Patent ID: 8095319

Claim:
A method for identifying a fault patch from a three-dimensional seismic data volume representing underground earth structures, the method comprising: in a computing system: defining an initial active surface, the initial active surface including a plurality of control points each in an initial position in the seismic data volume; computing a plurality of accumulation energy functions for the plurality of control points, wherein each accumulation energy function measures the energy associated with the plurality of control points each positioned in one of a plurality of different candidate positions associated with that control point, wherein computing comprises for the plurality of control points and for the plurality of candidate positions associated with each control point, measuring the accumulation energy functions of the combinations of each of the plurality of control points in each of the candidate positions associated therewith and each of the other of the plurality of control points in each of the candidate positions associated therewith; and producing the fault patch formed by the plurality of control points in the associated candidate positions for which a minimum accumulated energy is measured.