Articles
Programming a Seismic Program
Evan Bianco and Matt Hall
Programming is becoming an increasingly useful skill for the modern geoscientist. I don’t mean to suggest that all geoscientists should become software developers and start making full-blown desktop software applications. But programming can and will super-charge your work, making you more productive and more thorough.
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Learning by Doing
Matteo Niccoli
If you want to install Python, which you would need to run many of the resources in this section, I recommend using the Anaconda free Python distribution, which can be used for both noncommercial and commercial purposes, and redistributed: http://continuum.io/downloads, and includes all the main scientific computing libraries you will…
Geophysics in a Time of Cheap Oil
Leon Thomsen
The world is currently producing about a million barrels of oil more than it uses, every day. So, the price of oil has decreased, following a well-known “law of economics” This has put enormous financial pressure on all producers, especially the high-cost producers in the new shale resource plays. So,…
Introduction to October Focus: Conjugate Margins
Deric Cameron and Ian Atkinson
This October 2015 issue of the RECORDER focuses on the Atlantic conjugate margins. Most of the basins of the margins of Eastern Canada are still under-explored despite ongoing production in some basins since the 1990’s. Exploration activity in Eastern Canada has recently been invigorated by Statoil and Husky’s success in…
Evidence for Hyper-extended Continental Crust in the East Orphan Basin from Seismic Reflection Data
J. Kim Welford, Deric Cameron, James Carter and Richard Wright
The Eastern Newfoundland offshore region has experienced a resurgence in exploration activity over recent years, spurred on by several significant petroleum discoveries in the Flemish Pass Basin, northeast and along geological trend from the world-class deposits in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin. In 2012 and 2013, PGS, TGS, and Nalcor Energy…
Source Rocks and Petroleum Systems of the Scotian Basin
Ricardo L. Silva, Carlos Wong, and Grant Wach
Recently, the term petroleum source rock became a buzz word in the geological vocabulary. This is due, in great part, to the development of unconventional gas plays in several locations around North America and Europe. Source rocks are central in hydrocarbon research because they are an essential element of any…
Exploration in Frontier Areas and Deep-Water Settings: Integration of Disciplines and Universality of Rock Properties
Alsing Selnes, Alex Edwards, and Sam Green
Rock physics describes a reservoir rock using physical properties such as porosity, rigidity and compressibility; these properties affect how seismic waves physically travel through the rocks. The rock physicist seeks to establish relationships between these material properties and the observed seismic response, and to develop a predictive theory so that…
The Regional Alberta Observatory for Earthquake Studies Network (RAVEN)
Ryan Schultz and Virginia Stern
In light of recent induced seismicity, there is a renewed interest in understanding the seismic setting of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). While the observation of induced seismic events is not new to the WCSB (e.g., Wetmiller et al., 1986; Horner et al., 1994; Baranova et al., 1999; Schultz…
In Memoriam of George D. Hobson
George passed away peacefully, in his 93rd year, at home surrounded by family. George attended Delta Collegiate (a high school well known to Hamiltonians) and was Student President in 1940-41. He received a degree from McMaster University in Mathematics and Physics and then a Master’s degree from the University of…
Concepts and Applications of Imaging with Multiples and Primaries
Dan Whitmore
The goal of seismic acquisition and processing is to create a well-sampled image of the subsurface. Broadband acquisition has expanded the useable low and high frequencies of the seismic signal. Multistreamer acquisition provides a much greater receiver sampling. Wide- and full-azimuth acquisition and longer offsets have improved the azimuthal and…
Introduction to September Focus: Overseas Research
Rob Holt
Although the winds of change can rapidly derail the best laid plans in our price-sensitive industry, academia, with its longer-term outlook and lack of shareholders has traditionally and necessarily provided a safe haven for the nurturing of young geophysical talent and new concepts which will shape the direction of future…
The School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol
Michael Kendall
The School of Earth Sciences is situated at the historic heart of the University of Bristol campus, in the neo-Gothic Wills Memorial Building. The School is one of the top 3 Earth Science research organisations in the UK (e.g., REF2014) and is currently ranked 15th in the world (QS World…
Geophysics Programs at the Department of Exploration Geophysics at Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Boris Gurevich, Andrej Bona, Roman Pevzner, Milovan Urosevic, and Rob Ross
Curtin University is centrally located in Perth at the heart of Australia’s premier energy and mining state of Western Australia. The Department of Exploration Geophysics, part of the Curtin WA School of Mines (WASM) at Curtin University, provides a comprehensive range of internationally recognised specialist geophysics degree level courses ranging…
Seismic shale characterization research at the Edinburgh Anisotropy Project
Mark Chapman, Xiaoyang Wu, Li Yang, Keran Qian, Heng-Chang Dai and Xiang-Yang Li
The Edinburgh Anisotropy Project is a long running industry-academic research consortium working on all aspects of seismic anisotropy, with a particular emphasis on anisotropic rock physics, fracture detection and converted-wave seismic methods. In recent years EAP has increasingly addressed problems arising in seismic shale characterization. The ultimate goal of this…
Exploration geophysics at the University of Houston: The shale trail and other unconventional voyage
Robert R. Stewart, Fabiola Ruiz, Julia Wellner, Nikolay Dyaur, and Long Huang
Understanding the subsurface and finding something valuable in it are the key roles of an exploration geophysicist. It’s an exciting search and one that is continually improving. Many energy companies, contractors, government labs, and universities are active in the research and development efforts that give rise to these advancements.
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Seismic Research in Imaging Unconventional Reservoirs
Bob A. Hardage
The Exploration Geophysics Laboratory (EGL) is an industry-funded consortium positioned inside the Bureau of Economic Geology, a major structural component of the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin. The research focus of EGL is to develop and apply multicomponent seismic technology that will assist the…
Tributes to Professor Tad Ulrych
On August 19, 2014, we learned of the passing of a great Canadian geophysicist, Professor Tad Ulrych. Tad had an illustrious and successful career at the University of British Columbia for more than four decades. He was a wonderful mentor, teacher and research scientist. In 2014, Tad received the CSEG…
Full-Waveform Inversion: Challenges, Opportunities and Impact
Dimitri Bevc
There has been a great deal of industry activity and interest in full-waveform inversion (FWI) because of its potential to generate accurate high-resolution velocity models. Theoretically, the method has great promise, and compute power seems to be adequate to bring this promise to bear on practical business problems. The promise…
Introduction to June Focus: Unconventional Resources
Marco Perez
Within the unconventional era of hydrocarbon exploitation, a geophysicist is asked the “question” of how to high-grade drilling locations for optimal and efficient reservoir development. He, or she, is asked to interpret subtle changes in elastic property estimated from surface measurements, on rock thousands of meters beneath the earth’s surface.…
Interpreting AVOAz using limaçons
Benjamin Roure
Limaçon is a French word meaning snail (from the Latin word limax). In the real world, limaçons have a wide range of applications from culinary (a delicacy in some countries) to cosmetics (their slime is used for human skincare). In the mathematical world, limaçons (also known as Pascal’s limaçons after…
