Seismic Interpretation – Ten ways to be wrong – Thursday, 21st November 2013

Seismic Interpretation – Ten Ways to be wrong

Date: Thursday, 21st November 2013

This presentation will take place at the Royal Cambrian Academy headquarters in Crown Lane, Conwy at 6.30pm.  Refreshments from 6.00pm.

Speaker Overview:

Dr Andrew Hopkins is an independent seismic interpretation consultant based in London, where he is currently working on the Carboniferous of the Southern North Sea. Andrew received his BSc from Imperial College in 1980, and has worked for various oil companies, contractors and consultants, including Enterprise Oil, Endeavour Energy, Horizon Exploration, and Helix-RDS, on seismic data from many of the world’s hydrocarbon provinces. In 2007 he completed a PhD at Cardiff University on the seismic interpretation of Cretaceous and Cenozoic contourites in the Walvis Basin, offshore Namibia. Before becoming freelance, Andrew was Chief Geophysicist at African Petroleum.

Abstract:

The last several decades have seen the dynamic growth of a global database of high-quality seismic reflection data, both 2D and 3D, which has been almost entirely driven by hydrocarbon exploration. Consequently, seismic data now provide the pre-eminent means we have of investigating sub-surface geological phenomena which would otherwise be inaccessible. Indeed, seismic interpretation has been the key component of many of the significant advances in structural geology and stratigraphy in recent years. These include for example, major developments in our understanding of fault dynamics, salt tectonics, fluid-rock interactions, igneous and sedimentary intrusions, not to mention the creation of the entire field of seismic and sequence stratigraphy. Although the mechanics of the process of seismic interpretation have been extensively dissected and reviewed in textbooks, courses and on the internet, this talk will propose that a valuable set of insights may yet be gleaned from a little-known and under-appreciated text book, now more than 20 years old. While the subject of “To Interpret the Earth” (1991) by Stanley Schumm, is geomorphology rather than seismic interpretation, its wisdom has relevance across all the earth sciences. Schumm sub-titled his book “Ten Ways to be Wrong” and he identified a series of problems of interpretation by which the unwary geoscientist may be led astray. He placed these problems into three broad classes, scale and place, cause and effect, and system response. The talk will attempt to transpose these “ways to be wrong” from their original geomorphological context into the milieu of the seismic interpreter. Numerous examples from the literature and from the speaker’s experience will be presented.

Directions to the venue:

RCA, Crown Lane, Conwy, LL32 8AN

RCA Map

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