Click on image to enlarge. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Long gone are the days when faults appeared only as steps on vertical seismic sections. If we use today's better data and exploit modern workstation tools available, we should do a much better job of recognizing and understanding faults in 3-D seismic data.
Faults cause breaks in continuity of seismic horizons.
These discontinuities generate diffraction patterns and, before the days of seismic migration, diffraction patterns were what the seismic interpreter sought as an indication of faulting. Major faults are still recognized on vertical sections and their throw estimated by offset in character correlation. For this, double-gradational color is the best mode of display. These horizontal sections must be used in conjunction with vertical sections to establish sensible fault geometries. Composite and chair displays are established ways of combining these orthogonal sections together.