Patent ID: 6675102
Filing Date: 2004-01-06
Classification: G01V

Abstract:
A method of processing seismic geophysical data to produce time structure volumes, comprising:a. transmitting an acoustic signal into the earth; b. receiving a multiplicity of reflected acoustic signals from the earth, resulting from the prior transmitting step with a receiver array comprising at least three non-colinear receivers; c. recording the amplitude of each reflected acoustic signal as a function of time to construct a seismic volume comprised of a seismic trace for each recorded acoustic signal; d. selecting an amplitude characteristic of interest in the seismic volume; e. identifying the time of each amplitude characteristic of interest for each seismic trace; f. selecting a first time slice comprising a first time value of amplitude data in the seismic volume; g. selecting a direction of interest along the time axis of each seismic trace; h. determining the distance from the first time value to the closest amplitude characteristic of interest in the direction of interest for each seismic trace to produce a first array of time structure values; i. selecting a second time slice comprising a second time value of amplitude data in the seismic volume; j. determining the distance from the second time value to the closest amplitude characteristic of interest in the direction of interest for each seismic trace to produce a second array of time structure values; and k. displaying all said arrays of time structure values to produce a displayed time structure volume.