Toward the low frequencies: land and marine equipment
Published in
First Break
Publication date
24 July 2006
Abstract
The suitability of surface seismic for deep target exploration is limited by attenuation and scattering of the wave front. Due to their ability to carry more energy deeper into the subsurface with less attenuation and scattering, low frequencies are less affected by these propagation effects. As an example, it has been demonstrated that low frequencies are the key for imaging sedimentary layers below high velocity bodies like basaltic flows (Ziolowski and Hanssen 2003) and salt pillows (Kapoor et al., 2005.
The success of seismic in recording low frequencies and improving vertical resolution is not yet common practice. For this to become a standard many obstacles must be overcome. The most difficult one is surface noise that contaminates low frequencies.
The ability to record broadband data, properly sampled, is a reality using today’s recording systems. However, standard processing modules are often not designed to preserve low frequencies due to hidden low-cut filters and short filtering operators.
The success of seismic in recording low frequencies and improving vertical resolution is not yet common practice. For this to become a standard many obstacles must be overcome. The most difficult one is surface noise that contaminates low frequencies.
The ability to record broadband data, properly sampled, is a reality using today’s recording systems. However, standard processing modules are often not designed to preserve low frequencies due to hidden low-cut filters and short filtering operators.