Print this pageAAPG ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
Making the Next Giant Leap in Geosciences
April 10-13, 2011, Houston, Texas, USA
Application of Spectral Decomposition in an East Cameron Offshore Area, Northern Gulf of Mexico
(1) Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV.
Spectral decomposition is a geophysical technique employed in seismic data sets to more effectively highlight lateral and vertical geologic detail, and in some cases, display the potential of resolving thin beds in the reservoir not currently visible in the processed seismic data. Spectral decomposition is non-unique; therefore any geologic information obtained from well logs or synthetics is vital for an accurate interpretation of the generated time-frequency volume. As amplitudes in seismic data representing reservoirs have characteristic frequency expressions relative to geologic detail within said reservoirs, spectral decomposition provides a means to investigate each frequency pertaining to reservoirs of interest.
Though the area is known for deltaic and fluvial deposits relative to the ancestral Mississippi River Delta during the Pliocene and Pleistocene, spectral decomposition has aided in improvement on resolution and better horizontal imaging of discontinuities due to changes in lithology, faulting, and depositional features. Therefore, as the seismic data were converted to the time-frequency domain, spectral decomposition aided in the resolution of geologic detail hidden by the processed seismic data set. Through such efforts, far better interpretations of the depositional history of the area locally were made and the location of potential hydrocarbon reservoirs was determined.