WHAT MAKES A WIGGLE ?

version 1.0 released 29/1/99

INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS A REFLECTION ?
WAVE PROPAGATION
REFLECTION STRENGTHS
ATTENUATION
SNELLS LAWS
DIFFRACTIONS
SEISMIC DISPLAY
ADVANCED TOPICS

INTRODUCTION

Seismic reflection profiling is an echo sounding technique. A controlled sound pulse is issued
into the Earth and the recording system listens a fixed time for energy reflected back from
interfaces within the Earth. The interface is often a geological boundary, for example the
change of sandstone to limestone. Once the travel-time to the reflectors and the velocity of
propagation is known, the geometry of the reflecting interfaces can be reconstructed and
interpreted in terms of geological structure in depth. The principal purpose of seismic
surveying is to help understand geological structure and stratigraphy at depth and in the oil
industry is ultimately used to reduce the risk of drilling dry wells. The method is certainly not
exact - many subjective decisions are made during the course of acquisition, processing and
interpretation of a seismic survey. Experience and judgement are critical to success and often
an iterative approach is taken to improve the results over time as new information becomes
available e.g. new well locations.

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WHAT IS A REFLECTION ?

The following figure shows a simple earth model and resulting seismic section used to
illustrate the basic concepts of the method.
 The terms source,
receiver and reflecting
interface are introduced.
Sound energy travels
through different media
(rocks) at different
velocities and is reflected
at interfaces where the
media velocity and/or
density changes. The
amplitude and polarity
of the reflection is
proportional to the
acoustic impedance
(product of velocity and
density) change across
an interface. The arrival
of energy at the receiver
is termed a seismic event.
A seismic trace records the events and is conventionally plotted below the receiver with the
time (or depth axis) pointing down the page. Click here to see a movie illustrating wave
propagation. The colour background is the velocity field.

Only the two-way seismic travel time is measured, whereas the reflector structure is in depth.
Depth is the product of the one-way travel time and velocity, so seismic velocity is required to
determine the depth structure of the interface. As the velocity is largely unknown, this
represents a major ambiguity in the method. Velocity interpretation is the key to solving many
complex subsurface problems.

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WAVE PROPAGATION

For small deformations rocks are elastic, that is they return to their original shape once a
small stress applied to deform them is removed. Seismic waves are elastic waves and are the
"disturbances" which propagate through the rocks. The most commonly used form of seismic
wave is the P(primary)-wave which travels as a series of compressions and rarefractions
through the earth the particle motion being in the direction of wave travel. The propagation of
P-waves can be represented as a series of wavefronts (lines of equal phase) which describe
circles for a point source in a homogeneous media (similar to when a stone is dropped
vertically onto a calm water surface). As the wavefront expands the energy is spread over a
wider area and the amplitude decays with distance from the source. This decay is called
spherical or geometric divergence and is usually compensated for in seismic processing. Rays
are normal to the wavefronts and diagrammatically indicate the direction of wave
propagation. Usually the shortest ray-path is the direction of interest and is chosen for clarity.
Secondary or S-waves travel at up to 70% of the velocity of P-waves and do not travel through
fluids. The particle motion for an S-wave is perpendicular to it's direction of propagation
(shear stresses are introduced) and the motion is usually resolved into a horizontal component
(SH waves) and a vertical component (SV waves). Further types of surface seismic waves (e.g.
Rayleigh, Love waves) exist but are not important for seismic exploration except sometimes as
sources of noise.

Huygen's principal is illustrated in the adjacent

figure. The principal states that each point on a
wavefront acts as a new secondary source to form
the next wavefront. The figure shows just five
secondary sources. More would interfere
constructively to form the wavefront shown in bold.

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REFLECTION STRENGTHS

The following table illustrates reflection strengths for various typical interfaces encountered
assuming normal incidence (the ray intersects the interface at right angles). This is a good
approximation if the source to receiver distance is much smaller than the depth of the
interface. The acoustic impedance for each interface (Z1 and Z2) is calculated by multiplying
velocity and density. The reflection strength is defined by the reflection coefficient which is
computed from R=(Z2-Z1)/(Z2+Z1). The table has been adapted from Sheriff and Geldart,
Exploration Seismology Volume 1. Velocities are given in km/s and density values in g/cm3. A
negative reflection coefficient indicates a 180o phase reversal upon reflection.

Interface V1 D1 V2 D2 Z1/Z2 R Comments

Sandstone on 2.0 2.4 3.0 2.4 0.67 0.2 Hard interface.

Limestone

Limestone on 3.0 2.4 2.0 2.4 1.5 -0.2  

Sandstone

Shallow Interface 2.1 2.4 2.3 2.4 0.93 0.045 Typical reflection.

Deeper Interface 4.3 2.4 4.5 2.4 0.97 0.022  

Soft water bottom 1.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.5 0.33  

Hard water 1.5 1.0 3.0 2.5 0.2 0.67 Hardest interface.
bottom

Water surface 1.5 1.0 0.36 0.0012 3800 -0.9994 Almost perfect
reflection.

Shale over water 2.4 2.3 2.5 2.3 0.96 0.02  

sand

Shale over gas 2.4 2.3 2.2 1.8 1.39 -0.16 Polarity reversal.
sand

Gas sand over 2.2 1.8 2.5 2.3 0.69 0.18  

water sand

In marine data acquisition the water-seabed interface is usually the strongest in the section
and a large portion of the seismic energy can be trapped in the water layer bouncing back and
forward. These multiple reflections strongly affect the quality of marine seismic data,
particularly that acquired in higher latitudes where the seabed tends to be harder.

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ATTENUATION

At each interface the amount

of energy reflected is
proportional to the acoustic
impedance contrast at the
interface. The energy of the
original pulse therefore
decays by divergence and also
with each reflection as each
input pulse is continuously
reflected by changes in
impedance as it passes
through the earth. The pulse
also will change shape as it
travels through the earth due
to the mechanisms of absorption, scattering and dispersion because the higher frequencies are
attenuated more rapidly. For example a typical modern seismic source will input frequencies
between 5-100Hz but a typical reflection from a Jurassic target may be dominated by 30Hz
signal. Several processing routines will be used to attempt to compensate for attenuation of
the wavefield as it passes through the Earth. The previous figure compares a typical input
sleeve airgun source array pulse (a) and that recorded from a target reflection (b). Amplitudes
have been normalised for display purposes. High frequencies have been lost through the
various processes of attenuation. Further discussion on the time and frequency domain is
included later in the text.

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 SNELL'S LAWS

The adjacent figure illustrates what happens when a P-wave is incident at an angle upon an
impedance contrast. Part of the energy is reflected back towards the surface (this is the most
interesting part), part of the energy is refracted and transmitted through the interface (also
useful), and some of the energy is mode converted into S-waves. Snell's law states that the angle
of incidence (q) is equal to the angle of reflection and that the angle of refraction (f ) is
determined by the velocity contrast at the interface and can be calculated from the formula
shown. The Zoeppritz equations give the amplitudes of the phases for a given angle of incident
wave when the velocity and densities either side of the interface are known. Such information
is used in amplitude-versus-offset analysis.
 At most interfaces the
majority of energy is
transmitted through the
interface. At a particular
angle of incidence (qc) called
the critical angle, f =90o there
is no transmission and all the
energy is either reflected or
travels along the boundary
between the layers as a head
wave (shown in orange on
the previous figure). The
headwave travels much of its
time in the faster deeper
layer and may arrive at the
receivers before
the direct arrival
(energy travelling
directly between
source and
receiver). Figure
(b) shows wave
propagation in a
velocity gradient
where continuous
refraction results in a curved ray-path. Usually this latter situation is represented by a series of
constant velocity layers.

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DIFFRACTIONS

The adjacent figure illustrates what happens when a seismic wave encounters an abrupt
interface such as a termination due to faulting. For constant velocity a hyperbolic event called
a diffraction is generated. The process of migration is used to collapse diffractions and also to
place dipping seismic events in their correct sub-surface position. A reflector or indeed an
entire seismic section can be thought of as constructed of many diffracting points which
constructively and destructively interfere to produce the image (as in Huygen's principal).
This concept is illustrated both
schematically and with a
synthetic seismic section in the
adjacent figure.

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SEISMIC DISPLAY

The seismic traces can be displayed in a variety of ways, but the commonest paper display is to
place the traces side by side and to shade in the positive part of the trace. This is called a
variable area and wiggle display. Click here for more details on seismic display.

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ADVANCED TOPICS

Interference
Fresnel Zones

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