Seismic Sequences

Date: October 6, 2016 1h 5min Advanced

  • Exercise Instructions
  • Solution to the Exercise
  • Introduction to the Exercise
  • Exercise Information - Seismic Line C
  • Lecture
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Sedimentary rocks are critical to oil and gas, whose types include source, reservoir, and seal rocks. Thus, we need to understand the sediminatary fill and the stratigraphic sequence within an area of interest. We can examine the location and rock properties of stratigraphic units through seismic data.

The lesson should be divided into four (4) segments, 1) review of the previous exercise A and 2) exercise B, 3) present the lecture, and 4) introduce the exercise. The review of the previous exercise A contains six (6) slides and takes ~10 minutes to explain, while the review of the previous exercise B contains eight (8) slides and takes ~10 minutes to explain. The lecture material contains twenty (20) slides and will take ~30 minutes to explain. The introduction to the exercise contains thirteen (13) slides, and will take ~15 minutes to explain.

In this exercise, students will interpret one (1) 2D seismic line – Line C. This line is from offshore West Africa. This is as specific that the students need to know to work the exercise. During the review of the solution, it will be mentioned that the line is from offshore Morocco.

There are three (3) parts to the exercise:

  • Part 1 is the introduction to be presented after Lecture 21 in which the instructor starts the interpretation
  • Part 2 is “homework” to be conducted by the students. Students should spend ~40 minutes on the homework. One could spend several hours working this one line, but that is not necessary.
  • Part 3 is review of the interpretation. The instructor does the review, presumable at the beginning of the next class period. The SOLUTION file allows you to go through the main points using animations.

Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

  • Identify the depositional sequence with a seismic section - defined as a seismic sequence
  • Recognize unconformities on a seismic sequence
  • Recognize sequence boundaries through toplaps and downlaps

Related Courses

This course, based on teaching material from Dr. Fred Schroeder (formerly of Exxon/ExxonMobil), reflects on the geology and geophysics basics for the petroleum industry. General geology and basic geophysics are not required, but helpful with the material.

Course Advanced

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