Patent ID: 6330512
Filing Date: 2001-12-11
Classification: G01V

Abstract:
A method of attenuating coherent seismic noise for use in geophysical exploration within a predetermined volume of the earth containing structural and stratigraphic features conducive to the generation, migration, accumulation, or presence of hydrocarbons, comprising the steps of:(a) accessing at least a portion of a seismic survey that images at least a portion of said predetermined volume of the earth,said seismic survey being comprised of a plurality of unstacked seismic traces, each of said plurality of unstacked seismic traces being associated with a gather,at least one of said gathers having at least two seismic traces associated therewith;(b) selecting at least one migration velocity;(c) selecting an attenuation line;(d) selecting a gather from said at least one gathers having at least two seismic traces associated therewith;(e) performing a prestack migration of said selected gather using any of said at least one migration velocities, thereby producing a migrated gather, said migrated gather containing a plurality of digital samples;(f) determining an attenuation region within said migrated gather using at least said attenuation line, said attenuation region containing at least one digital sample therein;(g) attenuating at least one digital sample within said attenuation region, thereby producing an attenuated migrated gather;(h) performing an inverse prestack migration of said attenuated migrated gather, thereby producing an unstacked enhanced seismic gather for use in the detection of said structural and stratigraphic features conducive to the generation, migration, accumulation, or presence of hydrocarbons.