Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
This posting is another example of the power of shaded relief maps, and the details that they can provide.
The initial image below is a normal, color-filled elevation map of the world—the white color is the highest elevation (the Himalaya’s, of course), and the dark blue is the deepest depths of the oceans. The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the Earth was downloaded as a grid, and then loaded and displayed in Golden Software’s Surfer program.
Following the inital color image, is a series of gray-scale shaded relief maps. Starting with the second image, the illumination source is directly from the north, at a 45 degree angle above the horizon. In each successive image the illumination source is rotated counterclockwise 45 degrees. The light direc- tions therefore are from the: north, northwest, west, southwest, south, southeast, east, and finally, the northeast.
See the larger Adobe Reader pdf file.
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
Why bother using synthetic seismograms (aka. synthetics) to calibrate well info to our seismic data? Simple answer, TO REDUCE DRILLING RISK !
For example, I’ve seen prospects “evaporate” because the originator was mapping the wrong event—or just as bad, started mapping on the correct event, but ended up on the wrong event due to a character, or response change in the seismic data. This only became evident after a couple of synthetic correlations!
I also continue to see prospects that are being sold on the strength of an amplitude, or avo response, that is somehow related to a key wellbore. However, often a synthetic hasn’t been used to tie (correlate) the well to the seismic data. How could they even know for sure what was causing the anomaly, without a synthetic tie?
So, with these recent real-life examples in mind, I thought that it would be a good idea to cite some reasons why we should use synthetics, with a blog posting.
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Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
The following is an example of an easy method to import culture lines into an SMT project, using a spreadsheet formatted as an SMT culture line file. Note that this is also applicable for importing polygons.
Suppose you have an SMT project that includes both 2D and 3D seismic data, but you only want to show the 2D line location overlays without the 3D line overlays, to reduce map clutter. Normally, SMT’s 2d/3dPak module only has the option to have all seismic line locations turned on, or to have them all turned off.
In the examples below, the first image, annotated “WITH ALL SURVEY LINES” is how a map would look with the Display Survey Line Option selected (Surveys>Survey Annotation> Line Options>Display Survey Lines). Often, this creates a lot of map clutter (in my opinion), especially if you have many 2D lines, or they are concentrated in one area. This map clutter can distract from the structure map, or other focus of the display.
See the larger Adobe Reader pdf file.
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
How fortuitous! I received my version 8.2 update of SMT’s Kingdom software this afternoon, and just got it installed. One of the new features that has been added to this version of 2d/3dPAK, is the ability to display the Shaded Relief of a grid. So, I thought that this would be a good time to introduce the technique to those viewers not familiar with the general concept. However, since I haven’t had a chance to get completely familiar with this newest feature in the SMT software, the surface and map displays shown below were created in my normal work flow using Golden Software’s Surfer program. As time permits, I’ll try to review, and compare, SMT’s new feature.
What is a Shaded Relief display? It is a map view of an artificially illuminated 3D surface whereby shadows are cast by minor deflections in the surface (shadowed deflections are facing away from the illumination source). This type of map is an excellent way to highlight smaller faults which may not have been seen, or noticed, on the vertical seismic displays.
See the larger Adobe Reader pdf file.
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
Has this ever happend to you? Just as you are getting ready to plot a horizon/grid as a finished, color-filled map for an upcoming meeting (a short fuse of course), then you notice anomalous data ”spikes” and/or “black holes”, that really detract from the appearance (and credibility) of the map? Don’t feel too badly though, they aren’t always that obvious on most of these types of “flat” map displays—often seeming to appear out of nowhere.
To correct the map, you have to go through the tedious process of trying to find the bad data, fixing it, and then trying to recreate the display just as you had it earlier (with all of the same title block and scale info that you had before, but forgot to keep)? Arrgghhh……. There has got to be a better way!
See the VuPak animation (17MB Media Player avi file).
Note: The avi file is fairly large, so it will take some time before the animation starts.
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
Have you ever had to plan a seismic survey, or determine a well location prior to drilling? If so, did you use a paper map? Wouldn’t it be better to utilize something more accurate, informative, and realistic-looking, such as a shaded Digital Ortho-Quad (DOQ), similar to the image below?
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
Since the first posting, I’ve gotten nothing but encouraging comments. Here are a few:
“Good work Mike.” (Michael M.)
“This is very interesting!” (David W.)
“Excellent idea.” (Teri B.)
“I think it’s a great idea.” (Sara V.)
“Works!” (Yvon H.)
“Wow! You did it.” (Mark C.)
“Thanks a lot for your blog, brilliant idea.” (Julien F.)
From the sound of it, visitors may be starting to realize the potential usefulness of the blog (at least I hope so), and how the old SMT User email forum might mesh with it. I also just checked my website stats, and the number of “hits” is up by orders of magnitude–so I know it has gotten some interest from viewers.
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
I use Golden Software’s Surfer 8 to create client presentation montages. It is a very easy program to use, and has a complete set of annotation tools. Importing seismic and map image files is a simple process. SMT has the capability to export scaled maps and seismic displays in a Windows Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF), which can be directly imported (at the proper scale) into Surfer. With additional printer emulation software (I use PDFCreator), you can also “print” (save to files) in other formats such as tiff, jpg, bmp, or png–Surfer is able to import these also, but lack the scaling info.
See the large Montage (5MB Adobe Reader pdf file)