3-D seismic data views

Exploring for Oil and Gas Traps
Series	Treatise in Petroleum Geology
Part	Predicting the occurrence of oil and gas traps
Chapter	Interpreting seismic data
Author	Christopher L. Liner
Link	Web page
Store	AAPG Store

Vertical slices

As it arrives on tape from the processor, 3-D seismic data are organized into lines composed of traces. In the computer these are all merged into a dense cube of data. The data cube can be sectioned, or sliced, in several ways. Vertical cuts through the data cube are called lines or sections. For marine surveys, in-line is the direction of boat movement (parallel to receivers) and cross-line is perpendicular to boat movement. For land surveys, there is no uniform definition of in-line and cross-line. A vertical section that is neither in-line nor cross-line is an arbitrary line and may be oriented very irregularly as needed to pass through locations of interest.

Figure 1 shows how the vertical slices are labeled, depending on their orientation.

Figure 1 Examples of vertical and horizontal slices. From Liner. Courtesy PennWell.

Horizontal slices

Horizontal or subhorizontal cuts through a seismic data cube are called horizontal slices. As illustrated in Figure 1, horizontal slices can be

• Time slices (horizontal cuts of a time cube)
• Depth slices (horizontal cuts of a depth cube)
• Horizon slices (from tracking)
• Fault slices

Depth slices are only available if the data delivered from the processor are converted to depth. Fault slices require very high-quality data with clear, mappable fault surfaces. Both are rarely encountered.

See also

• Phases of a seismic project
• Recurring themes
• 3-D seismic: the data cube
• Components of a 3-D seismic survey

External links

find literature about 3-D seismic data views

• Original content in Datapages
• Find the book in the AAPG Store