Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> One of SEG's great traditions is the special recognition of individuals and organizations for their contributions to geophysics and to the Society. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Scientific visualization is defined as “the act of achieving a complete visual impression of an object.” In geophysics, we must add “and its associated and derived properties” to that definition. Geophysicists routinely visualize massive information-rich objects (e.g., seismic data, well logs, etc.), and how well we visualize them plays a dominating role in the success of an exploration project. Despite visualization's importance, our visualization techniques are relics of a bygone technological era and are based more on artistic rather than scientific principles. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The twin fields of virtual and augmented reality have revolutionized the gaming and entertainment industries; however, they have had almost no impact on the field of scientific visualization. This is especially true in oil and gas exploration where we continue to visualize seismic data using low visual resolution displays developed in the 1960s and 1970s. Variable density and grayscale displays were a revolution in themselves, allowing us to transition from strictly manual interpretation on paper sections to increasingly automatic interpretations on workstations. This transition was instrumental in allowing us to find the oil necessary to meet the demands of emerging economies. These displays have brought us this far, but they cannot take us into the future. Today, we are exploring for targets whose seismic expression is close to the limits of spatial and temporal resolution and may be below the visual resolution of conventional seismic displays. If we are to meet the current demands of developed economies and the increasing demands of emerging economies, we must replace these, now technologically archaic, low visual resolution displays with high visual resolution displays. For that, we need virtual reality. At its inception, virtual reality was largely ignored by the exploration industry. Today, it has evolved to the point that it could revolutionize scientific visualization, and seismic visualization in particular, as much as it revolutionized gaming and entertainment. I introduce the subject of high visual resolution interpretation and present examples of seismic data in virtual seismic reality. </jats:p>

<jats:p> In situations where visual stimuli are uncertain or degraded, auditory perception is crucial and can complement visual perception. Research on multimodal perception has confirmed in many areas of study that the existence of one stimulus can impact the perception of another type of stimulus. Based on these concepts, which are well-established in cognitive sciences, we introduce the idea of expanded (or augmented) imaging in geophysics, which refers to an integrated and coherent data representation based on dual-sensory (audiovisual) perception of the same data set. First, we explain the basic principles of multimodal analysis of seismic data using the theory of augmented imaging. Then, we provide examples and applications on real data at varying spatial scales, from individual seismic traces to entire seismic sections. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Seismic vibrators have become the preferred sources for land seismic exploration. The objective of the vibrator is to transmit a known and spatially stable source wavelet so that any variations in seismic reflection data can be used to estimate the rock properties and geometries of subsurface geology. Unfortunately, the spatial variation of the ground surface can impact the vibrator performance. Field tests have revealed that the vibrator ground force decreases dramatically on unconsolidated sandy surface conditions, and the effect increases as the vibrator shakes toward high frequencies. A theoretical study is provided to explain this repeatable phenomenon that is independent of vibrator source control systems. Moreover, a practical solution, “BP control,” remedies this reduction in ground force over unconsolidated surfaces, especially sand, by introducing a new effective baseplate weight factor into the vibrator source controller. Field test results illustrate an increase in vibrator ground force at higher-frequency conditions over unconsolidated sand when implementing this new effective baseplate into the vibrator source controller. This increase in ground force may improve the recoverable bandwidth and lead to higher-resolution seismic images when encountering these surface conditions. </jats:p>

<jats:p> In the mid-19th century, the quality of life in the United States was improving rapidly with widespread electrification of the nation and growth in the industrial revolution. These advances were dependent on the increasing availability of copper for instruments and electric wires and iron ore for the production of iron and steel. Accordingly, reconnaissance geologic investigations in the Lake Superior region of North America that discovered copper and iron-rich rocks in the 1840s rapidly attracted the attention of prospectors and mining companies. However, ore deposits were a challenge to find in this region because of superimposed geologic events and limited rock exposures due to the widespread cover of unconsolidated sediment deposited from Pleistocene glaciation, the abundant lakes, and, locally, the cover of Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks. Limitations to surface geologic mapping were evidenced by the few outcrops of iron formation in the iron ranges and the even fewer ore exposures. As a result, geologic mapping was restricted to locating regions for constructing test shafts and pits and drilling that would lead to identifying favorable mining sites. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The Role of Geophysics in Carbon Capture and Sequestration Workshop was held 5 to 7 December 2022 in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Sixty-five attendees from eight countries and 20 companies gathered for the event. A total of 21 technical presentations were distributed over six sessions. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Welcome to the latest installment of Geophysics Bright Spots. There are a number of interesting research articles in the recent issue of Geophysics. Here is a list of articles that piqued the editors' interests. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Gravity and Magnetic Encyclopedic Dictionary, by Serguei Goussev, 2022. </jats:p>

<jats:p> SEG Board of Directors and Executive Committee actions in May and June 2023. </jats:p>