Executive Message

…It was December of 2001when I first learned I was elected as Assistant Director of Finance. It was reassuring at the time to hear from both Doug Uffen, incoming CSEG President, and Dave Siegfried, incoming Director of Finance, that we would embark upon a campaign to balance the Society's budget.…

Grapevine

…Earth Signal's Open House Prize Winners At Earth Signal's open house on November 21st the first place door prize winner was Andrew Churchill of Anderson Exploration Ltd. Andrew won a gift certificate for the Rimrock Hotel. The second place winner was Curtis Kramchynski, a consulting geophysicist, who won a golf…

Tracing the Industry

…Another good year has begun at the CSEG. Looking forward to hearing from everyone in the New Year. Please keep sending your announcements to me. A little slow these days, but here are this month's changes. Carmen Swalwell has joined Lynx Information Systems Ltd. as their Sales Manager. Carmen can…

Intrigue, Mystery and Geophysics… Dead Sea Archaeology, 2001

Paul Bauman, Richard Freund, Rami Arav, John Shroder, Jr., Phil Reeder and Harry Jol

…For seven weeks over the past three summers, archaeogeophysical exploration was carried out in caves and other ancient sites of occupation along the Syrian African Rift Valley from the Dead Sea northward to the confluence of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. State of the art geophysical exploration…

Geophysics On Vancouver Island – An Outreach Article

Melvyn E. Best

…When first asked to write an article about geophysical activity on Vancouver Island for the Recorder, I was hesitant. The small group of geophysicists have a diverse range of interests, thus making a complete portrayal of their activities difficult. On reflection, though, such an article would provide RECORDER readers with…

“Mix Seismic with Water (Carefully) to Obtain Results” or Shooting Rivers & Lakes, Part One (Shooting Rivers)

Perry Kotkas & John Ropchan

…Overview Walk over to your wall map and determine how much land in Alberta is under water, or dissected by rivers. If you knew your company could obtain superior seismic data in a “virgin” area at a reasonable cost, but, it would take planning, expertise, and real environmental stewardship, would…

Seismic Instruments – What’s New? … And What’s True?

Norman M. Cooper

…Overview “We have so much dynamic range now that …” – and then you fill in the blanks. This is perhaps one of the most frequently mis-used phrases in our industry today. This prelude has been used to justify many excuses for poor acquisition practices from the grouping of analog…

The Changing Face of the Land Seismic Crew and the Advent of Digital Multicomponent Sensors

Robert Kendall

…Introduction In the last twenty years land seismic acquisition has changed in many ways. The standard seismic crew twenty years ago was likely to be a 96-channel, 16 bit analogue cable system. Digitizing was done in the recorder and digital data written to tape. Field filters and gain settings were…

‘Technology is Important…’

An Interview with Jerry Harris

…Jerry, tell us about your educational background and experience? I did my undergraduate studies at University of Mississippi in the early 1970s, and then went to the California Institute of Technology and majored in electrical sciences. After my master’s degree, I worked for 3 years in atmospheric geosciences, looking at…

Executive Message

…I was asked to provide this month's Executive Message on fairly short notice. The result is less of a Message and more of a Ramble. Given the time constraint I immediately reviewed the same feature in some past issues of the RECORDER hoping at least to borrow a format. If…

Tracing the Industry

…Craig Day joins The Excalibur - Gemini survey audit team with his certification as a Seismic Survey Technician and 12 years in the Seismic Survey industry. In addition to Craig's technical skills, his greatest assets are his positive attitude, attention to detail and broad range of "soft" skills that any…

Grapevine

…Four Geophs do us Proud On September 24th, APEGGA hosted their First Annual Calgary Chapter Golf Tournament, a Texas Best Ball Scramble, at Lynx Ridge . In an effort to build bridges with APEGGA, CSEG President, Doug Uffen, assembled a team to participate in the tournament. "TEAM CSEG" was comprised…

Global Warming / Climate Change and Variations in Solar Activity: Past, Present and Future?

Ken Allen

…Since the author’s first article on this subject, titled “Global Warming and the Sun”, was published in the CSEG Recorder in January 2000, the evidence that solar variations and other natural forces may in fact be the primary drivers of recent global warming have continued to grow. A briefer version…

True Depth Conversion: More Than a Pretty Picture

Edward L. Etris, Nick J. Crabtree and Jan Dewar

…A good seismic image is not enough for an exploration or field development interpretation. Good well ties and reliable depth conversion are also required. The authors have found that geologists and geophysicists tend to approach the depth conversion process quite differently. The geologist says, “If I don’t have wells, how…

Seismic Imaging: Prestack

John C. Bancroft

…Abstract The kinematics of prestack data consider an arbitrary offset between the source and receiver. The added dimension of the source-receiver offset defines a prestack volume where the location of source gathers, constant offset sections, common midpoint gathers, etc. are identified. Reflection energy from horizontal reflectors, dipping reflectors, or scatterpoints…

Evaluation of Foothills Natural Gas Plays Using Two Dimensional Balanced Cross Sections

Andrew C. Newson

…Exploration for large gas fields in the Foothills has been an important part of many oil and gas companies’ exploration strategies in Canada during the last 5 years. Given the increasing demand for natural gas and the realistic expectation that we will continue to find large natural gas reserves in…

Scientific Anathema: The Black Box

Lee Hunt

…The existence of undisclosed or ‘black box’ techniques have long been with us. Black box techniques have historically been offered either to preserve a technological secret, or to provide a cloak in which deception and exaggeration may be perpetrated. One motivation comes from the very understandable desire to protect a…

High-Resolution Crosswell Seismic Imaging Between Horizontal Wells

Guoping Li and Ernest Majer

…Introduction Crosswell seismology is a proven high-resolution seismic imaging technology due to its ability to provide unusually high-frequencies conventionally unattainable by 3-D seismic. Numerous case studies have demonstrated its applicability as one of the most effective reservoir management tools. A recent report by Zhang et al. (2002), for instance, shows…

Geophysical Methods Used in Exploration for Gemstones

Frederick A. Cook

…Summary Advancements in geophysical methods provide opportunities for applications in exploration and development of many types of gemstone deposits. Mega-scale regional techniques, such as teleseismic signals, regional electromagnetic, and long range controlled source seismology (reflection and refraction) soundings, assist in delineating thick cratonic regions and the internal structure of the…

Base Metal Exploration: Looking Deeper and Adding Value with Seismic Data

Larry Matthews

…Summary The search for mineral resources in the crystalline crust has become increasingly challenging as the need to explore deeper becomes an economic reality. Canadian mining camps continue to deplete their historical reserve base from decades old surface discoveries or deepening mine extensions. Ongoing efforts are focused toward developing technologies…