigm that geologic strata do not cross. The
method reveals only the generation of horizons by picking events,
peaks for example, building a tree of all potential linkages
between these events, and then selecting the ones which yield the
most linear horizons. Branches of the linage tree are chosen to
minimize a cost function of horizon nonlinearity.
[0008] "How To Create And Use 3D Wheeler Transformed Seismic
Volumes," de Groot, de Bruin, and Hemstra, SEG 2006 discloses an
interpretation method that interpolates horizons with sub-sampling
resolution by following the local dips and strikes, organizes these
horizons in sequential order, and visualizes these horizons or
attributes thereon in a depositional domain by flattening of the
horizons or attribute volumes along the horizons. Specifically, the
algorithm requires the input of major horizons which need to be
picked with an alternative method, such as manual picking. Within
an interval bracketed by major horizons, minor horizons are
interpolated either parallel to the top or bottom horizons,
linearly interpolated in between, or following the local dip and
strike orientations estimated from seismic attributes. By
construction, the interpolated minor horizons are not crossing
through each other.
[0009] In a paper submitted for the 70.sup.th EAGE (European
Association of Geoscientists and Engineers) Conference and
Exhibition, Rome, Italy, Jun. 9-12, 2008, and available for
download at www.earthdoc.org beginning May 26, 2008, entitled "An
Approach of Seismic Interpretation Based on Cognitive Vision,"
Verney et al. disclose a method for geology-based interpretation of
seismic data by using artificial intelligence tools based on
"cognitive vision." First order reflector continuity is detected
using voxel connectivity in the seismic data. Then, a visual
characterization step is performed. For example, chronological
relationships are established based on whether a reflector lies
above or below another. Finally, geological horizons are identified
from the reflectors by fusing all nodes that (a) share similar
visual attributes (amplitude, thickness, dip), and (b) are located
at similar distances from at least one other reflector. The result
is a set of chronologically ordered horizons.
[0010] U.S. Pat. No. 7,024,021, "Method for Performing
Stratigraphically-Based Seed Detection in a 3-D Seismic Data
Volume," to Dunn and Czernuszenko, discloses a three-dimensional
geobody picker and analyzer. In this patent, a few select geobodies
are picked, which may include geobodies having attribute values
within a specified range or geobodies adjacent to certain attribute
values. During picking, the geobodies are analyzed using a map view
criteria to detect and eliminate self-overlapping geobodies, and
yielding composite geobodies instead. The composite geobodies
satisfy at least the topological condition of no self overlaps, but
the boundaries between geobodies are determined by the order in
which the voxels are detected.
[0011] In "System and Method for Displaying Seismic Horizons with
Attributes" (PCT Patent Application Publication No. WO 2007046107),
James discloses a seismic autopicker that generates single valued
horizons and often takes the correct branch when horizons split.
The interpreter initializes the method by manually selecting one or
multiple seed points within the seismic data volume. The algorithm
uses the seed points to pick a set of secondary points from
neighboring traces which are then treated as new seed points, and
the procedure repeats. Secondary picks that led to self overlap are
rejected, but topological consistency with other horizons is not
revealed. The algorithm is basically based on controlled
marching.
[0012] U.S. Pat. No. 7,257,488 to Cacas ("Method of Sedimentologic
Interpretation by Estimation of Various Chronological Scenarios of
Sedimentary Layers Deposition") discloses a method of organizing
seismic and geologic horizons into a hierarchy using the
above/below relationships to facilitate their stratigraphic
interpretation. The method automatically extracts pertinent
information for sedimentologic interpretation from seismic data by
using estimations of realistic chronological scenarios of
sedimentary layers deposition. The algorithm begins by thresholding
the seismic data and using morphological thinning to create
individual horizons. If multiple horizons intersect, then the most
linear pair is combined, while the others are explicitly
disconnected. The method then iteratively estimates a first and a
second chronological scenario of the deposition of sedimentary
layers, assuming respectively that each reflector settles at the
earliest and at the latest possible moment during the sedimentary
depositional process. Starting with reference horizons, the
algorithm basically enumerates the horizons upwards and downwards
to establish relative orders. An interpretation of these two
chronological scenarios is eventually carried out so as to
reconstruct the depositional conditions of the sedimentary
layers.
[0013] The differences in the relative orders are used to estimate
the scenario uncertainty.
[0014] GB Patent No. 2,444,167 to Cacas ("Method for Stratigraphic
Interpretation of Seismic Images") discloses a method for
stratigraphic interpretation of a seismic image for determination
of the sedimentary history of the subsurface. The method involves
automatically tracking events creating at least one horizon,
selecting horizons with similar seismic attributes extracted from a
window at or near the horizons, and flattening the seismic volume
along the selected horizons.
[0015] U.S. Pat. No. 7,248,539 to Borgos ("Extrema Classification")
discloses a method of horizon patch formation and merging by common
membership in clusters of waveforms and patch properties. The
method picks horizons by extracting, e.g., all peaks, but
correlates them by clustering of waveforms. Picks belonging to the
same cluster are used to define horizons patches which are merged
into larger horizons by properties such as cluster indices,
position, or seismic attributes. Specifically, the method defines
with sub-sample precision the positions of seismic horizons through
an extrema representation of a 3D seismic input volume. For each
extrema, it derives coefficients that represent the shape of the
seismic waveform in the vicinity of the extrema positions and sorts
the extrema positions into groups that have similar waveform shapes
by using unsupervised or supervised classification of these
coefficients. It then extracts surface primitives as surface
segments that are both spatially continuous along the extrema of
the seismic volume and continuous in class index in the
classification volume. By filtering on properties, such as class
index, position, attribute values, etc. attached to each patch, a
set of patches can be combined into a final horizon interpretation.
Three primary applications of the surface primitives are revealed:
combining surface primitives into complete horizons for
interpretations; defining closed volumes within the seismic volume
as the closure of vertically arranged surface primitives; or
estimating fault displacement based on the surface primitives.
[0016] Monsen et al. ("Geologic-process-controlled interpretation
based on 3D Wheeler diagram generation," SEG 2007) extended U.S.
Pat. No. 7,248,539 to Borgos by extracting above/below
relationships for the patches and used these relationships to
derive a relative order of patches which satisfies these
constraints by application of a topological sort. Flattened
horizons are then positioned in this relative order to allow
interpretation in the depositional Wheeler domain. The SEG abstract
is the basis for U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US
2008/0140319, published on Jun. 12, 2008.
[0017] GB Patent No. 2,375,448 to Pedersen ("Extracting Features
from an Image by Automatic Selection of Pixels Associated with a
Desired Feature, Pedersen") discloses a method to construct
surfaces, such as horizons and faults from a few select seed
points. The method interpolates between the seed points and
extrapolates away from the seed points by generating many paths
which slowly converge to lines (in two dimensions) or surfaces (in
three dimensions). The method is based on the way ants leave the
colony to forage for food. Initially, their paths are nearly
random, but each ant leaves a trail of pheromones. Ants follow each
other's scent, and over time, short successful paths emerge. This
strategy was adapted to horizon tracking where success is defined
by the coherency of the seismic data along the path. For fault
picking, success appears to be defined by the incoherency along the
path. Over time, individual segments grow, and some may merge to
form larger surfaces. In a follow-up step, segments are connected
depending on their orientations and projected trajectories.
[0018] U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,106 ("Method and Apparatus for Creating
Horizons from 3-D Seismic Data") to Viswanathan discloses a method
for computer-assisted horizon picking by allowing the user to
delete partial horizons and use the remaining horizon as seed
points for automatic picking.
[0019] U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,365 ("Apparatus and Method for
Evaluation of Picking Horizons in 3-D Seismic Data") to Sitoh
discloses a method to evaluate the quality of horizon picks by
applying different picking strategies and parameter to allow
crosschecking of results.
[0020] U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,922 ("System For Information Extraction
From Geologic Time Volumes") to Stark discloses a method to convert
seismic data to a domain of relative geologic time of deposition.
The method is based on the unwrapping of seismic instantaneous
phase data.
[0021] U.S. Pat. No. 6,771,800 ("Method of Chrono-Stratigraphic
Interpretation of A Seismic Cross Section Or Block") to Keskes et
al. discloses a method to transform seismic data into the
depositional or chronostratigraphic domain. They construct virtual
reflectors, discretize the seismic section or volume, count the
number of virtual reflectors in each pixel or voxel, and
renormalizing this histogram. By doing this procedure for every
trace, they create a section or volume where each horizontal slice
approximates a horizon indicating a geologic layer deposited at one
time. This section or volume is then used to transform the data
into the depositional or chronostratigraphic domain. However, the
reference does not disclose the creation of surfaces, nor breaking
or merging of surfaces, nor topology or topological
consistency.
[0022] What is needed is a method that generates topologically
consistent reflection horizons from seismic (or attribute) data or
any geophysical data, preferably one that generates multiple
horizons simultaneously. The present invention fulfills this
need.
SUMMARY
[0023] In one embodiment, the invention can be a method for merging
surfaces identified in a seismic or seismic attribute data volume
to form larger surfaces representing subterranean geologic
structure or geophysical state of matter, comprising merging
neighboring surfaces in a topologically consistent way. In some
embodiments, topologically consistent can be defined as verifying
that surfaces satisfy each of (i) no self overlaps; (ii) local
consistency; and (iii) global consistency. In a more detailed
embodiment, the method can be a computer-implemented method for
transforming a seismic data volume acquired in a seismic survey to
a corresponding data volume which, when visually displayed, shows a
representation of subterranean reflector surfaces that gave rise to
the data by reflecting seismic waves, where the method comprises
(a) picking seismic reflections from the data volume, and creating
initial surfaces from the picks; (b) breaking surfaces into smaller
parts ("patches") that are predominantly topologically consistent;
(c) merging neighboring patches in a topologically consistent way,
thus extracting topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces
from the seismic data volume; and (d) displaying the extracted
surfaces (i.e., skeleton) for visual inspection or interpretation,
or saving their digital representations to computer memory or data
storage. Optionally, steps (b)-(c) may be repeated at least once
using the surfaces from step (c) of one iteration in step (b) of
the next.
[0024] In step (a) above, the seismic reflections may be picked by
correlating reflection events between neighboring traces in the
seismic data volume. The correlation may connect data peaks and
troughs using cross-event semblance or correlation coefficient as a
correlation measure, wherein a connection is accepted if the
correlation measure is greater than a pre-selected threshold but
rejected if less than the threshold. In some embodiments of the
invention, only unique correlations are accepted. Alternatively,
there may be identified and also accepted multiply correlated
connections characterized by two or more correlations from a single
peak, trough or zero crossing all exceeding the threshold. Before
merging neighboring patches in step (c), the patches may be edited
for topological consistency and topologically inconsistent patches
may be deleted, or data voxels causing inconsistency may be
deleted.
[0025] In step (b) above, breaking surfaces into patches can be
accomplished by shrinking initial surfaces to lines, removing
joints in the lines to form more individual lines, shrinking
individual lines to single-voxel points (characteristic points),
and propagating the characteristic points along the initial
surfaces by adding neighboring voxels to form patches of voxels.
Wildfire propagation may be used in propagating points along the
initial surfaces, e.g. circumferentially adding sequentially larger
layers one voxel thick around each characteristic point, each
propagation being limited to the surface from which the
corresponding characteristic point was shrunk. The sequential
circumferential addition of voxels may be halted where different
patches meet, thus preventing any voxel from belonging to more than
one patch. The propagation may be restricted such that all voxels
in any patch trace back before shrinking to the same initial
surface. Shrinking may be performed in different ways, for example
by morphological thinning. The shrinking of a line to a point may
be accomplished by shrinking the line at the same rate from each
end simultaneously. The shrinking of surfaces to lines may be done
by medial axes transformation. If, during the propagation of
points, a point is rejected for addition to a patch because of lack
of topological consistency, it may be designated an additional
characteristic point.
[0026] In a more general embodiment, the invention can be a method
for exploring for hydrocarbons, comprising: (a) obtaining a data
volume of seismic or seismic attribute data resulting from a
seismic survey; (b) subdividing the data volume into parts, called
objects (optionally, this step may be performed by the
skeletonization method of the preceding paragraph); (c) forming
regions of one or more objects; (d) developing or selecting a
measure for ranking the regions in terms of potential to represent
a geobody, interface surface, or intersection of these, or other
physical geologic structure or geophysical state of matter that is
indicative of hydrocarbon deposits; and (e) using the measure to
prioritize regions, and then using the prioritization to assess the
volume for hydrocarbon potential.
[0027] In another embodiment, the invention can be a method for
producing hydrocarbons from a subsurface region. The method
includes (a) obtaining a seismic data volume representing the
subsurface region; (b) obtaining a prediction of the potential for
hydrocarbon accumulations in the subsurface region based at least
partly on topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces
extracted from the seismic data volume by the skeletonization
method described above; and (c) in response to a positive
prediction of hydrocarbon potential, drilling a well into the
subsurface region and producing hydrocarbons.
[0028] Further, one or more of the embodiments of the method may
include using the topologically consistent reflection-based
surfaces to predict or analyze potential for hydrocarbon
accumulations; wherein topologically consistent means at least one
of (i) no self overlaps; (ii) local consistency, e.g., one surface
cannot be above a second surface at one location but beneath it at
another; and (iii) global consistency, meaning e.g. for three
surfaces A, B and C, if A overlies B and B overlies C, C cannot
overlie A at any location; wherein topologically consistent means
all three of (i), (ii) and (iii); wherein the seismic reflections
are picked by correlating reflection events between neighboring
traces in the seismic data volume; wherein correlation connects
data peaks and troughs using cross-event semblance or correlation
coefficient as a correlation measure, wherein a connection is
accepted if the correlation measure is greater than a pre-selected
threshold but rejected if less than the threshold; wherein the
picking is automated, using a computer; and wherein the patches are
edited for topological consistency, and topologically inconsistent
patches are deleted, or data voxels causing inconsistency are
deleted, before merging neighboring patches.
[0029] Moreover, one or more of the embodiments of the method may
include wherein breaking surfaces into patches comprises shrinking
initial surfaces to lines, removing joints in the lines to form
more individual lines, shrinking individual lines to single-voxel
points (characteristic points), propagating the characteristic
points along the initial surfaces by adding neighboring voxels to
form patches of voxels; where each characteristic point is labeled
with a different label, and the label is applied to the patch
formed around the characteristic point, thus providing a means to
keep track of different patches as they are expanded by
propagation; wherein wildfire propagation is used in propagating
points along the initial surfaces, comprising circumferentially
adding sequentially larger layers one voxel thick around each
characteristic point, each propagation being limited to the surface
from which the corresponding characteristic point was shrunk;
wherein the sequential circumferential addition of voxels is halted
where different patches meet, thus preventing any voxel from
belonging to more than one patch; wherein propagation is restricted
such that all voxels in any patch trace back before shrinking to
the same initial surface; wherein controlled marching is used to
propagate points along initial surfaces; wherein shrinking of an
initial surface to a line comprises successively removing
one-voxel-thick layers from the periphery of the surface until a
continuous line of individual voxels results; further comprising
deleting joint voxels from lines to form more lines before
shrinking lines to points; wherein shrinking of a line to a point
is accomplished by shrinking the line at the same rate from each
end simultaneously; wherein shrinking is done by morphological
thinning; wherein shrinking of surfaces to lines is done by medial
axes transformation; and wherein topological consistency is
enforced during the propagation of points; wherein a point that is
rejected for addition to a patch because of topological consistency
is designated an additional characteristic point.
[0030] Further still, one or more embodiments of the method may
include wherein merging neighboring patches in a topologically
consistent way is performed by developing overlap and neighbor
tables for the patches, generating an order for merge pair
candidates by sorting the overlap and neighbor tables, checking
candidate merges for topological consistency using the overlap and
neighbor tables, and accepting topologically consistent mergers;
wherein the sort order of the neighbor table is based on geometries
of, or geometry differences between, the neighboring patches, or is
based on the statistical properties of, or the differences between,
one or more attributes extracted from seismic data collocated with
the patches; wherein only unique correlations are accepted;
identifying and also accepting multiply correlated connections
characterized by two or more correlations from a single peak,
trough or zero crossing all exceeding the threshold; spatially
flattening the topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces
into an order representing the sequence of deposition using the
topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces and using the
flattened surfaces to predict or analyze potential for hydrocarbon
accumulations; flattening the associated seismic data within which
the topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces exist;
wherein the seismic data flattening is performed by nonlinear
stretch of the seismic data or by a cut and past method; wherein
every step is automated using a computer; repeating steps (b)-(c)
at least once using the surfaces from step (c) of one iteration in
step (b) of the next; creating a visual representation (i.e. a
tree) showing depositional order or hierarchy of the topologically
consistent reflection-based surfaces; using the tree to select one
or more surfaces for visualization; using the patches to segment
the seismic data volume into three-dimensional bodies or
inter-surface packages that represent geologic units that were
deposited within a common interval, and using them to analyze for
hydrocarbon potential; analyzing the location and characteristics
of edges and termination points of the topologically consistent
reflection-based surfaces and using that to assist in predicting or
analyzing potential for hydrocarbon accumulations; analyzing
attributes and geometric characteristics of the topologically
consistent reflection-based surfaces and/or the associated seismic
data at the locations of said surfaces to assist in predicting or
analyzing potential for hydrocarbon accumulations using the patches
or topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces to reduce the
amount of information contained in the seismic data volume in
order, thereby reducing storage or computational efficiency
requirements for subsequent data processing of the seismic data;
and wherein merging neighboring patches is restricted to patches
that trace back before shrinking to the same initial surface.
[0031] In another aspect, a method of transforming geologic data
relating to a subsurface region between a geophysical depth domain
and a geologic age domain is disclosed. Seismic data is obtained. A
set of topologically consistent surfaces is obtained that
correspond to the seismic data. The surfaces are enumerated in the
depth domain. An age is assigned to each of the surfaces in the
depth domain. The age corresponds to an estimated time of
deposition of the respective surface. An age mapping volume is
generated. An extent of the age domain is chosen. A depth mapping
volume is generated. Both the age mapping volume and the depth
mapping volume are used to transform geophysical, geologic, or
engineering data or interpretations between the depth domain and
the age domain, and between the age domain and the depth domain.
The geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or interpretations
transformed by at least one of the age mapping volume and the depth
mapping volume are outputted
[0032] According to methodologies and techniques, a push mode may
be used to transform between at least one of the depth domain and
the age domain, and the age domain and the depth domain. A pull
mode may be used to transform between at least one of the depth
domain and the age domain, and the age domain and the depth domain.
Specified layers of the depth domain having a predetermined age
range may be displayed by incorporating an opacity control.
Incorporating an opacity control may include rendering transparent
layers other than the specified layers such that the specified
layers are visible. The age mapping volume and/or the depth mapping
volume may be generated by interpolating from each of the surfaces
and their respective assigned ages. A filter may be applied to the
ages when generating at least one of the age mapping volume and the
depth mapping volume.
[0033] According to further methodologies and techniques, the age
mapping volume may be generated by optimizing a function that
minimizes differences between surfaces, their ages, and the age
mapping volume. More specifically, the age mapping volume may be
generated by optimizing a function of the form
A i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S i L A ( n ^ s , n ^ a ) S ) + B i = 1 N
( .intg. .intg. S i L B ( a s , a ) S ) + C .intg. .intg. .intg. V
L C ( n ^ d , n ^ a ) V + D .intg. .intg. .intg. V L D ( a ) V + E
.intg. .intg. .intg. V L E ( a , a 0 ) V = min ##EQU00001##
where {circumflex over (n)}.sub.s is a unit normal vector of a
surface S, {circumflex over (n)}.sub.a is a unit normal vector of
the age mapping volume defined at the location of a surface element
dS, N is the size of the set, L.sub.A is a measure of parallelism
between {circumflex over (n)}.sub.s and {circumflex over
(n)}.sub.a, L.sub.B compares the age a.sub.s assigned to each
surface to ages of the age mapping volume a defined at the location
of the surface element dS, L.sub.C is a measure of parallelism
between a unit normal vector {circumflex over (n)}.sub.d of a
seismic volume V and the unit normal vector {circumflex over
(n)}.sub.s, dV is a volume element of part or all of the seismic
data, L.sub.D is a measure of smoothness, L.sub.E defines a misfit
between the age mapping volume a and a reference age mapping volume
a.sub.0, and A, B, C, D and E are weighting parameters. Similarly,
the depth mapping volume may be generated by optimizing a function
that minimizes differences between surfaces, their ages, and the
depth mapping volume. More specifically, the depth mapping volume
may be generated by optimizing a function of the form
A i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S i L A ( m ^ s , a ^ ) S ) + B i = 1 N (
.intg. .intg. S i L B ( d s , d ) S ) + C .intg. .intg. .intg. W L
C ( m ^ d , a ^ ) W + D .intg. .intg. .intg. W L D ( d ) W + E
.intg. .intg. .intg. W L E ( d , d 0 ) W = min ##EQU00002##
[0034] where a denotes a unit vector in the direction of the age
axis, {circumflex over (m)}.sub.s and {circumflex over (m)}.sub.d
denote the normals of surfaces and seismic data transformed from
the depth domain to the age domain defined at the location of a
surface element dS, N is the size of the set, d.sub.s denotes the
depth of the surface defined at the location of the surface element
dS, d denotes the depth mapping volume, L.sub.A is a measure of
parallelism between a and {circumflex over (m)}.sub.s, L.sub.B
compares the depth d.sub.s assigned to each surface to depths of
the depth mapping volume d defined at the location of the surface
element dS, L.sub.C is a measure of parallelism between a unit
normal in the age domain and a unit normal vector {circumflex over
(m)}.sub.d of a seismic volume W in the age domain, dW is a volume
element of part or all of the age domain, L.sub.D is a measure of
smoothness, L.sub.E defines a misfit between the depth mapping
volume d and a reference age mapping volume d.sub.0, and A, B, C, D
and E are weighting parameters.
[0035] According to other methodologies and techniques, the set of
topologically consistent surfaces may be obtained by
skeletonization. The surfaces may be enumerated in the depth domain
using a push-down strategy or a pull-up strategy. The outputting
may include displaying at least a portion of at least one of the
depth domain and the age domain. Attributes of the subsurface
region may be formed from one of the age mapping volume, the depth
mapping volume, or data in the depth domain or the age domain. The
age mapping volume and/or the depth mapping volume may be used to
compute a thickness of one or more isopachs, and the computed
thickness may be outputted. The age mapping volume and/or the depth
mapping volume may be used to determine a presence of an enclosure
volume, and information identifying the enclosure volume may be
outputted. The method may be computer-implemented.
[0036] In another aspect, a computer program product is provided
having computer executable logic recorded on a tangible, machine
readable medium. The computer program product includes: code for
obtaining a set of topologically consistent surfaces that
correspond to seismic data relating to a subsurface region; code
for enumerating the surfaces in a depth domain; code for assigning
an age to each of the surfaces in the depth domain, the age
corresponding to an estimated time of deposition of the respective
surface; code for generating an age mapping volume; choosing an
extent of the age domain; code for generating a depth mapping
volume; code for using both the age mapping volume and the depth
mapping volume to transform geophysical, geologic, or engineering
data or interpretations between the depth domain and the age
domain, and between the age domain and the depth domain; and code
for outputting the geologic, geophysical, or engineering data or
interpretations transformed by at least one of the age mapping
volume and the depth mapping volume.
[0037] In still another aspect, a method of managing hydrocarbon
resources is provided. A set of topologically consistent surfaces
is obtained that correspond to seismic data relating to a
subsurface region. The surfaces are enumerated in a depth domain.
An age is assigned to each of the surfaces in the depth domain. The
age corresponds to an estimated time of deposition of the
respective surface. An age mapping volume is generated. An extent
of the age domain is chosen. A depth mapping volume is generated.
Both the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume are used
to transform geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or
interpretations between the depth domain and the age domain, and
between the age domain and the depth domain. The geophysical,
geologic, or engineering data or interpretations transformed by at
least one of the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume
are used to predict a presence of hydrocarbons in the subsurface
region. Hydrocarbon resources are managed based on the predicted
presence.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0038] The present invention and its advantages will be better
understood by referring to the following detailed description and
the attached drawings in which:
[0039] FIG. 1 is a computer display of a volume of seismic
amplitude data ready for interpretation, such as the tracking of
seismic horizons in three dimensions;
[0040] FIG. 2 shows four hundred fifty (450) surfaces that
correspond to peak and trough reflection horizons, extracted from
the seismic data volume of FIG. 1 by the present inventive method,
all surfaces being topologically consistent;
[0041] FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate three types of topological
inconsistency between one or multiple layers or surfaces;
[0042] FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing one embodiment of the present
inventive method for topological skeletonization of seismic data
volumes;
[0043] FIGS. 5A-D are schematic diagrams illustrating the steps in
FIG. 4;
[0044] FIG. 6 shows a seismic reflection surface obtained by
tracking a peak across neighboring traces;
[0045] FIG. 7 shows method steps for using the consistent set of
surfaces generated by one embodiment of the present inventive
method to establish their overall order and reorganize the seismic
data (within the data volume) into this order for use in
interpretation;
[0046] FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing basic steps in a particular
embodiment of the method of FIG. 4;
[0047] FIGS. 9A-9F illustrate an exemplary application of the flow
chart of FIG. 8 of converting multi-valued surfaces to consistent
surfaces;
[0048] FIGS. 10A-10C illustrate event tracking and editing by
filling gaps in surfaces after event tracking;
[0049] FIG. 11 illustrates the progression from a schematic raw,
potentially multi-valued surface in map view to lines and then to
characteristic points by shrinking (thinning); followed by point
labeling and propagation of labels back onto the surface;
[0050] FIG. 12A is a flow chart showing basic steps for
topologically merging pairs of neighboring patches in one
embodiment of the inventive method;
[0051] FIG. 12B is a flow chart showing basic steps for
topologically merging pairs of neighboring patches in another
embodiment of the inventive method;
[0052] FIG. 13 illustrates holes caused by low correlations between
events or the existence of multiple good, but ambiguous
connections, both of which can be fixed in an editing step;
[0053] FIG. 14 is a flow chart of basic steps for transforming the
time/depth vertical scale of the seismic data volume to an inferred
level order of stratigraphic placement and deposition;
[0054] FIG. 15 shows an example of the topological orders and
levels based on surfaces of FIG. 13;
[0055] FIG. 16A shows a surface level tree for four hundred fifty
surfaces of the data volume of FIG. 2, FIG. 16B shows a magnified
view of a four-level portion of the tree, and FIG. 16C shows all
the surfaces of FIG. 2 associated with the four consecutive
levels;
[0056] FIG. 17 is a graph showing the topological uncertainty for
the surfaces in the surface level tree of FIG. 16A;
[0057] FIG. 18 shows the data volume of FIG. 2 after its surfaces
are identified by the present inventive method then converted from
the geophysical time domain to the (topological) level domain;
[0058] FIG. 19 illustrates methods for transforming seismic volumes
into the level or order domain;
[0059] FIG. 20 shows the level transformed seismic data from FIG.
1;
[0060] FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing basic steps in one
embodiment of the present invention's method for high-grading of
geological objects;
[0061] FIGS. 22A-B show the depth contours for two surfaces over
the seismic amplitudes extracted along the surfaces;
[0062] FIG. 23 shows seismic data in the depth domain, seismic data
in the age domain, and an age mapping volume used to transform the
data between the domains;
[0063] FIG. 24 shows seismic data in the depth domain, seismic data
in the age domain, and a depth mapping volume used to transform the
data between domains;
[0064] FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing a method according to
disclosed aspects;
[0065] FIG. 26 is simplified side elevational view showing geologic
layers;
[0066] FIG. 27 is a simplified side elevational view showing
geologic layers;
[0067] FIGS. 28A and 28B are simplified representations of a depth
domain and an age domain;
[0068] FIGS. 28C, 28D, 28E and 28F are simplified schematics of
data transformations;
[0069] FIG. 29 is a perspective view of a seismic data cube;
[0070] FIG. 30 is a perspective view of surfaces extracted from the
seismic data cube;
[0071] FIG. 31 is a perspective view of an age mapping volume;
[0072] FIG. 32 is a perspective view of a depth mapping volume;
[0073] FIG. 33 is a perspective view of a flattened seismic
cube;
[0074] FIG. 34 is a simplified view of an enclosure;
[0075] FIG. 35 is a block diagram representative of a computing
environment;
[0076] FIG. 36 is a flowchart depicting machine-readable code;
[0077] FIG. 37 is a side elevational view of a subsurface region;
and
[0078] FIG. 38 is a flowchart showing a method of extracting
hydrocarbons.
[0079] The invention will be described in connection with example
embodiments. To the extent that the following detailed description
is specific to a particular embodiment or a particular use of the
invention, this is intended to be illustrative only, and is not to
be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. On the
contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications
and equivalents that may be included within the scope of the
invention, as defined by the appended claims.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS
[0080] In order to search for hydrocarbon accumulations in the
earth, geoscientists are using methods of remote sensing to look
below the earth's surface. A routinely used technique is the
seismic reflection method where man-made sound waves are generated
near the surface. The sound propagates into the earth, and whenever
the sound passes from one rock layer into another, a small portion
of the sound is reflected back to the surface where it is recorded.
Typically, hundreds to thousands of recording instruments are
employed. Sound waves are sequentially excited at many different
locations. From all these recordings, a two-dimensional (2D) or
three-dimensional (3D) image of the subsurface can be obtained
after data processing. Seismic interpretation often involves the
picking of surfaces to characterize the subsurface for the
delineation of underground features relevant to the exploration,
identification and production of hydrocarbons. The present
invention describes a method to pick multiple surfaces
simultaneously. That is, embodiments of the present inventive
method may be used to pick many or all of these surfaces at
once.
[0081] The ability to pick many surfaces simultaneously (i.e., the
ability to skeletonize seismic data) enables a pattern recognition
or machine learning method to search geological or geophysical data
for direct indications of hydrocarbons or elements of the
hydrocarbon system such as reservoir, seal, source, maturation and
migration to determine and delineate potential accumulations of
hydrocarbons.
[0082] In application for geophysical or geological interpretation,
there is often a distinction made between the terms `horizon` and
`surface`. As used herein, a surface and horizon may be used
interchangeable. The present invention is a method that generates
multiple surfaces simultaneously, while forcing individual surfaces
to be single valued and all surfaces to be topologically
consistent. Surfaces that using traditional methods are
multi-valued or topologically inconsistent are replaced with a set
of smaller patches, each of which is single-valued and
topologically consistent with all other surfaces. This method
creates surfaces that represent many or all reflection surfaces
contained in a seismic data volume. It generates the skeletonized
representation of the seismic data, which greatly reduces the
amount of data. Beneficially, it organizes and presents the seismic
data in a geologically intuitive manner, which facilitates seismic
interpretation and characterization of the subsurface, and thus the
delineation of underground features relevant to the exploration and
production of hydrocarbons.
[0083] FIG. 1 presents an example of a seismic amplitude volume.
Correlating the peaks (bright) or troughs (dark) from one trace to
the next allows definition of surfaces. Using one embodiment of the
present inventive method, four hundred fifty surfaces shown in FIG.
2 are extractable for this example volume of FIG. 1. The number
grid shown on FIGS. 1 and 2 and other similar drawings denote
discrete coordinates of the seismic survey, determined by source
and receiver locations.
[0084] Many seismic surfaces correspond to interfaces between
layers of subsurface rock. Each layer is a packet of rock that was
deposited at roughly the same time. Given two juxtaposed layers,
the deeper one was created earlier, and the shallower one later.
The science of stratigraphy, i.e., the science of rock layer
sequences, suggests that such a relationship persists spatially. If
one layer overlays another layer at one location, then it overlays
this layer everywhere it is present. The main exceptions are caused
by structural complexity such as overthrusts, reverse faults, or
overturned folds. In at least one embodiment of the present
invention, topologically consistent means that the following three
conditions are satisfied with regard to the geometric arrangement
of rock layers. [0085] 1. A rock layer may not overlap itself. If a
layer overlaps itself, it is simultaneously younger and older than
itself and the rock sandwiched in between. This statement may be
called the condition of No Self Overlaps, illustrated in FIG. 3A.
[0086] 2. Two layers cannot reverse their depositional
relationship. One layer may not be above another at one location,
and below it at another location. Otherwise, one layer is both
older and younger than the other one. This statement may be called
the condition of Local Consistency, illustrated in FIG. 3B. [0087]
3. Sets of layers must preserve transitivity. Above/below or
younger/older are examples of transitive relations. If layer one is
above layer two, and layer two is above layer three, then layer
three must be below layer one. Otherwise, layer one is both older
and younger than layer three. This statement may be called the
condition of Global Consistency, illustrated in FIG. 3C.
[0088] It may be noted that the no-self-overlap condition is a
special case of the local consistency condition, and that the local
consistency condition is a special case of the global consistency
condition. The first condition, however, is much easier to check
than the other two, and the second condition is much easier to
check than the third condition. For computational efficiency, it is
useful to treat all three conditions separately, even if the third
one actually incorporates the others. Alternatively, the no self
overlaps condition may be defined such that it applies to one
surface, the local consistency condition may be defined such that
it applies only when two different surfaces are involved, and the
global consistency condition may be defined such that it applies
only when at least three different surfaces are involved, in which
case the three conditions are mutually exclusive.
[0089] If seismic reflection events are caused by sound waves
passing from one layer into another one, and thus often correlate
with the interfaces between rock layers, then seismic reflection
surfaces also need to satisfy these three conditions. The same can
be said for any phase rotated version of the seismic data, although
the reflection events in such data do not necessarily correlate
with lithologic interfaces. For a set of surfaces with associated
above/below relations, the three above-listed conditions can be
used to check the overall consistency of these surfaces. Surfaces
violating the conditions are either not caused by layers of rock,
or have been tracked incorrectly. Surfaces not related to layers
include faults, fluid contacts, or events blended from thin-layer
reflections. Tracking errors may relate to noise, seismic
acquisition and processing artifacts, or thin-layer tuning.
[0090] For a given set of layers (or surfaces), the collection of
above/below (or younger/older) relationships are defining their
topology. A set of layers that satisfies at least one of the three
conditions, preferably all three, are termed topologically
consistent. In the discussion of example embodiments given below,
where in the context it matters, topologically consistent means
that all three conditions are satisfied. For a topologically
consistent set of layers, an overall order of the different events
may be defined by performance of a topological sort on these
relations (e.g., Skiena, The Algorithm Design Manual, Springer,
273-274 (1998)). Typically, without application of the embodiments
of the present inventive method, establishing an order of surfaces
is problematic and/or impossible due to conflicting relations
between layers (or surfaces). These topological inconsistencies
typically cause the topological sort to fail. The argument can be
turned around to test for topological consistency: the surfaces are
consistent if and only if the topological sort succeeds. One of the
objectives of the present invention is to establish consistency
between surfaces. If the topological sort succeeds, the surfaces
are topologically consistent. If the topological sort fails, the
surfaces are topologically inconsistent. Moreover, the topological
sorting algorithm identifies the surfaces that cause the
inconsistency. Consistency does not imply that the resulting
surface order is unique. For example, two small, adjacent but
non-overlapping surfaces are topologically consistent and result in
a successful topological sort. Yet, the resulting linear sort order
is non-unique, i.e., either surface could be listed first without
violating any of the above/below constraints or conditions.
[0091] Many small surfaces are more likely to be topologically
consistent than a few large ones. In the small-size limit, every
surface extends for only one point in the vertical and lateral
direction, and thus, by construction, these single-point surfaces
are topologically consistent. The embodiments of the present
inventive method are based in part on this observation. FIG. 4 is a
flow chart showing basic steps in one embodiment of the present
inventive method for the skeletonization of a seismic data volume.
Typically, the seismic volume is a full stack amplitude volume, but
any seismic or seismic attribute volume could be used.
[0092] At step 41, seismic reflection surfaces are tracked through
the seismic volume to find the raw, potentially multi-valued
surfaces. In this context, a seismic event is either a peak (an
attribute maximum), a trough (an attribute minimum), a zero
crossing from a peak to a trough, or a zero crossing from a trough
to a peak. All events of one or more kinds are picked and related
to the events on neighboring seismic traces. In the present
example, both peaks and troughs are picked. As such, this step
involves picking seismic reflections from the data volume, and
creating initial surfaces from the picks.
[0093] At step 42, the surfaces generated by step 41 are broken
into a set of small patches. These patches are preferably small
enough that they are predominantly topologically consistent with
each other, and those that are not may be easily made so by erasing
a few single points (i.e., data voxels or pixels) or even deleting
entire small patches that create the topological inconsistencies.
As such, this step involves breaking the surfaces into smaller
parts ("patches") that are predominantly topologically
consistent.
[0094] At step 43, larger surfaces are created from multiple small
patches by merging neighboring ones. As provided in step 42, all
patches are topological consistent. In the present example
embodiment, a determination is made for every patch which patches
it overlaps and whether it is above or below each of these patches.
Furthermore, for every patch, its neighbors (i.e., patches at a
similar level that contain traces adjacent to the patch being
analyzed) are identified. Neighboring patches potentially belong to
the same surface and are merged if the resulting combination does
not cause a topological inconsistency. This step may be referred to
as the topological merge procedure. As such, this step involves
merging neighboring patches in a topologically consistent way, thus
extracting topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces from
the seismic data volume.
[0095] After one, multiple, or all neighboring patches are
topologically merged, the result is a set of surfaces that are
topologically consistent by construction. They may be stored in
computer memory to be used for interpretation and characterization
of the subsurface.
[0096] In some regions of the seismic data volume, the tracking
procedure (preferably automated) may miscorrelate events between
traces. In other areas, poor data quality may prevent the seismic
event tracker from correlating certain events. Lastly, some
correlations may be so ambiguous that they can not be assigned to a
single surface. In each of these cases, the local fabric provided
by the surrounding, consistent surfaces may help to fix these
problems. Miscorrelations may be corrected, poor correlations in
noisy areas may become acceptable, or multiple correlations may be
disambiguated. The consistent set of surfaces from step 43 may
allow improvement of the seismic event tracking and, if desired,
further passes through the workflow (indicated in FIG. 4 by the
dashed iteration arrow) may be performed to fill in holes and
create fewer, more extensive surfaces (i.e., an improved
skeleton).
[0097] FIGS. 5A-5D are schematic diagrams illustrating the steps of
FIG. 4. In FIG. 5A, peak events in a seismic data volume are
tracked, and (FIG. 5B) found to form a multi-valued surface. FIG.
5C shows the surface broken into sixteen small patches 51 that are
topologically consistent with each other. In FIG. 5D, neighboring
patches are merged into larger ones unless this causes a
topological inconsistency. The final result 52 is a set of four
topologically consistent surfaces, each indicated by different
cross-hatching.
[0098] FIG. 6 shows an example of a seismic reflection surface
obtained by tracking a peak across neighboring traces. On the left,
the surface is single valued, but on the right side, the surface is
clearly multi-valued and overlays itself at least twice. Many
existing seismic autotrackers either yield such multi-valued
surfaces, or simply return one of the different possibilities for
each location, typically the one found first, and thus not
necessarily a geologically relevant one.
[0099] FIG. 7 presents an application of the one embodiment of the
present inventive method wherein a seismic attribute volume is
reorganized using a topologically consistent set of surfaces, such
as the present inventive method creates. Because the surfaces are
consistent, there is at least one order which honors the individual
above/below relations. If surfaces correspond to the boundaries
between geologic strata, then such an order represents the sequence
of their deposition. Typically, the order is non-unique because
small features may be laterally disconnected without overlap, and
thus their exact order cannot be established. Distorting the
seismic data vertically (e.g., flattening the seismic surfaces) in
such a way that the corresponding seismic surfaces are arranged in
this order to allow the interpreter to analyze the seismic data in
the order in which the geologic strata may have been deposited,
which facilitates the exploration and production of
hydrocarbons.
[0100] Next, the present inventive method is explained in more
detail, as illustrated by a particular embodiment of the method of
FIG. 4, which is illustrated in the flow chart of FIG. 8 and
exemplary application of this flow chart in FIG. 9. In FIG. 8,
"Stage 1" refers to step 41 of FIG. 4, "Stage 2" to step 42, and
"Stage 3" to step 43. FIGS. 9A-9F illustrate an example application
of the flow chart in FIG. 8 and may be best understood by
concurrently viewing FIG. 8. In FIG. 9A, multi-valued surfaces are
constructed by tracking seismic events (Stage 1). In Stage 2 (Step
42), the surfaces are reduced to lines (shown in FIG. 9B), line
joints are removed (shown in FIG. 9C), and lines are reduced to
characteristic points (shown in FIG. 9D). The remaining points are
labeled and the labels are propagated back out onto the surfaces to
construct the patches (shown in FIG. 9E). The resulting patches are
topologically merged in Stage 3 of FIG. 8 (Step 43) resulting in
consistent surfaces (shown in FIG. 9F).
Stage 1 (step 41)
[0101] The first part of step 81 is event tracking. In this
embodiment of the invention, tracking of all events involves
correlating neighboring events and editing gaps and
miscorrelations. Correlation begins by extracting all the desired
seismic events, or reflection surfaces, across all traces. Desired
events might include peaks, troughs, or either kind of zero
crossings (+/- or -/+). Experience has indicated that extracting
both peaks and troughs (but not zero crossings) may be a good
compromise between minimizing the total number of events (i.e.,
maximizing computational efficiency) and maximizing the quality of
the resulting surfaces. Using more than one kind of event reduces
ambiguity in event correlation and topological merge, because
peaks, troughs and zero crossings are interspersed throughout the
seismic data volume. FIG. 10A illustrates event tracking as
performed in this embodiment of the invention. Shown at the left of
the drawing, for each seismic trace, local minima are extracted to
define troughs (dashed arrows), while local maxima define peaks
(solid arrows). Seismic trace windows 101 indicated by brackets are
centered on each event, and used for event correlation between
different traces. The right-hand part of the drawing illustrates
event window correlation between different traces, and thus
construction of raw surfaces. A one-dimensional (pilot) packet of
data 102 (centered at a peak, for example) is compared with other
packets in neighboring traces. Some events exhibit great similarity
and are uniquely correlated (solid line arrows). Other events might
be well correlated with more than one event on a neighboring trace
(103 arrows) and will be termed multiply correlated. Rather than
choosing one valid correlation over the other, both correlations
are thrown out (in this embodiment of the invention) after storing
their location and properties for disambiguation after the
topological merge or in a second pass through the workflow for
example. Some correlations might be poor (104 arrows). Events with
only poor correlations may be assigned to surfaces after the
topological merge by considering their context and the surrounding
local seismic fabric.
[0102] Inter-trace correlation can be measured mathematically with
a number of methods, for example cross correlation or semblance
analysis. A good correlation is preferably defined as one that
exceeds a pre-defined threshold, whereas a poor correlation is one
that does not. Additional criteria, such as the vertical distance
(lag) between neighboring events, may also be used during the
correlation process. If this lag exceeds a pre-defined threshold,
then the two events most likely belong to different surfaces, and
no connection is made (i.e., their correlation is rejected).
Beneficially, this may be used to prevent cycle skips.
[0103] More generally, inter-trace correlation can be computed as
the result of an inter-trace metric. This may consist of defining a
function that computes the distance in a multidimensional vector
space. For example, picking two windows centered at each of the two
traces defines the multidimensional vector that consists of the
values inside that window. These values may be the amplitudes
recorded at each voxel or multiple features computed from those
amplitudes (e.g., statistics such as the mean, variance and higher
moments; a frequency decomposition through a Fourier transform;
etc.). The function that compares the two vectors may be a
Euclidean distance function, 1-norm, Hausdorff distance, etc.
[0104] In practice, two packets are often not connected directly,
because their correlation is poor or their vertical difference
exceeds a certain threshold. They may, however, be unambiguously
connected in an indirect manner as illustrated in FIGS. 10B-10C.
FIG. 10B shows a surface with a few missing connections. If not
accounted for, such missing connections give rise to numerous
unnecessary patches, which increase the computational cost of the
topological merge. The gaps can be fixed, however, where
connections are already implied. In one embodiment of the
invention, when events can be uniquely connected, albeit in an
indirect manner (i.e., without satisfying the correlation criteria
discussed previously), direct connections are explicitly made to
close the gaps and thus prevent the generation of unnecessary
patches. This editing step (step 82) relies on the fact that
circumventing a gap in one direction leads to the same point on the
neighboring trace as circumventing it in another direction,
indicating that the surface is locally simple and neither splitting
nor spiraling. For example, consider the connecting paths 105 and
106 each going opposite ways around a gap in FIG. 10A. Paths 105
end up at the same place implying unique connections between that
point and points en route. Those missing connections are shown by
the two new cell boundary lines added in FIG. 10C (thicker lines).
In contrast, paths 106 show that these missing connections are
ambiguous, and thus no changes are made at that location in FIG.
10C.
Stage 2 (step 42)
[0105] The second stage is the generation of topologically
consistent patches. The raw surfaces obtained in Stage 1 by
tracking reflection events defined by peaks, troughs, and/or zero
crossings are typically not topologically consistent. They often 1)
overlap themselves, 2) exist above another surface at one location,
but below the same surface at different location (local
inconsistency), or 3) are part of sets of surfaces that contain a
loop in their above/below relations (global inconsistency). Many
smaller patches are more likely to be topologically consistent than
a few large ones. In fact, if all the patches were only one sample
in areal extent, then by construction, they are topologically
consistent. Thus, the objective of this stage is to break the raw,
potentially multi-valued surfaces into smaller, topologically
consistent patches. This is done (step 83) by first reducing
(shrinking) the surfaces to topologically similar lines by
application of a medial axes transformation or morphological
thinning (for example see Haralick and Shapiro, Computer and Robot
Vision, Vol. 1, Chapter 5, Addison-Wesley (1992)). Because the
thinning is applied in the 4-connected sense, joints between line
segments are characterized by having at least three direct
neighbors. Removal of the joints, followed by a second application
of morphological thinning, reduces (shrinks) the original raw
surfaces to a few disconnected, characteristic points that are
easily given unique identifiers, or labels. At step 84, the
assigned labels are then propagated back onto the original surface,
a process that might more descriptively be referred to as
back-propagation, but may also be referred to for brevity as
propagation.
[0106] FIG. 11 shows the progression from a schematic multi-valued
surface in map view (111) to lines by morphological thinning (112)
and removal of line joints (113), from lines to points by
morphological thinning (114), point labeling (115), and propagation
of labels back onto the surface (116). The set of events with the
same label define a patch. The result in FIG. 11 is a set of eight
small patches in step 116, corresponding to the eight
characteristic points in step 115. By construction, patches are
equal to or smaller than their parent surface, because each
characteristic point competes with nearby characteristic points for
connected members. The back-propagation of labels can be preformed,
for example, with a simple wildfire algorithm or with a controlled
marching algorithm that is guided by, for example, event
correlations, the lags (vertical proximity of events), or the local
curvature of the surfaces. An advantage of controlled marching,
versus a simple wildfire algorithm, is that it could propagate
labels more rapidly across flatter regions, while moving more
slowly across complex areas, thereby yielding more homogeneous
patches. Other methods of propagation can be envisioned, which are
within the scope of the present inventive method.
[0107] After propagating labels, the resulting patches, although
generally consistent, are not guaranteed to be topologically
consistent. To better perform the topological merge in Stage 3,
these patches are preferably adjusted to be topologically
consistent. A preferred way for identifying topological
inconsistencies is to begin by constructing an overlap table (step
85) to record which patches overlay others and the manner in which
they overlap. At step 86, the inconsistencies are identified.
During table construction or later inspection, the self-overlapping
surfaces are readily evident. From the table, pairs of patches with
conflicting above-below relationships (i.e., local inconsistencies)
are identified. Lastly, one can find sets of three or more patches
for which the above-below relationships are circular (global
inconsistencies) by attempting a topological sort of the remaining
entries in the overlap table. The topological sort succeeds if no
circular relationships exist. If such global inconsistencies exist,
then the topological sort is impossible and instead returns a list
of patches with inconsistent relationships.
[0108] The last part of step 86 is editing the identified
topologically inconsistent patches. The simplest editing method is
deletion of inconsistent patches. A more surgical approach is to
prune these patches by removing the origins of the conflicting
overlaps only. This approach requires some diligence, because some
patches may become disconnected by this process and may require
re-labeling of the resulting pieces. Another editing method may be
to iteratively split the inconsistent patches into smaller ones
until all inconsistencies are resolved. In practice, simple
deletion of inconsistent patches seems to work well, because there
are far more consistent patches than inconsistent ones, and those
that are inconsistent are generally far smaller and often located
in marginal areas. After editing inconsistent surface patches, it
is preferable to reconstruct the overlap table to account for these
editorial changes.
Stage 3 (step 43)
[0109] The third stage involves merging neighboring patches into
larger ones, under the condition that the merged surfaces remain
topologically consistent. The first task is to determine which
patches are connected (i.e. abut each other in some manner in the
data volume, but are labeled differently). These patches are termed
neighbors, and may be recorded (step 87) in a neighbor table as
candidates for topological merge into larger patches, ultimately
resulting in a surface. For example, separate patches are created
by thinning (e.g., reduction, shrinking) and reduce to different
characteristic points. If the surface is a perfect rectangle, with
perfect connections in all directions within the rectangle, then
the thinning likely yields five characteristic points, and thus
five patches after propagation. Just because they are different
patches does not imply that they do not connect to each other with
good correlations. Most patches being merged were once part of a
well-correlated surface. Typically, there are many patches and many
pairs of neighbors. The number, shape, and quality of the resulting
topologically consistent surfaces depend on the order in which the
merge candidates are evaluated. Take, for example, two patches that
overlap, and a third patch that neighbors both. It cannot be merged
with both, because the resulting merged surface self overlaps. As
such, it can be merged with only one. The particular choice
dictates the success or failure of subsequent merges. Continuing
step 87, the neighbor pairs in the neighbor table are preferably
put into an order in which the merge attempts are performed. A
trivial order is simply one of numerically increasing labels (i.e.,
the order in which neighbors were encountered). More sophisticated
orderings might incorporate patch properties, such as the
correlation coefficient between events in neighboring patches or
similarity between patch orientations. The latter is a preferred
method to establish the merge order. Neighboring patches that are
oriented similarly are merged first, because they are more likely
to represent common geologic strata, whereas neighboring patches
with greatly dissimilar orientations are merged last, because they
could be related to noise artifacts or non-stratigraphic events,
such as faults and fluid contacts. Even more advanced orderings
could be based on the statistical similarity between secondary
seismic attributes extracted at or near the patch locations.
[0110] With a merge order established by one method or another, the
topological merge may be undertaken (step 88). The process for one
embodiment of the invention is outlined in detail in the flow chart
of FIG. 12A and described next; a second embodiment is described in
FIG. 12B and is described further below. At step 121, one pair of
neighboring patches is selected as merge candidates, and is
postulated to constitute or be part of one surface, meaning that
the overlap relations for one patch are applicable to the other
(and vice versa). If this action generates a topological
inconsistency, then the merge must be rejected. Otherwise, the
merge is accepted, and the overlap and neighbor tables are adjusted
by replacing the label for one patch with that of the other.
[0111] The computational costs to evaluate the three consistency
conditions after a postulated merge are very different. Self
overlap is quick and easy to verify. This is shown as step 122 in
FIG. 12A. A local consistency check requires examination of the
entire overlap table (step 123). A global consistency check,
however, requires a topological sort (step 124), which is
computationally expensive. In the embodiment of FIG. 12A, the three
consistency checks are cascaded in order of increasing numerical
costs. The more expensive checks are performed only on merge
candidates that pass the less costly checks.
[0112] If the topological sort succeeds (step 125), then the merged
patch is globally consistent, and thus, topologically consistent.
The hypothesis is then accepted, and the tables are accordingly
modified (step 126). Then, the procedure repeats (step 121) with
the next pair of merge candidates. If the sort or any of the other
tests fail, then (step 128) the hypothesis is rejected, and the
procedure is applied to the next pair (step 121).
[0113] Even cascading the three consistency checks is
computationally costly, because the topological sort needs to be
executed many times. The topological patch merge algorithm could be
sped up dramatically were the topological sort not performed for
every pair of neighboring patches. One modification of the
algorithm is the introduction of a queue. Neighbor pairs that
passed the first and the second test (steps 122 and 123) are placed
in a queue instead of immediately being evaluated by the third test
(step 124). Once the queue reaches a user-specified size, for
example four pairs, the overlap table is duplicated, all the
proposed merges are applied to the copy, and the topological sort
is executed. If the sort succeeds, then all four proposed merges
are globally consistent and acceptable. If the sort fails, then
there must be at least one inconsistency in the proposed merges. To
find the inconsistency, the original overlap table is copied again,
but only the first two merges are applied to the copy. The
remaining pairs are simply stored in a holding queue. If the sort
succeeds, then the merges of the first two pairs are acceptable and
it is known that there is an inconsistency in the later two pairs.
If the sort fails, it is known that there is an inconsistency in
the first two pairs. The procedure is repeated again on the set
containing the inconsistency, but this time only one pair is
evaluated. After the topological sort, it is immediately known
which potential pair led to an inconsistency and should be
rejected. At this time, the cycle repeats by refilling the queue
before the sorts are performed again.
[0114] In other words, after discovering an inconsistency in the
proposed merges accumulated in the queue, the queue is bisected and
sorts are performed on the pieces until the inconsistency is found,
while accepting successful merges. Generally, the queue should not
be limited to four pairs, but instead to a few hundred or thousand
pairs. Moreover, the queue size can be allowed to vary dynamically.
If the sort fails, the queue size is reduced, but if it succeeds,
then the queue size is increased for the next evaluation of the
topological sort. Finding one inconsistency among N pairs can be
performed with log.sub.2 N sorts instead of N sorts. For a queue
with one thousand twenty four elements, one inconsistency can be
found in at most ten topological sorts, which results in a great
reduction in computational costs.
[0115] A second embodiment of the topological merge is shown in
FIG. 12B with details presented in Table 1. This alternative
embodiment of the invention differs from the previous one in the
way in which the consistency check is performed. The first approach
checks whether a directed cycle is introduced after merging two
surface patches. By contrast, the alternative embodiment predicts
whether a merge would create a directed cycle instead of checking
for cycles. This is a much less computationally intensive task that
not only performs the same function, but is also more robust. The
inputs to the method of FIG. 12B are initial patches, their
ordering (acyclic directed graph), and a merge order table (pairs
of neighboring patches). The output is larger patches, and
ultimately surfaces.
[0116] A cycle (i.e. a topological inconsistency) is created after
merging two surface patches only if one patch is above the other.
Therefore, in order to avoid introducing inconsistencies, it
suffices to check whether one patch is above the other. The data
structure that provides a convenient representation of such
relationships is a kind of directed graph: the surface patches
inside the volume are represented by nodes, and directional
connections, or edges, between nodes exist if one patch is above
another. Thus, the problem reduces to a specific graph traversal
problem in which the question is whether a path between two nodes
(the surface patches) exists.
[0117] The graph traversal problem can be solved using the standard
depth-first search (DFS) algorithm (e.g., see Introduction to
Algorithms, Cormen, Leiserson and Riverst, MIT Press and McGraw
Hill, 477-485 (section 23.3, "Depth-first search") (1990)).
Implementation of the following modifications to this general
algorithm achieves a substantially better computational efficiency.
First, augment the data structure, the directed graph, with an
additional attribute at each node, u, denoted DEPTHATT(u), that
keeps track of the absolute depth of the patch. Second, introduce a
Geometric Depth Property (GDP) and modify the traversal algorithm
so that it ensures that the GDP is both maintained and exploited at
all times (Step 1201 in FIG. 12B and Procedure 1 in Table 1). This
property (GDP) requires that the depth attribute increase
monotonically when following the directed edges in the graph. In
other words, if patch a overlaps patch b in the volume then the
depth attribute of patch a must be less than or equal to the depth
attribute of patch b. Then, in step 1202, a pair of patches is
selected from the merge table, and at step 1203 merger of the two
selected patches is checked for topological consistency employing
the GDP to gain efficiency (Procedure 2 in Table 1). If the check
is affirmative, then in step 1204 the two patches are merged
according to Procedure 3 of Table 1. This approach is efficient
because the search for a path between two nodes is confined to a
small portion of the graph instead of the whole structure: the
surface patches to be merged have depth attribute values within a
limited range of values, and the search only explores nodes with
depth attributes within that range. The GDP guarantees this to be
sufficient.
TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Geometric Depth Property (GDP) Let u .noteq.
v. DEPTHATT(v).ltoreq. DEPTHATT(v) if there is a directed path
starting at node u that reaches node v. Procedure 1: Enforce GDP on
an acyclic Procedure 2: Check consistency if nodes u and v directed
graph were to be merged 1. Assign DEPTHATT(u) to each node u by 1.
Set maxdepth = max(DEPTHATT(u), taking highest depth value of patch
u. DEPTHATT(v)) 2. For each node u with no incoming edges: 2. Start
at u and recursively follow edges to (a) For each child v: nodes
for which DEPTHATT .ltoreq. maxdepth. i. If DEPTHATT(u) >
DEPTHATT(v), (a) If v is encountered, then cannot merge u then
DEPTHATT(u) = DEPTHATT(v) and v. ii. Mark u as visited. 3. Start at
v and recursively follow edges to iii. If v is unvisited, then
repeat Step 2 nodes for which DEPTHATT .ltoreq. maxdepth. on v as
well. (a) If u is encountered, then cannot merge u and v. Procedure
3: Merge nodes u to v 1. Add edges of v to u. 2. Set maxdepth =
max(DEPTHATT(u), DEPTHATT(v)). 3. Set DEPTHATT(u) = maxdepth 4.
Remove node v 5. Apply Step 2 of Procedure 1 to the modified node u
(this step maintains the GDP) Note: The graph traversals in
procedures 1 and 2 may follow any scheme, such as a modified
depth-first search. Only the modification is detailed here.
[0118] Further efficiency gains may be obtained by appropriately
ordering the merge table. For example, the algorithm tends to work
more efficiently if the order of merges gives preference to those
pairs of patches that have a high depth value first. Reordering the
merge table in this fashion may improve efficiency. In addition,
breaking down the order of patch merges according to region-based
schemes can have a significant impact. For example, the volume may
be divided into regions of space that do not overlap but that taken
together cover the whole space. Label these regions from 1 to n and
list them in some order according to a permutation of the n labels.
Now perform the merges that fall in the first region listed, then
those in the second region listed, and so on. The way in which the
regions are chosen, and the permutation of their listing can
greatly diminish the computation time. For example, breaking the
volume along one of the axes into n slabs and listing the regions
so that any subsequent region is most distant from the previously
listed regions can significantly decrease computation time. This
scheme also lends itself to parallelization--the computation can be
performed by different processors or computers at the same time, so
long as the regions are not connected to the previous ones. The
extreme case of this scheme is to begin with surface patches that
are a single voxel in size.
[0119] The algorithm described above and outlined in FIG. 12B and
Table 1 can readily be parallelized, and additional elements can
further enhance such an effort. Specifically, if an external
structure keeps track of the connected components of the directed
graph, then both the decisions of what can be computed in parallel
and the speed of execution may be improved. For example, suppose
that the pair of surface patches to be merged is such that one
patch is in component A and the other patch is in component B.
Since the two components are different and no connection exists
between them, there cannot be a path between the two patches.
Therefore, a merge is acceptable, and no further inspection of the
graph is needed. However, if the two components were connected,
then the graph may have to be searched as before. The decision on
whether to inspect the graph or not can depend on how the two
components are connected. If the two components connect only at a
depth level that is below the lowest depth level of the two surface
patches, then no path can exist between them and no further search
is needed. If that is not the case, then the graph must be
inspected. Therefore maintaining an additional structure that keeps
track of the connected components of the graph and the highest
depth value at which there is a connection between any pair of
components can further increase the computational efficiency of the
algorithm. All such efficiency improvements are within the scope of
the present invention.
[0120] The last step in Stage 3 is step 89, an optional step for
fixing holes caused by low correlations between events or the
existence of multiple good but ambiguous connections. Some surfaces
contain obvious holes that can be fixed by analogy with surrounding
surfaces. Additional patches may be merged by trial and error. One
example of a testable hypothesis involving the topology relates to
unassigned events or gaps between surfaces. First, the gap is
assigned to a new patch. Similar gaps in neighboring traces are
assigned the same patch label even if their correlations are weak
or ambiguous. This new patch is accepted as an acceptable patch if
it is verified as being topologically consistent by neither
overlapping itself nor causing a local or global inconsistency. A
topological merge is then attempted to fuse this new patch with one
or more of its neighbors, potentially linking up neighboring
patches that were not directly connected and thus reducing the
skeleton by replacement of multiple small surfaces with one larger
one. The top portion of FIG. 13 shows an example of some
uncorrelated surfaces (e.g., surface 139) sandwiched between two
surfaces (surfaces 131 and 133). These events were either not
correlated because their cross correlation was below the
correlation criteria, or because their correlations were ambiguous.
From the overall fabric revealed by the skeletonization, it appears
possible that (1) all these uncorrelated events form a consistent
patch, and (2) that this patch could be merged with one of the
surfaces to either side (132 and 136) or even linking them.
[0121] Another approach to exploit the seismic skeleton is to
resolve which of the two split surfaces, such as surfaces 137 and
138, continues the original surface 134. At such a previously
unresolved surface split, one strategy is to attempt to merge the
surfaces either way. If only one merge succeeds, it is tentatively
accepted, and thus this solution is found. If either none or both
of the merges succeed, however, then this strategy cannot resolve
which of the two surfaces continues the original one. The bottom of
FIG. 13 shows an example of one surface 134 that splits into two
surfaces 137 and 138. The three dimensional information available
for the topological patch merge does not resolve the question of
which of the two surfaces is the continuation of the single one. If
it had, the patches are merged because there is a unique path of
correlations through the third dimension linking the patches. Here,
the overlap tables and the topological sort can be used to test
some of these hypotheses, and if validated, use them to fix and
further simplify the skeleton.
[0122] Remaining small holes in surfaces may be a nuisance for
later seismic interpretation steps, and are often fixed by
interpolation. The validity of these interpolations can be tested
by checking whether the modified surface remains topologically
consistent.
[0123] FIG. 14 is a flow chart of basic steps in a Stage 4 that can
optionally be added to the method of FIG. 8. In the optional Stage
4, the overlap table for a select set of consistent surfaces is
retrieved, or recreated if necessary. At step 142, a topological
sort is performed to find an order in which the surfaces could be
arranged, while honoring the above/below relations encoded in the
overlap table. Because many surfaces have a limited areal extent,
and thus limited overlap, there are not enough relations to enforce
a unique arrangement. Instead, there are multiple arrangements that
all satisfy the overlap relations. Moreover, the topological sort
algorithm can be implemented using a variety of strategies,
including a pull-up, push-down, or balanced strategy. Surfaces are
placed as high up as possible with the pull-up strategy which
implies that the order marks the last possible moment a given
strata could have been deposited relative to the surrounding ones.
With the push-down strategy, surfaces are placed as far down as
possible which implies that the order marks the earliest possible
moment a given strata could have been placed relative to the
surrounding ones. The balanced strategy tries to place surfaces in
the middle of their range. These strategies determine the order in
which the overlap relations are selected and updated inside the
topological sort algorithm. In each strategy, the result is an
order or hierarchy that can be used to arrange the surfaces, the
seismic reflections, or the entire seismic data volume.
[0124] Because small surfaces are especially difficult to
constrain, they tend to have higher variability when applying
different strategies. Inclusion of all small surfaces in the
transform also introduces distortion artifacts on the reorganized
seismic data volume. Instead it is preferable to compute another
measure upon which to base this transform. This measure is the
level of a surface within the topological hierarchy. That is,
determine how far down from the top is a particular surface is
located. (Step 143) Specifically, one measure of this is to find
the longest possible path in terms of number of overlap pairs
encountered when traversing from the top down to the surface.
Because the surfaces are consistent, there cannot be any loops and
the existence of a longest path is guaranteed. A preferred method
for finding these longest paths is a Bellman-Ford (BF) algorithm
(R. Bellman, "On routing problems," Quarterly of Applied
Mathematics 16, 87-90 (1958)) with negative unit weights operating
on the overlap table. Negating the resulting distance yields the
level of each surface within the hierarchy. Note that both order
and level allow definition of a transform that deforms the vertical
axis of the seismic data and corresponding surfaces. The result is
a seismic dataset organized in the order of stratigraphic placement
and deposition, which can be analyzed for the exploration,
delineation, and production of hydrocarbons.
[0125] The level may be defined as the longest path in terms of
maximum number of overlap pairs encountered when traversing from
the top down. Alternatively, it can be defined as the longest path
when going from the bottom up. Comparing such alternatives allows
an estimate of how constrained the levels of the individual
surfaces are, or conversely, how uncertain the levels are. (Step
144) To compare the two results, one needs to compensate for the
different directions, and rescale the bottom-up measure linearly in
such a way that the top surface has level zero and the bottom
surface has the same level as for the top-down measure. For a given
surface, the difference between its two kinds of levels is a
measure of its uncertainty with regard to the topological order. A
well constrained surface is at a similar level regardless of the
sort strategy. Such a surface has minimal uncertainty with regard
to its place within the topology. A poorly constrained surface may
end up at a shallow level with the top-down measure, but at a deep
level when using the bottom-up strategy. Thus, the level numbers
differ greatly, and its place in the topology is highly
uncertain.
[0126] FIG. 15 illustrates topological orders and levels, using the
events shown in FIG. 13 as an example. The overlap table contains
the above/below relations for the surfaces in FIG. 13. Performing a
topological sort with the pull-up strategy yields an order that
honors each relation in the overlap table. However, the topological
sort order distorts a visualization of the surfaces by spreading
them out vertically. A preferred alternative is to count the
maximum number of surfaces that have to be penetrated to reach a
given surface which can be done by applying the Bellman-Ford (BF)
algorithm with weight -1 to the overlap table. The results are the
BF levels, which assign surfaces 132 and 136 both to level 1. A
graph (or tree) of the surfaces with the vertical position
corresponding to the levels and their overlap relations is shown on
the right hand side of FIG. 15, and provides an efficient way to
summarize the surface relationships. Surface 134 is uncertain with
regard to its level, and thus is shown in both its potential
positions (levels 3 and 4).
[0127] The graph of surface labels (or tree) is an efficient way of
summarizing all these data where the vertical position of a surface
is determined by its level. The lateral position is arbitrary and
could be chosen, for example, in accordance with the real position
or simply so as to make the graph less cluttered. The different
surface labels are connected by arrows to indicate the above/below
relations. To encode even more information, large, and thus
relevant surfaces may be represented with larger labels. FIG. 16A
shows such a tree for the four hundred fifty surfaces of FIG. 2.
The graph presents the surface levels, their above/below relations
as extracted from the seismic data, and their areal extent
indicated by the label size. Altogether, there are two hundred
fifty levels, some of which are occupied by many small surfaces,
while others are occupied by just one or two large surfaces.
[0128] The graph (or tree) may be used as an aid to select surfaces
for further analysis or visualization. Depending on the size of the
data volume, the present inventive method may generate many
thousands of surfaces, quickly overwhelming the interpreter during
visualization. One procedure for dealing with this is to select
surfaces along lines emanating from one reference node of the tree
to allow visualization of surfaces overlapping only the reference
surface, suppressing all others and decluttering the display.
Another procedure chooses surfaces from one level only to allow
visualization of surfaces that may be genetically related because
they are located at the same level within the geologic strata. Yet
another procedure chooses surfaces from an interval of consecutive
levels to allow visualization of a stratal sequence. FIGS. 16B and
16C present an example where four subsequent levels 11-14 were
selected from the tree for visualization. Levels 11 and 14 each
contain one surface, while levels 12 and 13 each contain two
surfaces. The two different groups of surfaces are likely to be
genetically related because they are at the same levels within the
sequence of strata.
[0129] FIG. 17 is a graph that shows the topological uncertainty
for the surfaces of FIG. 2. Most of the four hundred fifty surfaces
are tightly constrained and cannot be moved more than a few levels
without violating the conditions or constraints contained in the
overlap table. Some surfaces, however, could be shifted more than
ten levels while still honoring the constraints. These surfaces
have a high uncertainty with regard to their relative time of
deposition.
[0130] Once the order or levels are established, it is
straightforward to reorganize the surfaces in this manner.
Individual surfaces are characterized by sets of three-dimensional
points (x,y,t) or (x,y,z) depending on whether the seismic data are
expressed in terms of geophysical time or depth. For the sake of
simplicity, it is assumed that the data are in the geophysical time
domain. The depth case follows by analogy. Transforming the
surfaces from the time domain to either the order or level domain
(step 145) simply requires substituting time with order or level
number.
[0131] FIG. 18 shows the surfaces of FIG. 2 converted (transformed)
from the geophysical time domain to the (topological) level domain.
Each surface was replotted after substituting its geophysical
two-way travel times with its level number, which flattens the
surfaces (an application sometimes called volume flattening). The
drawing shows that the surfaces are highly organized. The
deposition of the geologic strata appears to have waned back and
forth, left and right about four times in a rather systematic
manner.
[0132] Transforming seismic volumes to the level or order domain
instead of surfaces may require nonlinear stretching and squeezing
of the seismic data to make them fit into the allocated intervals.
For amplitude data, seismic wiggles may be compressed tightly or
expanded to resemble higher or lower frequency data. The same
situation exists for seismic attributes, but may not be as obvious
as for amplitude data.
[0133] An alternative method to transform seismic volumes is to cut
and paste packets of seismic data without deformation onto the
framework conceptually provided by the domain transformed surfaces.
The packet size may depend on the definition of the events used to
build the surfaces. If the surfaces were built from peaks only,
then a packet includes an entire wavelet with the peak and half a
trough on either side. If the surfaces are built from peaks and
troughs, then the packets are the peaks and troughs bounded by the
zero crossings. If the seismic data to be transformed by the
cut-and-paste method is not the original amplitude data, then the
packet boundaries, for example the zero crossings, may also be
determined from the amplitude data.
[0134] FIG. 19 illustrates these two methods to transform seismic
volumes into the level or order domain. The nonlinear stretch
method stretches and squeezes the seismic data to fit into the
allocated intervals. On the right trace, the surfaces of levels 12
and 13 do not exist, but nevertheless, the nonlinear stretch
interpolates them through the wavelet and assign parts of the trace
belonging to surfaces with levels 11 and 14 to the surfaces with
levels 12 and 13 which causes stretch artifacts similar to NMO
stretching. The cut-and-paste method takes a packet of seismic data
centered at the surface location and shifts them from depth to the
level without stretching. In the present example, the packets
consist of peaks or troughs. On the right trace, surfaces with
levels 12 and 13 do not exist, and hence, no corresponding packets
exist for cutting and pasting. The result contains gaps in the
level-transformed data indicating the absence of these level
surfaces.
[0135] FIG. 20 shows the level transformed seismic data from FIG.
1. The data were transformed from the time to the level domain.
Collapsing all the gaps reconstructs the original data. Further
aspects of flattening will be described below.
[0136] The skeletonization method described above can be
generalized and placed in a larger application context, a method
category that is sometimes called pattern recognition. That
overarching method is described next.
[0137] The overarching method (see FIG. 21) takes, for example, a
geophysical data volume 211, optionally pre-conditions the data and
optionally computes a set of features or attributes, and then
partitions the volume into regions (step 212). At step 213, each
region is analyzed and then assigned with a measure and/or
associated with a meaning that allows (at step 214) the
prioritization, or high-grading, of the regions for further
consideration. The result of this workflow is a set of high-graded
regions of interest, what might be called the relevant objects 215.
Skeletonization, including the skeletonization method disclosed
herein, is one option for the partitioning step 212, and thus, the
individual surfaces generated by skeletonization constitute the
regions in the broader application. One purpose for the extended
work flow outlined above is that even for small data volumes,
skeletonization may create thousands to millions of surfaces, which
can overwhelm human interpreters and traditional seismic
interpretation systems. A method is needed either to select and
present the relevant surfaces only, or at least to prioritize them,
allowing the interpreter to begin further analysis on the more
important ones.
[0138] In previously published approaches, geophysical pattern
recognition often refers to unsupervised segmentation, or
classification and extrapolation based on training data using, for
example, a neural network method. Other approaches use this term to
denote the detection of seismic events or the discrimination
between different kinds of events only. By contrast, the method to
be disclosed next can both partition the seismic data into regions
and automatically use measured characteristics of those regions to
assign a level of geological or geophysical importance to them for
hydrocarbon prospecting purposes. But first, brief reviews of some
previously published approaches follow.
[0139] Meldahl et al. disclose such a supervised learning approach
in U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,526 ("Method of Combining Directional
Seismic Attributes Using a Supervised Learning Approach"), which
combines directional seismic attributes using a neural network to
identify and separate geologic features such as gas chimneys.
[0140] U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,540 ("Method For Mapping Seismic
Attributes Using Neural Networks") to West and May discloses a
method to assign seismic facies based on the seismic texture using
a neural network trained on example regions for these facies.
[0141] U.S. Pat. No. 7,162,463 ("Pattern Recognition Template
Construction Applied To Oil Exploration And Production") to
Wentland and Whitehead discloses a method for building templates
that can be used for the exploration and production of hydrocarbon
deposits where templates refer to sets of logically-gated rules
used to render voxels with color, opacity, hue and saturation.
[0142] U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,092 ("Pattern Recognition Template
Application Applied To Oil Exploration And Production") to Wentland
and Whitehead discloses a method for applying templates to find
deposits of oil and natural gas.
[0143] U.S. Pat. No. 7,184,991 ("Pattern Recognition Applied To Oil
Exploration And Production") to Wentland et al. discloses
additional methods for comparing data against the templates by
visual recognition of desired patterns or indication of the
presence of a desired or undesired feature within the data.
[0144] U.S. Pat. No. 7,308,139 ("Method, System, And Apparatus For
Color Representation Of Seismic Data And Associated Measurements")
to Wentland and Mokhtar discloses a method for displaying digitized
information in a way that allows a human operator to easily detect
patterns and characteristics within the data.
[0145] U.S. Pat. No. 7,463,552 ("Method For Deriving 3D Output
Volumes Using Filters Derived From Flat Spot Direction Vectors") to
Padgett discloses a method of determining the existence of and
location of hydrocarbon and water fluid contacts by analyzing dips
and azimuths in 3D seismic data.
[0146] U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,777 ("Automatic Seismic Pattern
Recognition Method") to Keskes presents an automatic seismic
pattern recognition method that recognizes a given number of
seismic patterns specified by pieces of training data.
[0147] U.S. Patent Application No. 2008 0,123,469 ("System And
Method For Seismic Pattern Recognition") to Wibaux and Guis
discloses a method to detect microseismic events based on wavelet
energy and comparison against known waveform patterns.
[0148] What the foregoing methods may not provide is an automated
method that partitions a volume of geological or geophysical data,
automatically analyzes each partitioned region for its hydrocarbon
potential or relevance to the exploration and production of
hydrocarbons, and either ranks regions according to their relevance
or suppresses irrelevant ones entirely. This would allow direct
searching for accumulation of hydrocarbons, or the detection and
evaluation of elements of a subterraneous hydrocarbon system, for
example reservoir, seal, source, maturation and migration
pathways.
[0149] This overarching method takes a typically large number of
subsurface regions and can analyze them to automatically select or
highlight the more relevant ones. An alternative embodiment of this
method does not select regions, but instead ranks the regions based
on their relevance as determined by their analysis. In the former
case, the interpreter or a computer-based system continues work
with a greatly reduced subset of regions. In the later case, work
may be continued with all regions, but time and resources are
allocated based on the region ranks. In the context of this
invention, a region is a collection of cells, or voxels, in a
subsurface volume defined by one or more objects such as surfaces
or geobodies. Moreover, the step of high-grading the objects
encompasses, for example, selection, highlighting, prioritizing, or
ranking Different embodiments and parameterizations can be cascaded
to sequentially remove ever more low priority regions or to improve
the rankings.
[0150] Subdividing the data volume into regions may begin with an
object generation step. Of course manual creation is possible, but
automatic generation is more practical and more efficient. Thus, a
preferred embodiment of the present invention's geophysical pattern
recognition method consists of the following steps, all of which
may be programmed to run automatically on a computer: (a) optional
application of a data preconditioner and/or attribute computation,
(b) generation of objects from data volumes, (c) automatic analysis
of the objects to assign a measure, (d) use of the measure to
high-grade the objects, and (e) optimal storage of the relevant
objects or hierarchy of all objects for further analysis.
[0151] Typically, the geophysical data are seismic amplitude
volumes, but that invention is by no means so limited. Other
potential data include seismic attribute volumes; other types of
geophysical data such as seismic velocities, densities, or
electrical resistivities; petrophysical data, for example porosity
or sand/shale ratio; geological data, for example lithology,
environment of deposition, or age of deposition; geologic models
and simulations; reservoir simulation information, for example
pressures and fluid saturations; or engineering and production
data, for example pressures or water cut.
[0152] Object generation can be performed in many different ways.
Methods include thresholding, binning, or clustering the data;
skeletonization or automatic feature tracking; or segmentation. For
thresholding, either the user or an algorithm specifies a threshold
value. All points with lower (or higher) values are assigned to the
background. The remaining data points may be used as point objects
or converted to continuous curves, surfaces, or bodies, for example
by application of a connected component labeling algorithm. The
case where points with values exceeding the threshold are assigned
to the background follows by analogy. This case is further
generalized by binning the data into user or algorithm specified
bins which creates raw objects which can be further refined with a
connected component labeling algorithm. Objects can be constructed
by clustering of points from one or multiple data sets, or even
recursively by clustering of other objects.
[0153] Objects can be created by automated or assisted tracking
using horizon trackers, horizon pickers, fault trackers, channel
trackers, or seed picking. One particular form of horizon picking
is seismic skeletonization which automatically picks many surfaces
simultaneously. The present invention's method for skeletonization
is a preferred option here.
[0154] Segmentation refers to a process of partitioning a data
volume into multiple objects, or regions (sets of voxels). Each of
the voxels in a region is similar with respect to some
characteristic or computed property while adjacent regions are
significantly different with respect to the same characteristic(s).
Clustering-based segmentation is an iterative technique that is
used to partition a dataset into a specified number of clusters or
objects. Histogram-based methods compute a histogram for the entire
dataset and use the peaks and valleys to locate the clusters or
objects. A further refinement of this technique is to recursively
apply the histogram-seeking method to clusters in the data in order
to divide them into increasingly smaller clusters until no more
clusters are formed. Methods based on edge detection exploit the
fact that region or object boundaries are often closely related to
edges, i.e. relatively sharp property transitions. For seismic
data, discontinuity or similarity serve as edge detectors. The
edges identified by edge detection are often disconnected. To
segment an object from a data volume, however, one needs closed
region boundaries. Edge gaps are bridged if the distance between
the two edges is within some predetermined threshold. Region
growing methods take a set of seed points as input along with the
data. The seeds mark each of the objects to be segmented. The
regions are iteratively grown by comparing all unallocated
neighboring voxels to the regions. This process continues until
either all voxels are allocated to a region, or the remaining
voxels exceed a threshold difference when compared to their
neighbors. Level set methods, or curve propagation, evolve a curve
or surface towards the lowest potential of a prescribed cost
function, for example smoothness. The curves or surfaces either
represent the desired objects, for example faults or channel axes;
or they correspond to the boundaries of the desired objects, for
example salt domes or channels. In the latter case, the curve
appears to shrink-wrap the object. Graphs can effectively be used
for segmentation. Usually a voxel, a group of voxels, or primordial
objects are considered to be the graph vertices, and the graph
edges between the vertices are weighted with the (dis)similarity
among the neighborhood voxels or objects. Some popular algorithms
of this category are random walk, minimum mean cut, minimum
spanning tree-based algorithm, or normalized cut. The watershed
transformation considers the data or their gradient magnitude as a
(multidimensional) topographic surface. Voxels having the highest
magnitudes correspond to watershed lines, which represent the
region boundaries. Water placed on any voxel enclosed by a common
watershed line flows downhill to a common local minimum. Voxels
draining to a common minimum forms a catch basin, which represents
a segment or object. Model-based segmentation methods assume that
the objects of interest have a repetitive or predicable form of
geometry. Therefore, one uses a probabilistic model to explore the
variation in the shape of the object and then, when segmenting a
dataset, imposes constraints using this model as the prior.
Scale-space segmentation or multi-scale segmentation is a general
framework based on the computation of object descriptors at
multiple scales of smoothing. Neural Network segmentation relies on
processing small areas of a dataset using a neural network or a set
of neural networks. After such processing, the decision-making
mechanism marks the areas of the dataset according to the
categories recognized by the neural network. Last among the
examples mentioned here, in assisted or semi-automatic
segmentation, the user outlines the region of interest, for example
by manual digitization with computer mouse, and algorithms are
applied so that the path that best fits the edge of the object is
shown.
[0155] Examples of curve objects include but are not limited to
well paths, channel axes, fault sticks, horizon tracks,
horizon-fault intersections, or generic polygons. Curve objects are
automatically created in step 83 of the present invention's
skeletonization method. Surfaces or geobodies can be converted to
curves by thinning or medial axes transformation.
[0156] Surface objects can be converted to geobodies by dilation or
thickening of surfaces in a specified direction until another
geobody is encountered. The dilation can be performed either
upwards, downwards, or simultaneously in both directions. Another
method of converting surfaces to geobodies is to assign the samples
by polarity or wavelet. Similarly, geobodies can be converted to
surfaces by selection of the body top, bottom, or the average
thereof. Another body-to-surface conversion method is erosion or
thinning in either three dimensions or limited to the vertical
direction.
[0157] Analysis of the objects (step 213) includes defining or
selecting one or more measures that will be used in the next step
(214) to high-grade the objects or regions. The measure may be any
combination of the object geometries, properties of collocated
(secondary) data, and relations between the objects. Geometric
measures for objects refer to location, time or depth, size,
length, area, volume, orientation, or shape. These measures also
include inertia tensor; raw, central, scale- and rotation-invariant
moments; or covariance. Some measures, for example curvature, are
local measurements in the sense that every point on a curve,
surface, or body boundary will have its own local value. In order
to obtain one value characterizing the object, one needs to
integrate or sample the local ones, for example by selecting its
mean, median, or one of the extrema. Moreover, curvature is
actually not a scalar quantity but a tensorial one, which allows
definition of a range of local curvature measures such the minimum,
maximum, mean, most-positive, most-negative, or Gaussian
curvature.
[0158] Collocated property measures are built by querying a dataset
at the locations occupied by the object. For example, one can
extract the values from a collocated seismic or attribute dataset
such as amplitude or a collocated geologic model such as porosity
or environment of deposition, and compute a statistical measure for
these values. Statistical measures include average, median, mode,
extrema, or variance; or raw, central, scale- and
rotation-invariant property-weighted moments. If two collocated
properties are extracted, then a measure can be computed by
correlation of the collocated values, for example porosity and
hydraulic permeability extracted from geologic models or measured
along well paths.
[0159] Another family of analysis and measurements examines
relations between objects. Measures include the distance or
similarity to neighboring objects; the total number of neighbors,
the number of neighbors above the object or below the object, and
ratios thereof; the number of connections to neighboring objects
and their quality, or the kind of termination of the object against
its neighbors.
[0160] One specific alternative for the analysis of objects (step
213) in the innovative pattern recognition method is the
calculation and use of direct hydrocarbon indicators ("DHIs") to
high-grade a previously generated set of reflection surfaces,
possibly generated through skeletonization. An example of such a
DHI is amplitude fit to structure. In a hydrocarbon reservoir, the
effect of gravity on the density differences between fluid types
generates a fluid contact that is generally flat. Because the
strength of a reflection from the top of a hydrocarbon reservoir
depends on the fluid in that reservoir, reflection strength changes
when crossing a fluid contact. Correlating the surface depths (or
times) with seismic attributes such as amplitude strength
facilitates rapid screening of all surfaces in a volume for
evidence of fluid contacts, and thus, the presence of hydrocarbons.
Using the overarching (pattern recognition) method disclosed
herein, it is possible to generate or extract many or all surfaces
at once by skeletonization and then use the correlation between
their depths and amplitudes as an automated screening tool to
identify the most interesting surfaces, i.e. the ones indicating
hydrocarbon potential. FIGS. 22A-B present schematic examples of
two surfaces in map view. Depth or travel time is shown by
contours, with larger diameter contours indicating greater depth,
and seismic amplitude is represented by brightness shown here in
gray scale where white is the brightest (largest amplitude values).
In FIG. 22A, the amplitudes correlate with surface depth. Bright
amplitudes are found shallow, while dim amplitudes are found deep.
Thus, amplitude along the surface correlates with the surface depth
contours. The attribute fits the structure, indicating the
potential for a hydrocarbon accumulation. In FIG. 22B, amplitude
does not vary systematically with surface topography. Seismic
amplitude and depth contours are relatively uncorrelated, and do
not indicate the presence of hydrocarbons.
[0161] Other examples of seismic DHI-based measures for the
analysis of surfaces and geobodies include amplitude anomalies,
amplitude versus offset (AVO) effects, phase changes or polarity
reversals, and fluid contacts or common termination levels. Other
geophysical hydrocarbon evidence includes seismic velocity sags,
and frequency attenuation; also, electrical resistivity. Amplitude
anomaly refers to amplitude strength relative to the surrounding
background amplitudes as well as their consistency and persistence
in one amplitude volume, for example the full stack. A bright
amplitude anomaly has amplitude magnitudes larger than the
background, while a dim anomaly has amplitude magnitudes smaller
than the background. Comparison of seismic amplitudes at the
surface or object location against an estimated background trend
allows high-grading based on the anomalous amplitude strength DHI
measure.
[0162] Comparing collocated amplitudes between different volumes,
for example near-, mid-, and far-offset stacks allows assignment of
an AVO class. An AVO Class 1 has a clearly discernable positive
reflection amplitude on the near-stack data with decreasing
amplitude magnitudes on the mid- and far stack data, respectively.
An AVO Class 2 has nearly vanishing amplitude on the near-stack
data, and either a decreasing positive amplitude with offset or
progressively increasing negative amplitude values on the mid- and
far-stack data. An AVO class 3 exhibits strong negative amplitudes
on the near-stack data growing progressively more negative with
increasing offset. An AVO Class 4 exhibits very strong, nearly
constant negative amplitudes at all offsets. Preferably, amplitude
persistence or consistency within an object is used as a secondary
measure within each of the AVO classes. Comparison of partial
offset- or angle-stacks at the location of surfaces or objects
allows classification by AVO behavior, and thus, highgrading based
on the AVO DHI measure. An alternative to partial stacks is the
estimation of the AVO parameters A (intercept) and B (gradient)
from prestack (offset) gathers at the locations of the surfaces or
objects, and use of these parameters for AVO classification or
computation of measures such as A*B or A+B.
[0163] Evidence of fluid contact is yet another hydrocarbon
indicator. A fluid contact can generate a relatively flat
reflection, and thus a relatively flat surface. Measuring the
flatness of each surface allows the highlighting of fluid contacts.
The preferred embodiment of a flatness measure corrects the
individual measures with a regional trend, which allows correction
for variable water depth and other vertical distortions caused by
the overburden. A fluid contact implies a fluid change for example
from hydrocarbon gas to water. Sometimes, the boundary between
reservoir seal and water-filled reservoir is a seismic surface with
positive polarity, while the boundary between seal and gas-filled
reservoir is a surface with negative polarity. In such situations,
the seal-reservoir boundary corresponds to a surface exhibiting a
polarity change from shallow to deep across the fluid contact.
Comparison of the wavelet polarity or estimation of the
instantaneous wavelet phase along the surface or object allows
identification of regions exhibiting a polarity-reversal or
phase-change DHI.
[0164] An abrupt down dip termination of many nearby surfaces or a
locally persistent abrupt change of amplitudes are yet more
examples of direct hydrocarbon indicators that can be quantified
from surfaces and geobodies. The termination depths of adjacent
surfaces or objects are compared or correlated, or preferably the
number of similar termination depths in the same region are counted
to allow identification of regions exhibiting an abrupt down-dip
termination DHI measure.
[0165] Locally abrupt change of amplitude can be measured by
performance of an edge-detection operation on the amplitudes at the
locations of the surfaces or objects and correlation of such edges
between nearby surfaces or objects. An alternative to edge
detection is correlation of seismic dissimilarity or discontinuity
between nearby surfaces or objects.
[0166] Using data other than seismic amplitudes enables other
measures of direct hydrocarbon indicators. Hydrocarbon gas tends to
increase the attenuation of seismic energy, and thus, to lower the
frequency content of the seismic signal when compared to the
surrounding background. Frequency shifts can be measured and
quantified from instantaneous frequency volumes or by comparison of
spectrally decomposed volumes. Observation of consistent frequency
shifts at the location of the surfaces or objects allows
high-grading based on the frequency-shift DHI measure.
[0167] Hydrocarbon gas also tends to decrease the speed of seismic
waves, which leads to locally sagging surfaces in time domain data.
Computing for example the sum of the second derivatives (i.e., the
Laplace operator) of the surfaces allows measurement of the
sagginess. In severe cases, the gas is even detectable on volumes
of seismic velocity obtained by inversion, tomography, or velocity
analysis; with velocities at the locations of surfaces objects
being lower than the regional trend.
[0168] In preferred embodiments of the direct detection of
hydrocarbons along surfaces or geobodies, analysis and measurement
also includes confidence as a function of data quality, data
quantity, prior expectations, and if available, ground truth, for
example from calibrated wells.
[0169] Elements of the hydrocarbon system include reservoir, seal,
and source. An example measure for reservoir or seal quality is
deformation, expressed for example by layer developability (J. L.
Fernandez-Martinez and R. J. Lisle, "GenLab: A MATLAB-based program
for structural analysis of folds mapped by GPS or seismic methods,"
Computers & Geosciences 35, 317-326 (2009)). Deviation from a
developable geometry implies that bed stretching during folding has
occurred. These deviations are therefore linked with straining of
the horizon and can be used for highlighting regions of deformation
expressed by brittle fracturing or ductile deformation. Brittle
deformation implies the potential of fracture-enhanced porosity
increasing the storage capacity in a reservoir compartment, but
also disrupting a sealing unit. Ductile deformation implies
shale-rich strata which are poor reservoirs, but constitute source
rocks and serve as seals. Another deformation measure is surface
curvature. Deformed regions tend to have surfaces with higher
values of curvature indicating the potential for enhanced
fracturing which provides additional porosity and the potential for
increased storage of hydrocarbons, but also damages seals with the
increased risk of trap failure.
[0170] Having one or more measures, for example the disclosed DHI
measures, for each object allows high-grading of the relevant ones.
Selection criteria include thresholding, ranking, prioritizing,
classification, or matching. A first approach might be to apply a
threshold to the measures and select all objects either exceeding
or undercutting the threshold. Another method is ranking the
objects in accordance to their measures, and then selecting the top
ranked objects, the top ten objects for example. A special case of
ranking is prioritizing, where all objects are selected but
associated with their rank, for example through their label or a
database. Subsequent analyses commence with the highest-ranked
object and then go through the objects in accordance to their
priorities until a prescribed number of acceptable objects are
identified, or until time and/or resource constraints require
termination of further activities.
[0171] The present inventive method may be utilized in other
pattern recognition applications such as volume flattening,
hierarchical segmentation, edge and termination detection, DHI
detection, hydrocarbon system analysis, and/or data reduction.
Other applications of the present inventive methods may include
interpretation, data reduction, and/or multiple scenario
tracking.
[0172] To search for hydrocarbon accumulations in the earth,
geoscientists may use methods of remote sensing to look below the
earth's surface. A routinely used technique is the seismic
reflection method where man-made sound waves are generated near the
surface. The sound propagates into the earth, and whenever the
sound passes from one rock layer into another, a small portion of
the sound is reflected back to the surface where it is recorded.
Typically, hundreds to thousands recording instruments are
employed. Sound waves are sequentially excited at many different
locations. From all these recordings, a two- or three-dimensional
image of the subsurface can be obtained after significant data
processing. Seismic interpretation often involves the picking of
horizons to characterize the subsurface for the delineation of
underground features relevant to the exploration, identification
and production of hydrocarbons. The previous portion of this
disclosure describes a method to automatically pick many or all of
these surfaces at once in a topologically consistent manner, i.e.,
surfaces that are consistent with the stratigraphic law of
superposition and thus are stratigraphically consistent.
[0173] Many stratigraphic processes of sedimentary erosion and
deposition occur on approximately flat surfaces where dips rarely
exceed a few degrees. The generated strata or layers are thus also
approximately flat. Syn- or post-depositional processes, however,
deform these layers and surfaces. Such processes include folding,
faulting, or differential compaction. Later stratigraphic processes
may erode deformed or dipping strata recreating approximately flat
surfaces on which deposition continues. Through the geological
history, some geographic areas may undergo many phases of
deposition, deformation, and erosion. Presently, the remaining
strata and surfaces exhibit dips ranging from flat to vertical, and
in extreme cases, they may even be overturned. Geophysical data
represent the present state, and thus, a data slice extracted at a
constant depth may intersect layers of different geologic ages.
Since deposition at any given time happened on an approximately
flat plane, the analysis of stratigraphic environments and their
vertical and lateral succession is best performed by extracting a
horizon surface of data (also called a horizon slice) that follows
a seismic event, and thus, one particular geologic age.
[0174] Creating a few surfaces and extracting horizon slices from
seismic volumes is typically very labor intensive which precludes
extracting and analyzing a larger number of slices. Ghosting or
shifting of horizon slices extends their range, but application
over extended vertical distances degrades if the stratigraphic
thicknesses are not constant. One alternative known as flattening
attempts to create all horizon slices in a seismic dataset by
flattening the seismic data along some or many surfaces that are
ideally autopicked by the computer. Instead of individually
flattening many generated and/or virtual horizon slices and
possibly stacking them up to form a volume, a plurality of such
surfaces can be used to bulk flatten an entire volume at once. In
volume flattening, every sample of the data volume is considered to
belong to a real or virtual horizon, and thus, every sample
participates in the flattening and is lined with others belonging
to the same horizon.
[0175] U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,845 discloses a method for analyzing
seismic data in which a geologic time volume is formed from a
collocated seismic dataset. Geologic times are obtained
corresponding to the seismic data sample points, and the geologic
times are stored in the geologic time volume in data storage
locations corresponding to the seismic data sample points. In the
preferred embodiment, the geologic time volume is created by
three-dimensional unwrapping of instantaneous seismic phases.
Another way to construct a geologic time volume is from a set of
horizons. Further disclosures include the reconciliation of local
geologic time volumes for adjacent seismic blocks into one geologic
time volume for the combined blocks, full and compressed
representations of the geologic time volume, and the correlation of
surfaces with geologic times and vice versa.
[0176] U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,118 discloses methods that form horizons
from geologic time volumes by association of horizons with
isocontour surfaces in the geologic time volumes. Methods of
creating horizons include specification of a particular geologic
time and extraction of an isocontour surface of said time;
specification of location, identification of a geologic time for
said location, and extraction of an isocontour surface of said
time; and specification of a location and a relationship in
waveform, distance, or geologic time difference to said location,
identification of a geologic time at location with said
relationship to the initial location; and extraction of an
isocontour surface of said time. Further disclosed are methods to
use the geologic time volume to control transparency and opacity
for the visualization of seismic data or geologic time volumes.
[0177] U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,922 discloses methods to generate
attribute volumes based on geologic time volumes. Disclosed
attributes of geologic time volumes include difference volumes,
discontinuity volumes, fault volumes, unconformity volumes, throw
and heave volumes, dip magnitude and orientation volumes, strike
volumes, surface normal volumes, closure and spillpoint volumes,
and isopach and isopach anomaly volumes. All these attributes are
formed from geologic time volumes only, and are only used and
interpreted in the domain of the original seismic data.
[0178] "Stratal Slicing, Part II: Read 3-D Seismic Data" by Zeng et
al. (Geophysics, 63(2), pages 514-522, 1998) discloses a stratal
slicing technique for interpretation that is done by tracking
frequency-independent, geologic-time-equivalent reference seismic
events, then building a stratal time model and an amplitude stratal
slice volume on the basis of linear interpolation between
references. The new volumes have the same x- and y-coordinate
system as the original data, but a z-axis of relative geologic time
instead of depth or traveltime as the original data had. The
seismic events are picked with the traditional methods of manual or
automated tracking of interpreter selected events. Only stratal
slice amplitude volumes are disclosed. No further application for
stratal slice volumes beyond direct visualization and traditional
interpretation techniques are disclosed.
[0179] Other information may be found in the following references:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,257,488; U.S. Pat. No. 7,248,539; U.S. Patent
Application No. 2009/0140319; U.S. Patent Application No.
2009/0204332; de Groot, et al., "How To Create And Use 3D Wheeler
Transformed Seismic Volumes," SEG 2006; and Lomask, et al.,
"Flattening Without Picking," Geophysics 71(4), pp. P13-P20,
2006.
[0180] Aspects disclosed herein describe a method that creates and
utilizes mapping volumes between the domains of geophysical depth
and geologic age of deposition. In the geophysical depth domain,
the vertical axis corresponds to depth relative to some level, for
example sea level. Often, geophysical data are presented or
interpreted in the geophysical two-way time domain because the
reflection seismic method is based on time-of-flight measurements
of sound pulses. For the purpose of this disclosure the differences
between geophysical depth and geophysical two-way time are
irrelevant. To limit confusion between geophysical time and
geologic time, the term depth denotes either geophysical depth or
geophysical time. In the geologic age domain, the vertical axis
corresponds to geologic time of deposition, the geologic age of
deposition, or a proxy thereof, for example a pseudo age. To limit
confusion between geophysical and geologic age, the term age is
used to denote (pseudo) geologic age of deposition or (pseudo)
geologic time of deposition.
[0181] By construction, each surface is assigned an age that
enables the generation of mapping volumes from a depth domain to an
age domain and from the age domain the depth domain. Each sample in
the depth domain is assigned an age. Alternatively, each sample in
the age domain is assigned a depth. Either mapping volume can be
used to transform data between the depth domain and the age domain
and vice versa. However, the mapping volumes are particularly
efficient in transforming data in only one direction, and thus
constructing and using both mapping volumes provide the most
efficient transform between the domains as needed by interactive or
user guided interpretation.
[0182] Thus, disclosed methodologies and techniques may include:
(1) constructing a mapping volume that directly transforms data
from the depth domain to the age domain from many, preferably
topologically consistent surfaces, (2) constructing a mapping
volume that directly transforms data from the age domain to the
depth domain from many, preferably topologically consistent
surfaces; (3) using one or preferably both maps to transform data
and interpretations between the two domains, and (4) establishing
workflows that combine the intrinsic advantages of the two domains
for simultaneous interpretation in both domains.
[0183] The skeletonization method previously described herein
extracts most or all surfaces in a seismic dataset in topologically
consistent manner, and as part of the process, assigns each surface
a sequential label number. The topmost surface is labeled number
one. Because of the topological consistency, deeper layers can be
labeled such that all partially overlapping shallower layers have
lower numbers, while all partially overlapping deeper layers have
higher ones.
[0184] Many stratigraphic processes of sedimentary erosion and
deposition occur on approximately flat surfaces where dips rarely
exceed a few degrees. The generated strata or layers are thus also
approximately flat. Synthetic or post-depositional processes,
however, may deform these layers and surfaces. Such processes
include folding, faulting, or differential compaction. Eventually
the layers and surfaces may exhibit dips ranging from flat to
vertical, and in extreme cases, they may even be overturned.
Geophysical data represent the present state, and thus, a data
slice extracted at a constant depth may intersect layers of
different ages. Assuming deposition at any given time happened on
an approximately flat plane, the analysis of stratigraphic
environments and their vertical and lateral succession may be
performed by extracting a horizon slice, i.e., a slice of data that
follows a seismic event, and thus, a given geologic age. Seismic
surfaces can be used to flatten the seismic data where the data are
stretched and squeezed in the vertical direction to align or
flatten each surface. In the flattened domain, which is the age
domain, the vertical axis corresponds to geologic time of
deposition, the geologic age of deposition, or a proxy thereof, for
example a pseudo age. The sequential label number assigned top-down
to the surfaces may serve as an age proxy. To limit confusion
between geophysical and geologic time, the term age is used to
denote (pseudo) geologic age or (pseudo) geologic time.
[0185] During the flattening process the data may be distorted in
the vertical direction to align the corresponding surface to a
specific geologic age. Each horizontal slice in the flattened
domain corresponds to a horizon slice in the original domain. Due
to the sheer number of surfaces and noises in the seismic data,
perfect alignment is often not desirable, and instead, the surfaces
may be aligned in an approximate manner only. Additionally, some of
the surfaces may have originally not been completely flat. To
facilitate the flattening, analyzing and/or interpreting of the
flattened data, an age mapping volume may be defined that specifies
where each voxel in the depth domain positioned in the age domain.
Alternatively or additionally, a depth mapping volume may be
defined that specifies where each voxel in the age volume
originated in the depth domain. While either mapping volume can be
used to transform between the domains, defining and using both
mapping volumes enhances computational efficiency and ease of use.
In addition to enabling transformations between the depth domain
and the age domain, the mapping volumes may be used to interpret
and characterize the subsurface, and may be further used to
construct earth models.
[0186] The objective of seismic flattening is to transform a
dataset d(Z,X,Y) to d(A,X,Y), where Z denotes depth and A denotes
age. Capital letters (for example, A) identify discrete, regularly
sampled quantities, and lower-case letters (for example, a)
identify continuous or irregularly sampled quantities. While the
two domains have the same footprint in the x- and y-direction, they
may have different extents in the vertical depth and age
directions. Perfect flattening of every surface can lead to a
several thousand-fold increase in the size of the age domain in the
vertical direction because every surface claims its own location in
the flattened age domain. In practice, a threefold increase in size
of the age domain has been found to be satisfactory. Although this
reduced increase--from several thousand-fold to threefold--results
in an imperfect flattening, it has advantages of less distortions
and more continuity.
[0187] Generally speaking, one can transform any data object o from
one domain to the other one: o(z,x,y)o(a,x,y). The object o could
be any of the traditional interpretation objects such as a point or
picks, a surface, a geobody, a volume, a fault stick, a horizon
trace, or a polygon. The object o may be a fault stick originally
defined in the depth domain but having a need to be posted in the
age domain. On the other hand, the object may be originally be
defined in the age domain but is to be posted in the depth domain.
Such an object may be a channel axis or transparency values based
on an age sculpt. What is needed an age mapping volume a(Z,X,Y)
and/or a depth mapping volume z(A,X,Y), where
a(Z,X,Y)=z.sup.-1(A,X,Y), or in other words, a(Z,X,Y) and z(A,X,Y)
are inverses. Obtaining both of these mapping volumes allows for
the efficient transfer of objects between the two domains. In
practice, the inverse relationship between a(Z,X,Y) and z(A,X,Y)
may not be exact so that abrupt breaks or sharp transitions in the
transformed data become smoother for better visualization and/or
interpretation purposes.
[0188] FIG. 23 is a simplified, two-dimensional display of a depth
domain 232, an age domain 234, and an age mapping volume 236. The
age mapping volume 236 specifies where each sample in depth domain
232 maps to in age domain 234. Transformations from the depth
domain 232 to the age domain 234 are very efficient because the age
mapping volume 236 can be used as a lookup or index table, as
indicated by arrow 237. However, transformations from the age
domain 234 to the depth domain 232 using the age mapping volume
236, as indicated by arrow 238, are less efficient because the age
mapping volume 236 needs to be searched to determine the depths or
their indices of the corresponding ages.
[0189] FIG. 24 is another view of depth domain 232 and age domain
234, as well as a depth mapping volume 240. The depth mapping
volume specifies where each sample in age domain 234 maps to in
depth domain 232. Transformations from the age domain to the depth
domain are very efficient because the depth mapping volume can be
used as a lookup or index table, as indicated by arrow 242.
Transformations from the depth domain to the age domain are less
efficient because depth mapping volume 240 needs to be searched, as
indicated by arrow 244, to determine the ages or their indices of
the corresponding depths.
[0190] FIG. 25 depicts a flowchart of a method 250 according to
aspects disclosed herein. At block 252 seismic data is obtained. At
block 254 the seismic data is subjected to the skeletonization
processes described previously herein to extract a set of
topologically consistent surfaces with sequential top-down labels.
The seismic data may be preconditioned by applying a noise-removal
or structure-oriented filter. Optionally, faults and outlines of
salt bodies may be picked manually or automatically and the
corresponding data samples are burned, for example by setting them
to zero, to prevent spurious correlation of surfaces across faults
or the generation of spurious surfaces in amorphous salt. Manual
alignment of the surfaces across the burned region(s) may be
performed. Instead of obtaining surfaces by skeletonization, at
block 252a one or multiple sets of surfaces created by traditional
means such as manual or assisted picking may be used. The imported
surfaces may be edited for topological consistency and labeled.
[0191] At block 255 an age is assigned to each surface. Commonly,
these ages will be pseudo ages related to their top-down order that
is encoded in the label number. The top-down order of surfaces, as
previously discussed herein, may be non-unique. FIG. 26 shows an
example of top-down ordering of surfaces in a subsurface formation
270. A plurality of surfaces 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277 and
278 are included in the subsurface formation. Two non-overlapping
surfaces sandwiched between larger surfaces are not constrained in
their order with respect to each other as shown in FIG. 26. For
example, surfaces 272 and 273 could exchange their labels, as
indicated by labels 273' and 272', respectively, and would still be
consistent with a top-down order because the sequential
relationship between these two layers is undetermined. A similar
situation is shown for surfaces 275, 276 and 277, which could be
re-labeled as 277', 275', and 276', respectively. In general, many
surfaces have a limited areal extent and thus limited overlap, and
therefore there are insufficient relations between surfaces to
enforce a unique arrangement of layers. Instead, there are many
possible arrangements that all satisfy the overlap relations.
Different strategies can be employed to label unconstrained
surfaces, as previously discussed herein. With the pull-up
strategy, surfaces are placed as high up as possible which implies
that the label numbers are minimal and the order marks the youngest
age a given strata could have been deposited relative to the
surrounding ones. With the push-down strategy, surfaces are placed
as far down as possible with maximal label numbers which implies
that the order marks the oldest age a given strata could have been
placed relative to the surrounding ones. The balanced strategy
tries to place surfaces in the middle of their possible range in
the order of deposition.
[0192] An alternative numbering scheme for the surfaces is based on
their top-down level that may be encoded in the label number.
Multiple surfaces that are unconstrained with respect to each other
may be assigned to the same level. FIG. 27 shows subsurface
formation 270 as previously discussed in FIG. 26. The surfaces in
the subsurface formation are numbered differently, however.
Surfaces 271, 274, and 278 are constrained and are assigned levels
279, 281, and 284, respectively. Surfaces 272 and 273 are
unconstrained and are therefore assigned the same level number 280.
For surface 275 that is unconstrained with regard to surfaces 276
and 277, two possible level assignments exist. Following a pull-up
strategy, surfaces 275 and 276 are assigned to level 282, while
surface 277 is assigned to level 283. Following a push-down
strategy, surface 276 is assigned to level 282, and surfaces 275
and 277 are assigned to level 283. A process or method for
computing level numbers from above/below (or younger/older)
relationships between topological consistent surfaces is discussed
previously herein.
[0193] While order or level can directly represent (pseudo) age,
the resulting flattened volumes may suffer from artifacts such as
displacements or extensive stretching and squeezing. A method to
define age is by weighted area, which may be expressed by
age(i)=(.SIGMA..sub.j=1.sup.i area(j).sup..alpha.).sup..beta.
[Equation 1]
In Equation 1, the age of the surface with label, order, or level i
is defined by the cumulative area of all its predecessors. Both
exponents .alpha. and .beta. may be set to 1, although different
choices allow tuning the flattening results. Note that .alpha.=0 is
equivalent to direct assignment of order or level to age that may
lead to extensive stretching and squeezing artifacts.
[0194] Another method of age assignment relates to the surface
depths, as may be expressed by
age(i)=(.SIGMA..sub.j=2.sup.i|z(j)-z(j-1)|.sup..alpha.).sup..beta.
[Equation 2]
In Equation 2, z(j) denotes the minimal, maximal or some average
depth of the surface with label, order, or level j. Once again, the
exponents .alpha. and .beta. may be set to 1, although different
choices allow tuning the flattening results. Many other definitions
are also possible, as long as age increases monotonically with
increasing label, order, or level.
[0195] Using the age of each surface, at block 256 (FIG. 25) an age
mapping volume is created. Once created, the age mapping volume may
be used for interpretation in the depth domain, as represented by
block 258. The age mapping volume maps samples from the depth
domain to the age domain, and thus, is typically of the same size
as the seismic dataset (as shown in FIG. 23).
[0196] A raw age mapping volume may be created by interpolating
from the surfaces and their ages. Trace-by-trace linear
interpolation of ages and their locations is usually sufficient,
although higher order polynomial or spline interpolations could be
used. Similarly, multidimensional interpolators could be used,
based for example on Kriging or multidimensional splines. Simple
linear, tracewise interpolation should result in a monotonically
increasing age mapping volume. More complex interpolators can
result in non monotonic age mapping volumes. Complex interpolators
therefore should be regularized to preserve monotonicity or the
results should be edited and corrected afterwards. When using
trace-by-trace interpolation, the raw age mapping volume can be
smoothed by application of a lowpass filter to reduce artifacts
caused by busts in the surfaces, for example when one surface is
partitioned into smaller surfaces with differing labels. In
particular, if age is defined by weighted area using a methodology
similar to Equation 1, a boxcar filter of size 5*5*5 should be
sufficient to reduce artifacts. Small filters result in better
flattening where the seismic reflections are more aligned, but also
exhibit more spurious displacements and busts. Large filters result
in seismic reflections exhibiting residual structure, but the
reflections are more continuous and less prone to busts. Lastly,
directly identifying order or level with age may require the use of
larger filters, for example of size 25*25*25, to ameliorate the
worst busts in the surfaces.
[0197] The smoothing filter can even be made to preserve and honor
burnouts, which are samples that have been flagged as invalid, for
example on fault planes or inside salt bodies. When applied on a
burned sample, such a filter flags the output sample as invalid.
When encountering a burned sample in its stencil or within the
region of the filter, samples that are disconnected from the
current point of application by a burnout are excluded from the
stencil. To make up for the excluded samples, such a filter can be
applied asymmetrically as long as the current sample is contained
within the filter stencil. One example of such is based on the
Kuwahara filter, where the convolution filter is not necessarily
applied symmetrically but is allowed to slide around (or vice
versa) as long as the current sample is contained within the filter
stencil. Of all the possible configurations, the one that has the
minimum standard deviation and/or the minimum number of burned
samples is chosen. Thus, such a filter does not straddle a fault
grabbing values from both sides and smoothing across, but rather
stays on its side preserving the contact.
[0198] Returning to FIG. 25, at block 260 a depth mapping volume
that maps samples from the age domain to the depth domain is
constructed similar to how the age mapping volume is constructed or
generated. Once constructed or generated, any seismic data (block
262) or geologic model may be transformed from the depth domain to
the age domain using flattening processes as described herein or
elsewhere, as indicated at block 261. The transformed volume may be
used for interpretation in the age domain, as represented by block
263. One difference between generating the age mapping volume
(block 256) and the depth mapping volume (block 260) is that the
extent of the age domain or age range and its age sampling interval
should be chosen. The easiest way to choose the age domain or range
is from the minimum and maximum ages assigned to the surfaces. The
age sampling interval may be chosen such that the number of samples
in the vertical direction of the depth volume is about three times
larger than the number of samples in the vertical direction of the
original data. The over-sampling of the depth volume by a factor of
three appears to be a good compromise between excessive stretching
near unconformities or in areas with predominantly small surfaces,
and compression or aliasing of continuous, conformal reflections.
Since the volume is stretched or extended, the smoothing filter
used to reduce artifacts caused by surface busts should be extended
as well. For a depth volume that is three times larger than the
data volume or thus the age volume, the boxcar filter should be
extended by a factor three as well. Thus, a boxcar filter of size
15*5*5 is often used. Lastly, directly identifying order or level
with age may require the use of large filters, for example of size
75*25*25, to ameliorate the worst busts in the surfaces.
[0199] Instead of generating age mapping volumes and/or depth
mapping volumes by interpolation, the mapping volumes may be
generated using optimization. The gradients of an optimal age
mapping volume are parallel to the normals of the given surfaces,
or parallel to normals computed directly from the seismic data. An
example mathematical formulation of such an optimization is to
minimize the expression
A i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. ( S i 1 - n ^ s . n ^ a ) 2 S ) + B i = 1
N ( .intg. .intg. S i ( a s , a ) S ) + C .intg. .intg. .intg. V (
1 - n ^ d n ^ a ) 2 V + D .intg. .intg. .intg. V a 2 V + E .intg.
.intg. .intg. V ( a , a 0 ) 2 V = min [ Equation 3 ]
##EQU00003##
where the first term measures the misfit between the normals
{circumflex over (n)}.sub.s on a set of given surfaces and the
normals {circumflex over (n)}.sub.a computed from the age volume, N
is the size of the set, S.sub.i is a surface of this set labeled i,
{circumflex over (n)}.sub.s is the unit normal vector of the
skeleton surface S.sub.i at the surface element dS, and {circumflex
over (n)}.sub.a is the unit normal vector of the age mapping volume
defined at the location of the surface element dS. If the vectors
are parallel, then the inner product of these vectors equals one
and the term in brackets does not contribute to the integration and
the summation. If the vectors are perpendicular, then the inner
product vanishes, the term in brackets equals one and contributes
to integration and summation. The second term compares the ages
a.sub.s assigned to the skeleton surface S.sub.i to the ages of the
age mapping volume a defined at the location of the surface element
dS. The third term compares the unit normal vector of the age
mapping volume {circumflex over (n)}.sub.a and the unit normal
vector of a seismic volume {circumflex over (n)}.sub.d in a
volumetric sense where dV is a volume element of the entire data
volume or a selected subset thereof. The fourth term regularizes
the expression. The fifth and last term is a special kind of
regularization that compares the age mapping volume against a
reference age mapping volume a.sub.0 which allows for updating a
previous age volume or merging with a previous age volume. The
reference age mapping volume a.sub.0 could also be used to impose a
trend of monotonically increasing age with depth.
[0200] The normals {circumflex over (n)}.sub.s for the surfaces can
be defined by the normals of the patches that are merged during
skeletonization to form the surfaces as disclosed previously
herein. Another method of defining normals {circumflex over
(n)}.sub.s is by fitting parametric model surfaces, for example
based on polynomials, to small regions of the different surfaces
and estimate the normals from the analytic parametric model
surfaces. Yet another alternative is to define small regions or
neighborhoods around a plurality of points on a surface and then to
compute the moment tensor for each neighborhood and use the
direction of the largest eigenvector or moment to define the
normals. Any other suitable method of generating surface normals
may be used. If desired, the surfaces may be preconditioned by
filling holes or smoothing.
[0201] The normals {circumflex over (n)}.sub.a for the age mapping
volume can be obtained simply by computing the gradient, using for
example a finite difference approximation or fitting of a
parametric model function (for example a polynomial), by
least-squares fitting, or by use of a prediction error filter. Raw
gradients may be smoothed, for example with a convolution filter,
or be used to compute the local structure tensor whose largest
eigenvector corresponds to the desired normal. Any other suitable
method of generating normals for the age volume may be used.
[0202] The gradient of seismic amplitude data is typically
perpendicular to the seismic reflections, and can be used to define
the seismic data normals {circumflex over (n)}.sub.d. Thus, the
normals can be obtained simply by computing the gradient, using for
example a finite difference approximation or fitting of a
polynomial model function, by least-squares fitting, or by use of a
prediction error filter. Raw gradients may be smoothed, for example
with a convolution filter, or be used to compute the local
structure tensor whose largest eigenvector corresponds to the
desired normal. The normals may also be found by computing strike
and dip of the seismic reflections in a volumetric sense. Any other
suitable method of generating normals for the seismic amplitude
data may be used.
[0203] The parameters A, B, C, D, and E in Equation 3 allow tuning
of the optimization and can be used to control the relative
contribution in the computation of the age mapping volume from
parallelism to skeleton surfaces (first term) and consistency with
the ages assigned to the surfaces (second term), parallelism to
seismic reflections (third term), degree of smoothness of the age
mapping volume (fourth term) and consistency with a reference
solution (fifth term). For example, when A=1 and B=C=D=E=0, the age
mapping volume is completely governed by parallelism to the
surfaces. When B=1 and A=C=D=E=0, the age mapping volume is
completely governed by compliance to the ages assigned to the
surfaces. When A=B=D=E=0 and C=1, the age mapping volume is
completely governed by alignment with seismic reflections.
[0204] Of course, other definitions of the terms in Equation 3 are
possible, and Equation 3 may be generalized as
A i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S i L A ( n ^ s , n ^ a ) S ) + B i = 1 N
( .intg. .intg. S i L B ( a s , a ) S ) + C .intg. .intg. .intg. V
L C ( n ^ d , n ^ a ) V + D .intg. .intg. .intg. V L D ( a ) V + E
.intg. .intg. .intg. V L E ( a , a 0 ) V = min [ Equation 4 ]
##EQU00004##
where the operators L.sub.A and L.sub.C measure the parallelism
between the two vectors, the operator L.sub.B measures the misfit
between values on surfaces and collocated values in volumes, the
operator L.sub.D measures smoothness, for example by application of
integration and differentiation operators, and operator L.sub.E
defines the misfit between two volumes. The operators may be
defined based on norms other than the traditional L2 norm, for
example to reduce the effect of outliers. The regularization
operators L.sub.D and L.sub.E may also be used to impose a trend of
monotonically increasing age with depth.
[0205] The depth mapping volume may be defined by optimization in a
manner similar to Equations 3 and/or 4. Typically, the optimization
will be nonlinear and be performed in an iterative manner where the
current estimate of the age mapping volume or the depth mapping
volume is used to evaluate the consistency between surfaces, data
normals, and mapping volumes in conjunction with the smoothness of
the mapping volumes and the similarity to given mapping volumes.
The misfit resulting from evaluating Equation 3 or 4 may be used to
estimate a better mapping volume, and the process is repeated with
the new estimate.
[0206] An alternative method of computing the age mapping volume
and/or the depth mapping volume is by analyzing surfaces and data
transformed from the depth domain to the age domain by use of the
age and/or the depth mapping volume. An actual surface transformed
to the age domain should be flat. Seismic reflection data converted
to the age domain should exhibit no dips. Let the symbol a to
denote a unit vector in the direction of the age axis, while
{circumflex over (m)}.sub.s and {circumflex over (m)}.sub.d
respectively denote the normals of surfaces and seismic data
transformed from the depth domain to the age domain. Lastly, d
represents the depth mapping volume, d.sub.0 represents a reference
age mapping volume, and d.sub.s denotes the depth of the surface
defined at the location of the surface element dS which allows
measuring the conformance of the depth mapping volume to the depth
values of the surfaces. Minimizing for example the following
expressions allows estimation of the depth mapping volume, where W
denotes the extent of the age domain and thus the depth mapping
volume used in the optimization.
A i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S i L A ( m ^ s , a ^ ) S ) + B i = 1 N (
.intg. .intg. S i L B ( d s , d ) S ) + C .intg. .intg. .intg. W L
C ( m ^ d , a ^ ) W + D .intg. .intg. .intg. W L D ( d ) W + E
.intg. .intg. .intg. W L E ( d , d 0 ) W = min [ Equation 5 ]
##EQU00005##
Similarly, the age mapping volume may be obtained by analyzing the
flatness of surfaces and data after transforming to the age domain
and by analyzing the conformance of the age mapping volume to the
age values assigned to the surfaces, i.e., the similarity between
the ages assigned to the surfaces to the ages assigned to the same
location in the age mapping volume.
A i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S i L A ( m ^ s , a ^ ) S ) + B i = 1 N (
.intg. .intg. S i L B ( a s , a ) S ) + C .intg. .intg. .intg. W L
C ( m ^ d , a ^ ) W + D .intg. .intg. .intg. V L D ( a ) V + E
.intg. .intg. .intg. V L E ( a , a 0 ) V = min [ Equation 6 ]
##EQU00006##
Flatness of surfaces and data is evaluated in the age domain, and
thus integrating the third term in Equation 6 is performed over the
age domain with extent W. The fourth and fifth terms in Equation 6
regularize the age mapping volume defined in the depth domain by
analyzing its smoothness and similarity to a previous volume. Since
the age mapping volume is defined in the depth domain with extent
V, the integration is performed over V.
[0207] Further constraints to Equation 5 and Equation 6 may be
introduced, for example, by the flatness of a set of
pre-interpreted horizon surfaces S.sup.pre-int.sub.i which have
unit normal vector {circumflex over (m)}.sup.pre-int.sub.s. With
such a constraint, Equation 5 may be changed to:
A 0 i = 1 N pre - int ( .intg. .intg. S i pre - int L A ( m ^ s pre
- int , a ^ ) S ) + A i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S i L A ( m ^ s , a ^
) S ) + B i = 1 N ( .intg. .intg. S i L B ( d s , d ) S ) + C
.intg. .intg. .intg. W L C ( m ^ d , a ^ ) W + D .intg. .intg.
.intg. W L D ( d ) W + E .intg. .intg. .intg. W L E ( d , d 0 ) W =
min [ Equation 7 ] ##EQU00007##
Equation 6 may be expanded analogously with such a constraint by
addition of the first term in Equation 7 to Equation 6.
[0208] Typically, the optimization will be nonlinear and be
performed in an iterative manner where the current estimate of the
age mapping volume or the depth mapping volume is used to transform
surfaces and data from the depth domain to the age domain where
their flatness is evaluated in conjunction with the smoothness of
the mapping volumes and the similarity to given mapping volumes.
The misfit resulting from evaluating Equation 5 or 6 is used to
estimate a better mapping volume and the process is repeated with
the new estimate.
[0209] When generating the age mapping volume by interpolation,
optimization, or yet another process, some surfaces may be deemed
more reliable and can be weighted more heavily than others. An
interpreter, for example, may pick a few select surfaces manually
or with traditional methods and use skeletonization to
automatically pick all surfaces in the data. An interpreter could
also pick a set reference surfaces, check them carefully to ensure
their accuracy and then could continue to pick additional surfaces
more quickly without that much quality control. Thus for the same
volume, there may exist different sets of surfaces with different
provenance, different degrees of accuracy, misfits or errors; or
generated with different methods. Instead of giving all surfaces
the same weight, surfaces with more certainty, or less error, can
be given a higher weight in the generation of the age- and/or
depth-mapping volume than surfaces with higher uncertainty or more
errors.
[0210] One particularly efficient method of enhancing select
surfaces obtained by skeletonization is to use them as seeds for
more traditional automatic surface pickers which allows filling
gaps and holes, or reuniting disjoined pieces of surface. Gaps and
holes may also be removed by interpolation.
[0211] The age mapping volume or the depth mapping volume can be
used directly as maps between the domains. In the age mapping
volume, depth is discretely sampled and each discrete depth value
at a given location is assigned a continuous age value. Typically,
these ages do not correspond to one of the discrete ages sampled in
the age domain, and thus, the data should be resampled, for example
by linear, polynomic, or spline interpolation. An alternative to
resampling is creating a lookup table where the continuous ages in
the age volume are rounded to one of the discrete ages that sample
the age domain. Instead of storing the discrete ages, the sample
indices in the vertical direction of the data in the age domain are
stored. The sample indices so stored facilitate efficient transfers
from the depth domain to the age domain.
[0212] In the depth mapping volume, age is discretely sampled and
each discrete age value at a given location is assigned a
continuous depth value. Typically, these depths do not correspond
to one of the discrete depths sampled in the depth domain, and
thus, the data need to be resampled. An alternative to resampling
is constructing a lookup table by rounding the continuous depths to
one of the discrete depths, and preferably storing the sample
indices corresponding to the rounded depths to allow efficient
transfers from the age to the depth domain.
[0213] At blocks 265 and 266 (FIG. 25) the age mapping volume, the
depth mapping volume, and/or geophysical or geologic or engineering
data or interpretations represented in either domain may be
visualized or displayed, and at block 267 the age mapping volume,
depth mapping volume, and/or geophysical or geologic data
represented in either domain may be stored for future analysis,
simulation, and/or use. Such data may include data volumes,
attributes, or interpretation results or objects such as geobodies,
surfaces, faults, fault sticks, channel axes, polygons, and the
like. As used herein, "displaying" includes a direct act that
causes displaying, as well as any indirect act that facilitates
displaying. Indirect acts include providing software to an end
user, maintaining a website through which a user is enabled to
affect a display, hyperlinking to such a website, or cooperating or
partnering with an entity who performs such direct or indirect
acts. Thus, a first party may operate alone or in cooperation with
a third party vendor to enable the reference signal to be generated
on a display device. The display device may include any device
suitable for displaying the reference image, such as without
limitation a CRT monitor, a LCD monitor, a plasma device, a flat
panel device, or printer. The display device may include a device
which has been calibrated through the use of any conventional
software intended to be used in evaluating, correcting, and/or
improving display results (e.g., a color monitor that has been
adjusted using monitor calibration software). Rather than (or in
addition to) displaying the reference image on a display device, a
method, consistent with the invention, may include providing a
reference image to a subject. "Providing a reference image" may
include creating or distributing the reference image to the subject
by physical, telephonic, or electronic delivery, providing access
over a network to the reference, or creating or distributing
software to the subject configured to run on the subject's
workstation or computer including the reference image. In one
example, the providing of the reference image could involve
enabling the subject to obtain the reference image in hard copy
form via a printer. For example, information, software, and/or
instructions could be transmitted (e.g., electronically or
physically via a data storage device or hard copy) and/or otherwise
made available (e.g., via a network) in order to facilitate the
subject using a printer to print a hard copy form of reference
image. In such an example, the printer may be a printer which has
been calibrated through the use of any conventional software
intended to be used in evaluating, correcting, and/or improving
printing results (e.g., a color printer that has been adjusted
using color correction software).
[0214] At blocks 268 and 269 (FIG. 25), the age mapping volume
and/or the depth mapping volume may be used to transform
interpretation objects, interpretations, or data between the age
domain and the depth domain. Transforming between the domains can
be performed in a push or pull mode. FIGS. 28A and 28B present a
schematic of the two modes of transforming between domains 285A,
285B. In the push mode (FIG. 28A), the mapping volume or its
associated lookup table specifies which sample 286 corresponds to a
sample to be transformed 285. Overwriting conflicts can arise when
multiple samples are transformed using the `push` mode because a
push potentially represents a one-to-many relationship between the
domains. For example, both samples 287 and 288 in domain 285A
correspond to sample 289 in domain 285B. In the pull mode (FIG.
28B), the mapping volume or its associated lookup table specifies
where samples are fetched from. For example, to fill sample 290 in
domain 285B a pull mode transformation would indicate a
corresponding sample 291 in domain 285A. Overwriting conflicts are
impossible, but the same data sample (such as sample 292) can get
assigned to multiple locations in the other domain (samples 293,
294) because a pull constitutes a potential many-to-one
relationship.
[0215] FIGS. 28C-F show additional examples of transforming between
two domains. Transfers in either direction can be performed in
either push or pull mode, using either the age mapping volume or
the depth mapping volume. For each direction and mode, however, one
mapping volume is very efficient because it may be used directly as
a lookup table, while the other mapping volume requires a search
for the requested age or depth to determine the index or value of
the corresponding sample in the other domain. FIG. 28C represents a
transform of a sample from the depth domain 300 to the age domain
302 using an age volume map 304. A direct push operation
(represented by arrow 306) to the age domain is efficient,
especially when using the age mapping volume as a lookup table. A
pull operation (represented by arrow 308) from the depth domain,
however, requires a search of age mapping volume 304 to find the
corresponding sample. FIG. 28D represents a transform of a sample
from the age domain 302 to the depth domain 300 using the age
mapping volume. A direct pull operation (arrow 310) from age domain
302 is efficient when using age mapping volume 304 as a lookup
table. A push operation (arrow 312) to depth domain 300, however,
requires a search of the age mapping volume to find the
corresponding sample location. FIG. 28E represents a transform of a
sample from the depth domain 300 to the age domain 302 using the
depth mapping volume 314. A direct pull operation (arrow 316) from
depth domain 300 is efficient, especially when using the depth
mapping volume as a lookup table. A push operation (arrow 318) from
depth domain 300, however, requires a search of the depth mapping
volume to find the corresponding sample in age domain 302. FIG. 28F
represents a transform of a sample from age domain 302 to depth
domain 300 using depth volume map 314. A direct push operation
(arrow 320) to depth domain 300 is efficient when using the depth
mapping volume as a lookup table. A pull operation (arrow 322) from
the age domain, however, requires a search of the depth volume map
to find the corresponding sample location.
[0216] Either the age mapping volume or the depth mapping volume
can be used for forward or inverse transformations. The age mapping
volume may preferably be used in the pull mode to move data from
the age domain to the depth domain. An age mapping volume may also
preferably be used in the push mode to move data from the depth
domain to the age domain. If, however, a particular sample in the
age domain is to be filled from the depth domain, then the age
mapping volume is searched to find the corresponding data to pull,
which is inefficient. Pushing a sample from the age domain to the
depth domain using the age mapping volume requires a search of the
age mapping volume for the corresponding location, which is
inefficient. Repeated searches, moreover, can be very inefficient.
Conversely, the depth mapping volume may preferably be used in the
pull mode to move data from the depth domain to the age domain. A
depth mapping volume may also preferably be used in the push mode
to move data from the age domain to the depth domain. If, however,
a particular sample in the depth domain is to be filled from the
age domain, then the depth mapping volume is searched to find the
corresponding data to pull, which is inefficient. Pushing a sample
from the depth domain to the age domain using the depth mapping
volume requires searching the depth mapping volume for the
corresponding location, which is inefficient. Moreover, repeated
searches can be very inefficient.
[0217] The differences between a push and pull are less relevant
when the age and depth mapping volumes are used as maps instead of
lookup tables because mapping may require resampling, for example
by interpolation. Resampling can be performed either in the source
or destination domain. The notation y=interp, Y, x) expresses the
interpolation of some feature vector Y sampled at locations X such
that it is sampled at x instead. The interpolator could, for
example, be based on nearest neighbor interpolation, linear
interpolation, cubic spline interpolation, piecewise cubic Hermite
interpolation, polynomial interpolation, Fourier interpolation, or
other known methods. Boundary conditions are irrelevant for the
present discussion. In some applications, extrapolation may be
performed if a new sample location is outside the range spanned by
X. In other applications, the value of the closest sample location
could be returned. Yet in other cases, a default value such as zero
or the average of Y could be returned or a flag could be set to
indicate an invalid new sample location.
[0218] The object o to be transformed from one domain to the other
one is either a trace or a volume, can be represented by a trace or
a volume, or can be reformatted into a trace or volume. An object
o(Z) sampled in the depth domain at the regularly spaced depths Z
can be transformed to the age domain sampled at the regularly
spaced ages A by use of either the age mapping volume a(Z) or the
depth mapping volume z(A).
o(A)=interp(a(Z),o(Z),A)
o(A)=interp(Z,o(Z),z(A))
Conversely, an object o(A) sampled in the age domain at the
regularly spaced ages A can be transformed to the depth domain
sampled at the regularly spaced depths Z by use of either the depth
mapping volume z(A) or the age mapping volume a(Z).
o(Z)=interp(z(A),o(A),Z)
o(Z)=interp(A,o(A),a(Z))
[0219] Workflows moving data forth and back between the domains may
take advantage of both age and depth mapping volumes. The generic
flowchart for such applications, described and shown in FIG. 25,
uses data picking, interpretation, or analysis performed in one
domain, and visualization, further interpretation or analysis, or
quality control in the other domain. Having an efficient mechanism
for transforming data or data objects between the domains enables
simultaneous visualization, interpretation, or analysis in both
domains, thus taking advantage of a reconstructed geologic domain
where stratigraphic features are represented in their original
state and the distortion-free geophysical domain representing the
current state in which the data are acquired.
[0220] FIG. 29 depicts an example seismic datacube 330 with a size
of 1226*1057*131 voxels, where darker shades indicate negative
amplitudes and lighter shades indicate positive amplitudes. FIG. 30
shows the largest 583 of 109,302 surfaces 332 extracted from the
dataset associated with datacube 330 of FIG. 29 using the
skeletonization method disclosed previously herein. FIG. 31 shows
an age mapping volume 334 constructed from all 109,302 surfaces 332
by assigning an area-weighted age, interpolation and slight
smoothing as described herein. Black denotes a (pseudo) age of 1,
while white indicates an age of 3600. Intermediate shades indicate
ages between 1 and 3600. The age mapping volume indicates the age
of every voxel in FIG. 29. FIG. 32 presents the depth mapping
volume 336 constructed from all 109,302 surfaces 332 by assigning
an area-weighted age, interpolation and slight smoothing. A black
shade indicates a depth of 1 and a white shade indicates a depth of
2600. The light gray 337 on top of depth mapping volume 336
indicates an invalid depth that is an artifact of the interpolation
and can be ignored. FIG. 33 is a representation 338 showing how the
seismic datacube 330 of FIG. 29 is transformed into the age domain
by flattening using the depth mapping volume 336 of FIG. 32.
Regions of light gray 339 indicate areas where the data would have
been stretched more than four times, possibly flagging eroded areas
or areas of no deposition. The result of transforming the data in
FIG. 29 from the depth domain to the age domain using the age
mapping volume (FIG. 31) would be a representation similar to
representation 338, with differences being at the youngest ages
(top) and oldest ages (bottom) where boundary or extrapolation
conditions differ.
[0221] Disclosed aspects may be used in various ways. A first
application is the transformation of seismic data volumes, for
example amplitudes or some seismic attribute, from the depth domain
to the age domain by interpolation or resampling where seismic
surfaces are approximately flat. Either the age mapping volume or
depth mapping volume can be used during the transformation. A
flattened volume or an attribute volume derived thereof can be
converted back from the age domain to the depth domain by
interpolation or resampling using either the depth mapping volume
or the age mapping volume.
[0222] Another application is transforming an object, such as a
fault stick or a channel axis, from the depth domain to the age
domain or vice versa. The age mapping volume may be used as a
lookup table to push the data from the depth domain to the age
domain, while the depth mapping volume is used as a lookup table to
push the data from the age domain to the depth domain.
[0223] Another application of age and depth mapping volumes is
generating surfaces from the age or depth mapping volumes. A
guiding principle of seismic stratigraphy is that seismic
reflections follow chronostratigraphic surfaces, and thus,
constitute isochronological surfaces (also known as isochron
surfaces), that are surfaces of constant age. Incompletely mapped
surfaces can be filled in and extended, and previously unmapped
surfaces can be obtained by extraction of isochron surfaces from
the age or depth mapping volumes. When filling in or extending an
existing surface, the interpreter or an algorithm determines the
age of said surface by preferably consulting the age mapping volume
at the locations of said surface or alternatively, by searching the
depth mapping volume for the location of said surface. When
creating a new surface, the interpreter or an algorithm either
chooses an age for the new surface or a subsurface location
situated on the new surface that is converted to an age by querying
the age mapping volume or searching the depth mapping volume. In
either case, this age is used to construct a new surface. When
using the age mapping volume, every trace of the age mapping volume
is searched for the desired age to determine the surface's depth at
this location. In each trace, the depth value is either set to the
depth of the most similar age encountered, or interpolated from the
depths of the ages that tightly bracket the desired age. The
difference in depth between rounding to the nearest age and
interpolating between the bracketing ages is at most one sample.
When using the depth mapping volume, each slice of the depth
mapping volume already corresponds to an interpolated surface
because its vertical axis is age, each slice has a constant age and
thus constitutes a surface. In fact, the depth mapping volume
corresponds to a stack of surfaces with regularly sampled ages. To
construct a surface of a given age, one either selects the slice or
surface with the closest age or interpolates between the slices or
surfaces with the closest ages. Again, the depth differences
between rounding and interpolation are at most one sample. Once the
age of the new or extended surface has been determined, the depth
mapping volume may be preferred for the purpose of generating or
extending a surface because its slices already constitute surfaces
which eliminates the need to search each trace individually for the
closest age values.
[0224] Some special cases of surface generation are surfaces that
either have a specified depth difference to some location or
surface, some specified age difference to some location or surface,
or some specified wavelet phase, polarity, or event difference
(peak, trough, +/-crossing, -/+crossing) to some location or
surface. The only difference between these cases and the previous
ones is the selection of the age for the desired surface. Once the
age has been determined, either the age mapping volume or
preferably the depth mapping volume can be used as previously
disclosed to generate the surface. When specifying a depth
difference, either the depth mapping volume is searched for the
desired depth at this location (which determines the desired age),
or the age mapping volume is used to determine directly the age at
the desired depth and location. When specifying an age difference
to a given depth at a given subsurface location, either the depth
mapping volume is searched to determine the age at this depth and
location, or preferably, the age mapping volume is used to
determine the age at this location directly. For phase, polarity,
or event difference, the seismic data are used to find the depth of
the desired surface at a given location, and then the depth mapping
volume or preferably the age mapping volume are used to determine
the desired age. Once the desired age has been determined, the age
mapping volume or preferably the depth mapping volume is used to
extract the desired surface. The efficiency of generating surfaces
for the different cases varies depending whether only the age
mapping volume is used, only the depth mapping volume is used, or
both age and depth mapping volumes are used. For versatility and
efficiency, preferably both mapping volumes are available and
used.
[0225] Another application of age and depth mapping volumes is for
sculpting during visualization. In sculpting, certain regions of
the seismic, geophysical, or geologic data are rendered
transparent. A slight generalization is to render different regions
with different levels of transparency. Some regions may be fully
transparent, some completely opaque, while others are rendered with
different degrees of semi transparency. For the present discussion,
the different modes of sculpting include: rendering locations in
the seismic, geophysical, or geologic data with an age younger than
a specified age transparent; rendering locations with ages older
than a specified age transparent; rendering locations with ages
similar to a specified age opaque and the others transparent, or
vice versa; or rendering locations with ages between two specified
ages transparent and the others opaque, or vice versa. These modes
can also be combined with each other. All these methods follow the
same logic in that they use the age mapping volume or the depth
mapping volume to construct an opacity control volume of the same
size as the seismic, geophysical, or geologic volume that is to be
sculpted. For example, full transparency may be encoded by a value
of zero, full opacity with a value of one, and values between zero
and one correspond to various degrees of semi transparency.
[0226] Typically, the region to be sculpted is the seismic data in
the depth domain, and thus, the opacity control volume has the same
size as the seismic data in the depth domain. When using the
corresponding age mapping volume, the opacity control volume can be
constructed explicitly or, preferably implicitly on the fly or on
an ad hoc basis. When using the depth mapping volume, the opacity
control volume can be constructed implicitly on the fly or on an ad
hoc basis, but preferably it is constructed explicitly because it
may have a different size than the depth mapping volume upon which
it is based. As previously explained, the age mapping volume
specifies the age of every sample in the depth domain. Simply by
scanning the age mapping volume, a transparency value can be
assigned to every sample depending on the desired transparency or
sculpting condition. As previously explained, the depth mapping
volume specifies the depth of every sample in the age domain, i.e.,
for given ages. While evaluating the age-dependent transparency or
sculpting condition is trivial, a transparency control volume is
constructed in the age domain and transformed into the depth domain
for application. Preferably, only the surfaces that separate the
different regions of the transparency condition are transformed to
the depth domain, for example by pushing with a lookup table, and
these surfaces are used to implicitly or explicitly construct the
opacity control volume in the depth domain. Alternatively, the
opacity control volume for the given transparency condition is
constructed in the age domain and transformed by interpolation to
the depth domain.
[0227] Another aspect of sculpting interchanges age and depth.
Conditions on the depth of samples are used to control the opacity
when rendering the data in the age domain. This case can be
implemented easily by scanning the depth mapping volume for the
desired transparency or sculpting condition. Alternatively, the age
mapping volume can be used to construct an opacity control volume
in the depth domain that is transformed to the age domain.
Preferably, only the surfaces that separate the different opacity
regions in the depth domain are specified and transformed to the
age domain, for example by pushing with a lookup table, and used to
construct the opacity control volume in the age domain.
[0228] Advanced sculpting techniques may combine sculpting
conditions based both on age and depth, for example by rendering
opaque an interval that is given by an age (and thus a surface) and
depth differences (or thicknesses) above and/or below the interval.
Moreover, sculpting based on age, age mapping volumes, depth or
depth mapping volumes may be combined with additional sculpting
conditions based on: attribute values, bins and brackets, or
thresholds; proximity to features such as wells, channel axes,
faults, horizons, fault sticks or horizon traces; proximity or
spatial relationships to objects such as curves, polygons,
surfaces, or geobodies; existence or absence of such objects;
cultural data; or other conditions imposed by the interpreter or a
computer algorithm in an interactive or automated manner.
[0229] In another aspect of the disclosed methodologies and
techniques, age and/or depth mapping volumes allow computation of
attributes either from these volumes or from secondary datasets
indexed with or keyed to these volumes. Age and/or depth mapping
volumes can be used to derive other data and attributes. Having the
ability to form surfaces allows computation of surface or horizon
attributes, for example dip, dip orientation, illumination, or
curvature. Moreover, the surfaces can be used to extract interval
attributes for a specified interval or a specified number of loops
around the horizons such as average amplitude, maximum amplitude,
average duration, maximum duration, or loop asymmetry. Many such
attributes have been disclosed in the literature and are known to
practitioners of the art. If the data are to be evaluated in the
depth domain, then the surfaces can be defined either using the age
or depth mapping volume, but the attributes may be easier to
compute in the depth domain. If the attributes are to be
interpreted in the age domain, then the surfaces are preferably
defined from the depth mapping volumes, and the data transformed to
the age domain for analysis. An alternative is to compute the
attributes at every location and depth in the depth domain, and
then to transform the attribute volumes from the depth to the age
domain. Many attributes map directly from one domain to the other,
but attributes that depend on the coordinate system, i.e., depth or
age, not only need to be stretched and squeezed but may also
require a transformation of their values, for example by
multiplication with the Jacobian of the depth-age
transformation.
[0230] An alternative to map-based interpretation or map-based
attributes is generating attribute volumes either in the depth
mapping volume or the age mapping volume. One such application of
age and/or depth mapping volumes are lateral discontinuities in the
age or depth mapping volume that identify locations where different
ages are juxtaposed, for example, at faults. Either the depth or
age mapping volume can be used, but preference is given to one of
the mapping volumes based on the same domain as will be used in
subsequent interpretation, analysis, or visualization steps. If
necessary, the results may be transformed to the other domain.
Lateral discontinuity detection can be performed on two-dimensional
slices or three-dimensional volumes. For two-dimensional slices,
discontinuity detection is equivalent to edge detection in
traditional image processing. Example processes include gradient,
gradient magnitude, Laplace, Roberts, Prewitt, or Sobel filters, a
Marr-Hildreth edge detector, or a Canny edge detector. Applying
such an edge detector to every slice of a volume allows
construction of a discontinuity volume. Each of these filters can
be extended to three dimensions to exploit the local persistence of
faults, for example, to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
Additionally, coherence, similarity, or discontinuity methods
typically applied on seismic data can be applied on age or depth
mapping volumes or on any seismic, geophysical or geologic volume
represented in either the depth or the age domain.
[0231] Detecting and recognizing lateral discontinuities on depth
mapping volumes allows measurement of fault throws. At a fault, a
given surface is sharply displaced in the vertical direction and
the depth difference between the two sides of the displaced surface
defines the fault throw. Alternatively, throw can be estimated in
the depth domain, but for a given surface or age, the age mapping
volume should be searched for that age to determine the depths on
the two sides of the displaced surface before computing their depth
difference. A fault throw volume can be computed from either the
age mapping volume or the depth mapping volume by performing this
analysis for every sample. This process may work most efficiently
using the depth mapping volume. For computation of a throw volume
in the depth domain, one preferably performs the analysis on the
depth mapping volume in the age domain and transforms the results
back to the depth domain.
[0232] A vertical discontinuity in the age mapping volume indicates
layers of different ages stacked vertically on top of each other,
for example by a listric fault, an unconformity, an age gap, an
erosional gap, (differential) compaction, or a zone of
non-deposition (hiatus). Because age is discontinuous, such feature
will be expressed differently in the age and depth mapping volumes.
In age mapping volumes, there is a vertical discontinuity, and
thus, a high vertical derivative. Thus, an unconformity volume or a
vertical discontinuity volume can be formed in the depth domain by
taking the vertical derivative of the age mapping volume. A large
derivative indicates a high probability for an age gap or rapid age
change corresponding, for example, to a listric fault, an
unconformity, or a hiatus in sedimentation. A useful method to
identify age gaps visually in the depth domain is to flag all
locations where the vertical derivative of the depth mapping volume
exceeds a given threshold.
[0233] In depth mapping volumes, however, there is no discontinuity
or gap when crossing a listric fault, an unconformity, or a hiatus.
Instead, the vertical derivative simply vanishes on depth mapping
volumes because greatly different ages are located at essentially
the same depth. A small or vanishing vertical derivative indicates
a high probability for an age gap or rapid age change
corresponding, for example, to a listric fault, an unconformity,
(differential) compaction or a hiatus in sedimentation. These
features cause tremendous stretching on seismic data transformed to
the age domain, i.e., flattened data, because just a few samples
that are contiguous in the depth domain are required to cover a
long age span in the age domain. A useful method to identify age
gaps visually in the age domain is to flag all locations where the
vertical derivative of the depth mapping volume is below a given
threshold .epsilon.. In a non-dimensional unit system where age and
depth increment are assumed to be one sample or voxel, a threshold
of .epsilon.=0.25 appears to be appropriate if the age mapping
volume is extended by a factor of three as previously discussed
herein. Preferably, an unconformity volume, an unconformity flag
volume, or an unconformity potential volume is computed either with
the age mapping volume if the result is used in the depth domain,
or on the depth mapping volume if the result is used in the age
domain. If necessary, they can be computed on one domain and
transformed to the other domain.
[0234] Another application of aspects discussed herein is computing
thicknesses or isopachs, which is defined as a contour which
denotes points of equal thickness of a rock type, formation, groups
of formations, or the like. Given two ages, two points in the
subsurface, or one of each, the age mapping volume or the depth
mapping volume can be used to compute a thickness map for this
interval, or because age is commonly only a pseudo age, a thickness
trend map. Unless two ages are specified, preferably the age
mapping volume is queried to determine the age(s) at the specified
location(s), or alternatively, the depth mapping volume is searched
at these locations to determine the corresponding ages. Now given
two ages, the age mapping volume is searched for these ages to
determine the difference in depths that defines thickness.
Preferably, however, the difference between the two slices at these
ages of the depth mapping volume is directly used to form the
thickness trend map because the depth mapping volume corresponds to
a stack of depth maps where each map corresponds to a particular
age, and thus the difference between two maps is the thickness of
the interval between these two ages. A thickness trend volume can
be formed preferably from the difference of adjacent slices of the
depth mapping volume. This thickness trend volume in the age domain
corresponds to a stack of thickness trend maps. Potentially, the
thickness trend volume can be transformed from the age domain to
the depth domain or be computed directly from the age mapping
volume. If the thickness trend volume is visualized or analyzed in
the depth domain, then either the age mapping volume or surfaces
interpolated from the age mapping volume or obtained otherwise
should be used to reference, correlate, or key the results. Lastly,
anomalies on thickness trend maps or thickness trend volumes can be
emphasized and highlighted with appropriate shifting and scaling,
for example by subtraction or normalization with a local
average.
[0235] In still another aspect of the disclosed methodologies and
techniques, enclosure volumes may be computed. In traditional
interpretation, a horizon is analyzed to determine the existence of
a closure, which is a group of closed contours encircling a
topographic high spot. An example enclosure is shown in FIG. 34 at
reference number 340, with a topographic high spot 342 surrounded
by closed contours 344a, 344b. Closures are of interest because
they can trap hydrocarbons. The closure can be implicit, for
example at faults or at salt domes where the contour lines
terminate at the fault or against the salt and are implicitly
assumed to follow these boundaries. Closure can also be explicit,
for example on an anticline where closed contours run all around
the top of the anticline. For each closed contour, enclosure
specifies the area contained within. In FIG. 34, an enclosure of
closed contour 344b is indicated by the shaded area 346. Thus, any
location on a surface can be analyzed to determine whether or not
it is on a closed contour encircling a high spot and, if so, to
compute the encircled area. For each high spot, its maximum
enclosure specifies the maximum extent of this potential
hydrocarbon trap. Maximum enclosure is given by the deepest closed
contour.
[0236] Closures and enclosures can be determined for any single
horizon or for any set of horizons, for example surfaces mapped by
traditional means or by automated skeletonization. By estimating
enclosure either for every surface in a dataset, from the age
mapping volume, or preferably from the depth mapping volume, an
enclosure volume can be computed that assigns every sample a value
of zero if it is not part of a closed depth contour that encircles
a high spot. Otherwise, the area of the encircled area is assigned
to this sample location. Using the age mapping volume, a surface
can be constructed by selection of an age, a location, or some
other criteria and search for the depths at the corresponding age.
This surface can be analyzed for high spots, contours that encircle
the high spots, and their areas. It may be advantageous to use the
depth mapping volume for closure detection because each horizontal
slice in a depth mapping volume represents a surface at some age.
In fact, a depth mapping volume may be considered a stack of
surfaces ordered by age. For each slice (or surface of some age),
its values correspond to depth and thus each slice constitutes a
depth map. Each slice can be analyzed for high spots, closed
contours, and their enclosed area, which allows computation of an
enclosure volume in the age domain. If desired, the entire
enclosure volume or any part thereof, a slice for example, is
easily transformed to the depth domain.
[0237] An extension of closure or enclosure volume analysis is to
determine spill points and spill point volumes. The spill point,
shown in FIG. 34 at reference number 348, is a location near the
maximum closure contour where the contours are breached and thus,
where the potential trap leaks. Determining all spill points in a
region allows creation of a spill point volume and examination how
different potential traps spill and feed each other. The location
and number of spill points can be used for risking a prospect or to
guide a search for where hydrocarbons have leaked from and
accumulated to. Although spill points can be identified from age
mapping volumes by extraction of iso-age surfaces and examination
thereof, spill points and spill point volumes are preferably
generated from depth mapping volumes that correspond to stacks of
depth maps of different age, i.e., stacks of depth maps for
different horizons. If necessary, spill points and spill point
volumes determined from depth mapping volumes are easily
transformed to the depth domain by use of the depth volume as a
lookup table or by interpolation.
[0238] In yet another aspect of disclosed methodologies and
techniques, age mapping volumes may be used to compute dips and dip
directions, dip volumes and dip direction volumes. It may be
advantageous to use an age mapping volume because an isosurface in
the age mapping volume corresponds to a surface or horizon in the
seismic data. Assuming that age trends to increase with depth, dip
and dip orientation can be obtained from the negative gradient of
age. Dip orientation, for example, is defined by arctan
-.differential..sub.xa/.differential..sub.ya, while dip is defined
by arccos .differential..sub.z a/ {square root over
((.differential..sub.xa).sup.2+(.differential..sub.ya).sup.2)}{square
root over
((.differential..sub.xa).sup.2+(.differential..sub.ya).sup.2)}. Dip
and dip directions can be computed from the gradients of the depth
mapping volume, but the gradient components may need to be scaled
first with the Jacobian for the depth-age transform, and if
desired, the resulting dips and orientations are transformed to the
depth domain by interpolation or use of a lookup table.
[0239] In still another aspect of the disclosed methodologies and
techniques, age mapping volumes or depth mapping volumes may be
used to simultaneously visualize a seismic attribute transformed to
the age domain and the depths specified by the depth mapping
volume. Maps or other graphic displays are still one the most
common methods to present and share models of the subsurface. Any
horizontal slice from a seismic attribute converted to the age
domain represents a map of said attribute along one surface of a
given age. The corresponding slice of the depth mapping volume
specifies the depth structure of that surface. Simultaneously
presenting the attribute slice(s) and the depth slice enables the
search for hydrocarbons in structural traps. One example is a map
of seismic amplitude overlain by contours for the depths where
large amplitudes on structural highs might indicate the presence of
trapped hydrocarbons.
[0240] Some portions of this detailed description are presented in
terms of procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing and other
symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a memory
in a computing system or a computing device. These descriptions and
representations are the means used by those skilled in the data
processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their
work to others skilled in the art. In this detailed description, a
procedure, step, logic block, process, or the like, is conceived to
be a self-consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a
desired result. The steps are those requiring physical
manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, although not
necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical,
magnetic, or optical signals capable of being stored, transferred,
combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven
convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to
refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols,
characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
[0241] Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the
following discussions, terms such as "obtaining", "enumerating",
"assigning", "corresponding to", "generating", "choosing", "using",
"transforming", "outputting", "displaying", "incorporating",
"rendering", "interpolating", "applying", "optimizing", "forming",
"computing", "determining", "identifying", or the like, may refer
to the action and processes of a computer system, or other
electronic device, that transforms data represented as physical
(electronic, magnetic, or optical) quantities within some
electrical device's storage into other data similarly represented
as physical quantities within the storage, or in transmission or
display devices. These and similar terms are to be associated with
the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient
labels applied to these quantities.
[0242] Embodiments disclosed herein also relate to an apparatus for
performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially
constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a
general-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a
computer program or code stored in the computer. Such a computer
program or code may be stored or encoded in a computer readable
medium or implemented over some type of transmission medium. A
computer-readable medium includes any medium or mechanism for
storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a
machine, such as a computer (`machine` and `computer` are used
synonymously herein). As a non-limiting example, a
computer-readable medium may include a computer-readable storage
medium (e.g., read only memory ("ROM"), random access memory
("RAM"), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash
memory devices, etc.). A transmission medium may be twisted wire
pairs, coaxial cable, optical fiber, or some other suitable
transmission medium, for transmitting signals such as electrical,
optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signals (e.g.,
carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.)).
[0243] Furthermore, modules, features, attributes, methodologies,
and other aspects can be implemented as software, hardware,
firmware or any combination thereof. Wherever a component of the
invention is implemented as software, the component can be
implemented as a standalone program, as part of a larger program,
as a plurality of separate programs, as a statically or dynamically
linked library, as a kernel loadable module, as a device driver,
and/or in every and any other way known now or in the future to
those of skill in the art of computer programming. Additionally,
the invention is not limited to implementation in any specific
operating system or environment.
[0244] Example methods may be better appreciated with reference to
flow diagrams. While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the
illustrated methodologies are shown and described as a series of
blocks, it is to be appreciated that the methodologies are not
limited by the order of the blocks, as some blocks can occur in
different orders and/or concurrently with other blocks from that
shown and described. Moreover, less than all the illustrated blocks
may be required to implement an example methodology. Blocks may be
combined or separated into multiple components. Furthermore,
additional and/or alternative methodologies can employ additional
blocks not shown herein. While the figures illustrate various
actions occurring serially, it is to be appreciated that various
actions could occur in series, substantially in parallel, and/or at
substantially different points in time.
[0245] FIG. 35 illustrates a system of a computing environment 400
for implementing disclosed aspects. Computing environment 400
includes a computing device in the form of a computing system 410,
which may be a UNIX-based workstation or commercially available
from Intel, IBM, AMD, Motorola, Cyrix and others. Components of the
computing system 410 may include, but are not limited to, a
processing unit 414, a system memory 416, and a system bus 446 that
couples various system components including the system memory to
the processing unit 414. The system bus 446 may be any of several
types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory
controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a
variety of bus architectures.
[0246] Computing system 410 typically includes a variety of
computer readable media. Computer readable media may be any
available media that may be accessed by the computing system 410
and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, and removable and
non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation,
computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and
communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and
nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any
method or technology for storage of information such as computer
readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other
data. Computer memory includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM,
EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital
versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic
cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic
storage devices, or any other medium which may be used to store the
desired information and which may be accessed by the computing
system 410. The system memory 416 includes computer storage media
in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only
memory (ROM) 420 and random access memory (RAM) 422. A basic
input/output system 424 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that
help to transfer information between elements within computing
system 410, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM
420. RAM 422 typically contains data and/or program modules that
are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by
processing unit 414. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 35
illustrates operating system 426, application programs 430, other
program modules 430 and program data 432.
[0247] Computing system 410 may also include other
removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage
media. By way of example only, FIG. 35 illustrates a hard disk
drive 434 that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile
magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 436 that reads from or writes
to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 438, and an optical disk
drive 440 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile
optical disk 442 such as a CD ROM or other optical media. Other
removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage
media that may be used in the exemplary operating environment
include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash
memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid
state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 434
is typically connected to the system bus 446 through a
non-removable memory interface such as interface 444, and magnetic
disk drive 436 and optical disk drive 440 are typically connected
to the system bus 446 by a removable memory interface, such as
interface 448. The drives and their associated computer storage
media, discussed above and illustrated in FIG. 35, provide storage
of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules
and other data for the computing system 410. In FIG. 35, for
example, hard disk drive 434 is illustrated as storing operating
system 478, application programs 480, other program modules 482 and
program data 484. These components may either be the same as or
different from operating system 426, application programs 430,
other program modules 430, and program data 432. Operating system
478, application programs 480, other program modules 482, and
program data 484 are given different numbers hereto illustrates
that, at a minimum, they are different copies.
[0248] A user may enter commands and information into the computing
system 410 through input devices such as a tablet, or electronic
digitizer, 450, a microphone 452, a keyboard 454, and pointing
device 456, commonly referred to as a mouse, trackball, or touch
pad. These and other input devices often may be connected to the
processing unit 414 through a user input interface 458 that is
coupled to the system bus 418, but may be connected by other
interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or
a universal serial bus (USB).
[0249] A monitor 460 or other type of display device may be also
connected to the system bus 418 via an interface, such as a video
interface 462. The monitor 460 may be integrated with a
touch-screen panel or the like. The monitor and/or touch screen
panel may be physically coupled to a housing in which the computing
system 410 is incorporated, such as in a tablet-type personal
computer. In addition, computers such as the computing system 410
may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers
464 and printer 466, which may be connected through an output
peripheral interface 468 or the like.
[0250] Computing system 410 may operate in a networked environment
using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as
a remote computing system 470. The remote computing system 470 may
be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer
device or other common network node, and typically includes many or
all of the elements described above relative to the computing
system 410, although only a memory storage device 472 has been
illustrated in FIG. 35. The logical connections depicted in FIG. 35
include a local area network (LAN) 474 connecting through network
interface 486 and a wide area network (WAN) 476 connecting via
modem 488, but may also include other networks. Such networking
environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer
networks, intranets and the Internet. For example, computer system
410 may comprise the source machine from which data is being
migrated, and the remote computing system 470 may comprise the
destination machine. Note however that source and destination
machines need not be connected by a network or any other means, but
instead, data may be migrated via any machine-readable media
capable of being written by the source platform and read by the
destination platform or platforms.
[0251] The central processor operating system or systems may reside
at a central location or distributed locations (i.e., mirrored or
stand-alone). Software programs or modules instruct the operating
systems to perform tasks such as, but not limited to, facilitating
client requests, system maintenance, security, data storage, data
backup, data mining, document/report generation and algorithms. The
provided functionality may be embodied directly in hardware, in a
software module executed by a processor or in any combination of
the two. Furthermore, software operations may be executed, in part
or wholly, by one or more servers or a client's system, via
hardware, software module or any combination of the two. A software
module (program or executable) may reside in RAM memory, flash
memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard
disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, DVD, optical disk or any other
form of storage medium known in the art. For example, a storage
medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor may
read information from, and write information to, the storage
medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to
the processor. The processor and the storage medium may also reside
in an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The bus may
be an optical or conventional bus operating pursuant to various
protocols that are well known in the art. One system that may be
used is a Linux workstation configuration with a Linux 64-bit or
32-bit Red Hat Linux WS3 operating system, and an NVIDIA Quadro
graphics card. However, the system may operate on a wide variety of
hardware.
[0252] FIG. 36 is a block diagram of a representation of
machine-readable code 500 that may be used with a computing system
such as computing system 410. At block 502, code is provided for
obtaining a set of topologically consistent surfaces that
correspond to seismic data relating to a subsurface region. At
block 504, code is provided for enumerating the surfaces in a depth
domain. At block 506, code is provided for assigning an age to each
of the surfaces in the depth domain. The age corresponds to an
estimated time of deposition of the respective surface. At block
508, code is provided for generating an age mapping volume. At
block 510, code is provided for choosing an extent of the age
domain. At block 512, code is provided for generating a depth
mapping volume. At block 514, code is provided for using both the
age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to transform
geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or interpretations
between the depth domain and the age domain, and between the age
domain and the depth domain. At block 516, code is provided for
outputting the geologic, geophysical, or engineering data or
interpretations transformed by at least one of the age mapping
volume and the depth mapping volume. Code effectuating or executing
other features of the disclosed aspects and methodologies may be
provided as well. This additional code is represented in FIG. 36 as
block 518, and may be placed at any location within code 500
according to computer code programming techniques.
[0253] Disclosed aspects may be used in hydrocarbon management
activities. As used herein, "hydrocarbon management" or "managing
hydrocarbons" includes hydrocarbon extraction, hydrocarbon
production, hydrocarbon exploration, identifying potential
hydrocarbon resources, identifying well locations, determining well
injection and/or extraction rates, identifying reservoir
connectivity, acquiring, disposing of and/or abandoning hydrocarbon
resources, reviewing prior hydrocarbon management decisions, and
any other hydrocarbon-related acts or activities. The term
"hydrocarbon management" is also used for the injection or storage
of hydrocarbons or CO.sub.2, for example the sequestration of
CO.sub.2, such as reservoir evaluation, development planning, and
reservoir management. For example, in an aspect the disclosed
methodologies and techniques may be used to extract hydrocarbons
from a subsurface region, which is indicated by reference number
532 in FIG. 37. A method 540 of extracting hydrocarbons from
subsurface reservoir 532 is shown in FIG. 38. At block 542 inputs
are received from a geologic model of the subsurface region, where
the geologic model as been improved using the methods and aspects
disclosed herein. At block 544 the presence and/or location of
hydrocarbons in the subsurface region is predicted. At block 546
hydrocarbon extraction is conducted to remove hydrocarbons from the
subsurface region, which may be accomplished by drilling a well 534
using oil drilling equipment 536 (FIG. 37). Other hydrocarbon
extraction activities and, more generally, other hydrocarbon
management activities, may be performed according to known
principles.
[0254] The following numbered statements are part of the
disclosure.
1. A computer-implemented method for transforming a seismic data
volume acquired in a seismic survey to a corresponding data volume
which, when visually displayed, shows a representation of
subterranean reflector surfaces that gave rise to the data by
reflecting seismic waves, said method comprising: [0255] (a)
picking seismic reflections from the data volume, and creating
initial surfaces from the picks; [0256] (b) breaking surfaces into
smaller parts ("patches") that are predominantly topologically
consistent; [0257] (c) merging neighboring patches in a
topologically consistent way, thus extracting topologically
consistent reflection-based surfaces from the seismic data volume;
and [0258] (d) displaying the extracted surfaces for visual
inspection or interpretation, or saving their digital
representations to computer memory or data storage. 2. The method
of statement 1, further comprising using the topologically
consistent reflection-based surfaces to predict or analyze
potential for hydrocarbon accumulations. 3. The method of statement
1, wherein topologically consistent comprises verifying that
surfaces satisfy at least one of (i) no self overlaps; (ii) local
consistency; and (iii) global consistency. 4. The method of
statement 1, wherein the seismic reflections are picked by
correlating reflection events between neighboring traces in the
seismic data volume. 5. The method of statement 4, wherein the
picking is automated, using a computer. 6. The method of statement
1, wherein breaking surfaces into patches comprises shrinking
initial surfaces to lines, removing joints in the lines to form
more individual lines, shrinking individual lines to single-voxel
points (characteristic points), and propagating the characteristic
points along the initial surfaces by adding neighboring voxels to
form patches of voxels. 7. The method of statement 6, wherein each
characteristic point is labeled with a different label, and the
label is applied to the patch formed around the characteristic
point, thus providing a means to keep track of different patches as
they are expanded by propagation. 8. The method of statement 6,
wherein controlled marching is used to propagate points along
initial surfaces. 9. The method of statement 6, wherein shrinking
of an initial surface to a line comprises successively removing
one-voxel-thick layers from the periphery of the surface until a
continuous line of individual voxels results. 10. The method of
statement 6, further comprising deleting joint voxels from lines to
form more lines before shrinking lines to points. 11. The method of
statement 6, wherein topological consistency is enforced during the
propagation of points. 12. The method of statement 1, wherein
merging neighboring patches in a topologically consistent way is
performed by developing overlap and neighbor tables for the
patches, generating an order for merge pair candidates by sorting
the overlap and neighbor tables, checking candidate merges for
topological consistency using the overlap and neighbor tables, and
accepting topologically consistent mergers. 13. The method of
statement 12, wherein the sort order of the neighbor table is based
on geometries of, or geometry differences between, the neighboring
patches, or is based on the statistical properties of, or the
differences between, one or more attributes extracted from seismic
data collocated with the patches. 14. The method of statement 1,
further comprising spatially flattening the topologically
consistent reflection-based surfaces into an order representing the
sequence of deposition using the topologically consistent
reflection-based surfaces and using the flattened surfaces to
predict or analyze potential for hydrocarbon accumulations. 15. The
method of statement 14, further comprising flattening the
associated seismic data within which the topologically consistent
reflection-based surfaces exist. 16. The method of statement 15,
wherein the seismic data flattening is performed by nonlinear
stretch of the seismic data or by a cut and past method. 17. The
method of statement 1, further comprising creating a visual
representation showing depositional order or hierarchy of the
topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces. 18. The method
of statement 17, further wherein the visual representation is a
tree and comprising using the tree to select one or more surfaces
for visualization. 19. The method of statement 1, further
comprising using the patches to segment the seismic data volume
into three-dimensional bodies or inter-surface packages that
represent geologic units that were deposited within a common
interval, and using them to analyze for hydrocarbon potential. 20.
The method of statement 2, further comprising analyzing the
location and characteristics of edges and termination points of the
topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces and using that
to assist in predicting or analyzing potential for hydrocarbon
accumulations. 21. The method of statement 2, further comprising
analyzing attributes and geometric characteristics of the
topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces and/or the
associated seismic data at the locations of said surfaces to assist
in predicting or analyzing potential for hydrocarbon accumulations.
22. The method of statement 1, further comprising using the patches
or topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces to reduce the
amount of information contained in the seismic data volume in
order, thereby reducing storage or computational efficiency
requirements for subsequent data processing of the seismic data.
23. The method of statement 1, wherein merging neighboring patches
is restricted to patches that trace back before shrinking to the
same initial surface. 24. The method of statement 12, wherein
topological consistency is enforced in merging neighboring patches
using a depth-limited search method comprising: [0259] (a) creating
a graph structure based on the overlap table that captures relative
positions of the patches in the data volume; [0260] (b) assigning a
depth attribute to each patch such that comparison of the depth
attributes of any two patches indicates whether one of the patches
overlies the other; [0261] (c) using the graph structure and the
depth attributes to check a merger proposed based on the neighbor
table for topological consistency; and [0262] (d) updating the
depth attributes and graph structure as patch mergers are accepted.
25. The method of statement 1, wherein the extracted surfaces are
displayed or saved as an earth model. 26. A computer program
product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer
readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable
program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for
reducing a seismic data volume to reflection-based surfaces, said
method comprising: [0263] (a) picking seismic reflections from the
data volume, and creating initial surfaces from the picks; [0264]
(b) breaking surfaces into smaller parts ("patches") that are
predominantly topologically consistent; and [0265] (c) merging
neighboring patches in a topologically consistent way, thus
extracting topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces from
the seismic data volume. 27. A method for producing hydrocarbons
from a subsurface region, comprising: [0266] (a) obtaining a
seismic data volume representing the subsurface region; [0267] (b)
obtaining a prediction of the potential for hydrocarbon
accumulations in the subsurface region based at least partly on
topologically consistent reflection-based surfaces extracted from
the seismic data volume by a method described in statement 1, which
is incorporated herein by reference; and [0268] (c) in response to
a positive prediction of hydrocarbon potential, drilling a well
into the subsurface region and producing hydrocarbons. 28. A method
for merging surfaces identified in a seismic or seismic attribute
data volume to form larger surfaces representing subterranean
geologic structure or geophysical state of matter, comprising
merging neighboring surfaces in a topologically consistent way. 29.
A method for exploring for hydrocarbons, comprising: [0269] (a)
obtaining a data volume of seismic or seismic attribute data
resulting from a seismic survey; [0270] (b) subdividing the data
volume into parts, called objects; [0271] (c) forming regions of
one or more objects; [0272] (d) developing or selecting a measure
for ranking the regions in terms of potential to represent a
geobody, interface surface, or intersection of these, or other
physical geologic structure or geophysical state of matter that is
indicative of hydrocarbon deposits; and [0273] (e) using the
measure to prioritize regions, and then using the prioritization to
assess the volume for hydrocarbon potential. 30. The method of
statement 29, wherein each object contains cells classified
together using one or more criteria based on the data or attribute
thereof or other physical reasonableness criterion. 31. The method
of statement 29, further comprising using the region prioritization
to transform the data volume into a geophysical earth model, and
using the earth model to assess the volume for hydrocarbon
potential. 32. The method of statement 29, wherein (b) is performed
using a method described in statement 1, which is incorporated
herein by reference. 33. The method of statement 29, wherein the
measure in (d) comprises a direct hydrocarbon indicator (DHI). 34.
Method for analysis of hydrocarbon potential of subterranean
regions by generating surfaces or geobodies and analyzing them for
hydrocarbon indications. Reflection-based surfaces may be
automatically created in a topologically consistent manner where
individual surfaces do not overlap themselves and sets of multiple
surfaces are consistent with stratigraphic superposition
principles. Initial surfaces are picked from the seismic data (41),
then broken into smaller parts ("patches") that are predominantly
topologically consistent (42), whereupon neighboring patches are
merged in a topologically consistent way (43) to form a set of
surfaces that are extensive and consistent ("skeleton"). Surfaces
or geobodies thus extracted may be automatically analyzed and rated
(214) based on a selected measure (213) such as one or more direct
hydrocarbon indications ("DHI"), e.g. AVO classification.
Topological consistency for one or more surfaces may be defined as
no self overlap plus local and global consistency among multiple
surfaces (52). The foregoing application is directed to particular
embodiments of the present invention for the purpose of
illustrating them. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in
the art, that many modifications and variations to the embodiments
described herein are possible. All such modifications and
variations are intended to be within the scope of the present
invention, as defined in the appended claims.
* * * * *
References