Patent ID: 8233351

Claim:
A non-transitory computer accessible memory medium that stores program instructions for analyzing seismic data, wherein the program instructions are executable by one or more processors to: receive two-dimensional (2-D) seismic data obtained from a seismic survey of a formation, wherein the 2-D seismic data includes a plurality of seismic traces and a respective plurality of trace positions within one or more boreholes, wherein the trace positions specify where the seismic traces were obtained; for each hypothetical diffractor location in a set of hypothetical diffractor locations, perform a set of operations including: analyzing at least a subset of the seismic traces of the one or more boreholes to determine whether those seismic traces contain diffraction arrivals that are consistent with the hypothetical diffractor location, wherein each of the hypothetical diffractor locations satisfies a condition that none of the trace positions of the one or more boreholes lies within a 3-D neighborhood of diameter 200 meters centered on the hypothetical diffractor location; in response to determining that the analyzed seismic traces contain diffraction arrivals that are consistent with the hypothetical diffractor location, storing information identifying the hypothetical diffractor location as a probable diffractor location; generating an image showing the hypothetical diffraction locations that have been identified as probable diffractor locations.