DEEP STRUCTURAL IMAGING FROM ONSHORE RECORDING OF A MARINE AIR-GUN SOURCE IN THE GIPPSLAND AND BASS BASINS

1991 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
C.D.N. Collins ◽  
J.P. Cull ◽  
J.B. Colweli ◽  
J.B. Willcox ◽  
P.E. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Apparent Velocity ◽  
Wide Angle ◽  
Arrival Times ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection And Refraction ◽  
Local Site ◽  
Air Gun ◽  
Long Offset ◽  
Marine Air

In 1988 and 1989, the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) completed two regional seismic reflection surveys in the Gippsland and Bass Basins. Seismic arrivals from the routine air-gun shots fired during these surveys were recorded on land by BMR and the Department of Earth Sciences, Monash University. Individual analogue and digital recording stations were deployed in Victoria, Tasmania and Deal Island on the Bassian Rise. Long-offset wide-angle reflection and refraction data were obtained at these stations from traverses across both basins.The data quality was variable, depending on local site conditions, but useful arrivals were observed over 200 km away from the source on some lines. The close shot spacing, either 37.5 or 50 m, and the large number of shots, up to 5000 per traverse, provides the opportunity for stacking and other signal enhancement techniques in areas of poor data quality.The arrival times of the refracted events show significant delays corresponding to changes in basin sediment thickness. Preliminary results suggest no major asymmetry in the rifting process, which would require modification in the current models for rifting of the basins. Sediment and basement apparent velocities obtained from near-station records range from 4.8 to 5.1 km/s; below the deepest part of the basin, the basement apparent velocity is around 5.6 km/s. Deep crustal/upper mantle velocities of 7.2 km/s, and around 8 km/s, are also observed.These velocities, combined with the coincident reflection data provide critical constraints on models of basement geometry. The refraction and wide-angle reflection data can be used to derive the crustal structure associated with the basins and surrounding margins. These sections will complement deep reflection profiling to test and refine tectonic models to guide further exploration.

scholarly journals A long-offset seismic reflection and refraction study of the Gippsland and Bass Basins from onshore recording of a marine air-gun source

1989 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 293
Author(s):  
C.D.N. Collins ◽  
J.P. Cull ◽  
J.B. Willcox ◽  
J.B. Colwell
Keyword(s):  
Deep Structure ◽  
Seismic Refraction ◽  
Reflection And Refraction ◽  
Air Gun ◽  
Long Offset ◽  
Deep Crustal Structure ◽  
Basin Formation ◽  
Seismic Refraction Data ◽  
Marine Air ◽  
Refraction Data

Seismic refraction data were obtained for the Bass and Gippsland Basins during the 1988 cruise of the BMR research vessell "Rig Seismic". Seismic recorders were deployed on land by BMR and Monash University to record long-offset wide-angle reflection and refraction data using the ship's air-guns as the energy source. Preliminary results have now been obtained from these data providing information on deep crustal structure related to the basin formation. Two crustal layers have been detected with velocities of 4.5 km/s increasing to 7.4 km/s (unreversed) at depths exceeding 20 km. Additional data have now been obtained over a traverse length of 170 km to provide constraints on the deep structure of Bass Strait and the Lachlan Fold Belt in Victoria and Tasmania.

scholarly journals Study on the limitations of travel-time inversion applied to sub-basalt imaging

Solid Earth ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 543-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Flecha ◽  
R. Carbonell ◽  
R. W. Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
Oil Industry ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
Time Inversion ◽  
Wide Angle ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Velocity Models ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Travel Time Inversion ◽  
Tomographic Inversions

Abstract. The difficulties of seismic imaging beneath high velocity structures are widely recognised. In this setting, theoretical analysis of synthetic wide-angle seismic reflection data indicates that velocity models are not well constrained. A two-dimensional velocity model was built to simulate a simplified structural geometry given by a basaltic wedge placed within a sedimentary sequence. This model reproduces the geological setting in areas of special interest for the oil industry as the Faroe-Shetland Basin. A wide-angle synthetic dataset was calculated on this model using an elastic finite difference scheme. This dataset provided travel times for tomographic inversions. Results show that the original model can not be completely resolved without considering additional information. The resolution of nonlinear inversions lacks a functional mathematical relationship, therefore, statistical approaches are required. Stochastic tests based on Metropolis techniques support the need of additional information to properly resolve sub-basalt structures.

Lithospheric structure in northwestern Canada from Lithoprobe seismic refraction and related studies: a synthesis

2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1277-1293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron M Clowes ◽  
Philip TC Hammer ◽  
Gabriela Fernández-Viejo ◽  
J Kim Welford
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Data ◽  
Seismic Refraction ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
Wide Angle ◽  
Slave Craton ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Western Cordillera ◽  
Thermal Constraints ◽  
Geological Information ◽  
Tectonic Boundaries

The SNORCLE refraction – wide-angle reflection (R/WAR) experiment, SNORE'97, included four individual lines along the three transect corridors. A combination of SNORE'97 results with those from earlier studies permits generation of a 2000 km long lithospheric velocity model that extends from the Archean Slave craton to the present Pacific basin. Using this model and coincident near-vertical incidence (NVI) reflection data and geological information, an interpreted cross section that exemplifies 4 Ga of lithospheric development is generated. The velocity structural models correlate well with the reflection sections and provide additional structural, compositional, and thermal constraints. Geological structures and some faults are defined in the upper crust. At a larger scale, the seismic data identify a variety of orogenic styles ranging from thin- to thick-skinned accretion in the Cordillera and crustal-scale tectonic wedging associated with both Paleoproterozoic and Mesozoic collisions. Models of Poisson's ratio support the NVI interpretation that a thick wedge of cratonic metasediments underlies the eastern accreted Cordilleran terranes. Despite the variety of ages, orogenic styles, and tectono-magmatic deformations that are spanned by the seismic corridors, the Moho remains remarkably flat and shallow (33–36 km) across the majority of the transect. Significant variations only occur at major tectonic boundaries. Laterally variable crustal velocities are consistently slower beneath the Cordillera than beneath the cratonic crust. This is consistent with the high temperatures (800–900 °C) required by the slow upper mantle velocities (7.8–7.9 km/s) observed beneath much of the Cordillera. Heterogeneity of the lithospheric mantle is indicated by wide-angle reflections below the Precambrian domains and the western Cordillera.

Precision analysis of first‐break times in grid models

Geophysics ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 1062-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Gruber ◽  
Stewart A. Greenhalgh
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Models ◽  
Grid Point ◽  
Tomographic Reconstruction ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Arrival Times ◽  
Velocity Models ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Inversion Techniques

Rectangular grid velocity models and their derivatives are widely used in geophysical inversion techniques. Specifically, seismic tomographic reconstruction techniques, whether they be based on raypath methods (Bregman et al., 1989; Moser, 1991; Schneider et al., 1992; Cao and Greenhalgh, 1993; Zhou, 1993) or full wave equation methods (Vidale, 1990; Qin and Schuster, 1993; Cao and Greenhalgh, 1994) for calculating synthetic arrival times, involve propagation through a grid model. Likewise, migration of seismic reflection data, using asymptotic ray theory or finite difference/pseudospectral methods (Stolt and Benson, 1986; Zhe and Greenhalgh, 1997) involve assigning traveltimes to upward and downward propagating waves at every grid point in the model. The traveltimes in both cases depend on the grid specification. However, the precision level of such numerical models and their dependence on the model parameters is often unknown. In this paper, we describe a two‐dimensional velocity model and derive an error bound for first‐break times calculated with such a model. The analysis provides clear guidelines for grid specifications.

On the theory of air‐gun bubble interactions

Geophysics ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. Bailey ◽  
P. B. Garces
Keyword(s):  
Ambient Pressure ◽  
Bubble Radius ◽  
Dynamical Equations ◽  
Local Pressure ◽  
Know How ◽  
R And D ◽  
Bubble Interactions ◽  
Interaction Terms ◽  
Air Gun ◽  
Marine Air

Calculation of the seismic signatures of marine air‐gun arrays often requires that the interactions among the bubbles from air guns be taken into account. The standard method of doing this is to use the Giles‐Johnston approximation in which a time‐dependent effective ambient pressure is calculated for each bubble as the sum of the true ambient pressure and the local pressure signals of all the other bubbles in the array. These effects of interaction have a relative importance in the dynamics proportional to (R/D), where R and D are the typical bubble radius and interbubble separation, respectively. To ensure that current methods of calculating signatures are accurate, it is necessary to know how good this approximation is. This paper shows that there are no interaction terms in the full dynamical equations proportional to [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text], and that the errors of the Giles‐Johnston approximation are only of order [Formula: see text]. The Giles‐Johnston approximation is therefore justified even for fairly accurate signature calculations for noncoalescing bubbles. The analysis here also shows how to incorporate bubble motions and deformations into the dynamical equations, so that the errors can be reduced to order [Formula: see text] if desired.

Maximizing the value of deep long-offset seismic reflection data

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Kusznir ◽  
Leanne Cowie ◽  
Brian Horn ◽  
Paul Bellingham ◽  
Alan Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Long Offset
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