27- These sketches illustrate, in depth and time, the basic seismic mechanisms.

The source, the depth of the

reflector, the velocity of the sediments above the reflector, and the receiver are the main components of the
seismic surveying. The time response is given by the depth of the reflector multiplied by the velocity of waves
within the sediments overlying the reflector.
Theoretically, we can solve wave propagation equations and predict, if we know the movement of a particle at a
point, the resultant movement at any other point. This is particularly true as long as we know the physical
characteristics of the environment, especially the longitudinal velocity.
28- Acquisition and processing of seismic data require several steps. This cartoon illustrates land acquisition of
seismic data. The source generates a low-frequency signal, which is reflected off an underground layer. A
series of geophones picks up the arrivals of waves reflected at different angles to the source. The source and
geophones are then moved, enabling every geophone to pick up reflections from various angles. These
reflections are recorded on tape and the recordings displayed. Computer editing removes any noisy traces,
and reflection signals from a common depth point are collected.
29- This figure illustrates the travel-time curves for direct (first arrival), reflected and refracted rays in the case of a simple two-layer
model. The first arrival of seismic energy at a surface detector offset from a surface is always a direct ray or a refracted ray. The
direct ray is overtaken by a refracted ray at the cross-distance 2h {(1+sin i)/cos i)}. Beyond this offset distance, the first arrival is
always a refracted ray. Since critically refracted rays travel down to the interface at the critical angle there is a certain distance, know
as the critical distance (2h tgi), within which refracted energy will not be returned to surface. At the critical distance, the travel times of
reflected rays and refracted rays coincide because they follow effectively the same path. Reflected rays are never first arrivals. They
are always preceded by direct rays and, beyond the critical distance, by refracted rays also.
30- Assuming two sedimentary layers with different velocities (v1, v2) and different densities (d1, d2), i.e. with
different acoustic impedances (v d), the reflection coefficient is the ratio between the difference of the acoustic
impedance and the addition of the acoustic impedances. Notice that oblique incident waves on the interface are
broken into reflected and refracted waves.
31- A negative reflection occurs when the acoustic impedance of the upper layer of the interface is higher than that of the lower layer
(ex: limestone / shale, or shale /sandstone). When the acoustical impedance of the lower layer is higher than that of upper layer the
associated reflection is positive (ex: shale /limestone, etc.).
Seismic reflections can be positive or negative and their polarity can be to the right or to the left (32 and 33). Seismic waves are
modified by acoustic impedance discontinuities in forms of changes of amplitude and polarity.
32- The SEG polarity convention assumes that for a positive reflection coefficient (low acoustical impedance /
high acoustical impedance) the amplitude is expressed by a deflection to the right of the base line (black) and to
the left (white) for a negative polarity.
33- The reflection seismogram can be seen as the convoluted output of a reflective function with an input pulse. Assuming the pulse
shape remains unchanged as it propagates through such a layered ground, the resultant seismic trace may be regarded as the
convolution of the input pulse with a time series known as a reflectivity function (R). The amplitude of each spike is related to the
reflection coefficient of a boundary and a travel time equivalent to the two-way reflection time for that boundary. This time series
represents the impulse response of the layered ground. V represents the velocity of the seismic waves in the sedimentary intervals
drilled by the well A, d represents the density of the sedimentary intervals, Vd is the impedance profile and R is the reflectivity
function. PS is the pulse shape.
34- On land, three dimensional data are normally collected using the cross array method, in which shots and detectors are
distributed along orthogonal sets of lines (in-lines and cross-lines) to establish a grid of recording points. This sketch
illustrates for a single pair of lines, the area coverage of a subsurface reflector.
35- Example of offshore seismic data collection (three traces).
36- The signal correction attempts to eliminate the time differences between reflection times,
resulting from changes in the outgoing signal from shot to shot.
37- Since the recording reflections are gathered from a CDP, the traces are shifted so that
corresponding peaks have the same arrival time. Then, the traces are added and the reflection
peaks are enhanced. Finally, thousands of point profiles are put side by side and the peaks
area darkened according to the SEG convention.
38- This cartoon illustrates the dual source array method of collecting three-dimensional
seismic data at sea. Alternative firing of sources 1 and 2 into the hydrophones produces
two parallel sets of source detector midpoints.
39- The traces illustrated in part (1) result from a single shot, and were recorded by a single receiver. The direct
wave (refracted wave) appears at a time proportional to the receiver distance from the shot, while the reflections
lie on a hyperbolic travel-time curve. Any bad or noisy traces are deleted (2). The seismic amplitudes recorded
decrease with increasing travel-time because the reflectors are further away, so the weaker amplitudes are
boosted (3). Then the traces are resorted so that all traces with an identical source-receiver midpoint are gathered
together in (4), one trace each from (1), (2), and (3). The direct wave is removed (the shaded area in 5). (see next
Plate).
40 - Each trace is separately corrected for the time-delay appropriate for its source-receiver offset (6). This is
known as the normal move-out, or NMO correction. The wavelets from each reflection are now lined up, as if each
trace had been recorded with coincident source and receiver (i.e., without source-receiver offset delays), and all
the traces in the gather can be summed (stacked) to give a single trace in (7) with a higher signal-to-noise ratio. If
the wavelet is rather reverbatory, or lengthy, then its resolution is poor, but can be shortened by a digital filtering
technique called deconvolution (8). Finally, all the traces are displayed as a seismic section and may then be
interpreted (Selley, 1998).