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AfricaArray Post-Doctoral Project Vacancy

The Use of Windowed PCA for the Analysis of 3D Seismic Reflection Data

Seismic reflection data is the main tool used in the search for oil. 3D seismic surveys result in a 3D volume of seismic amplitude information which is then enhanced to reveal subtle stratigraphic detail. One of the main tools used in this enhancement is a textural measure known as coherence.

In this project an alternative method of enhancing detail in the 3D seismic data is to be investigated, namely Principal Component Analysis (PCA). PCA is a widely used method applied to multidimensional datasets such as satellite remote sensing data. It can be either be applied to an entire dataset, or to samples from a particular sub-region of interest within a scene. A modification of the latter method is windowed PCA, where the method is applied in a moving window throughout the dataset. The object of this project is to apply windowed PCA (and also Independent Component Analysis (ICA)) to 3D reflection seismic datasets, using the higher components as high pass filters. The algorithms employed need to determine reflector dip prior to the PCA to ensure meaningful results.

Funding for this project is available.

References

Gersztenkorn, A., and Marfurt, K.J., 1999. Eigenstructure based coherence calculations as an aid to 3D structural and stratigraphic mapping.  Geophysics v.64 p.1468

Gersztenkorn, A., Sharp, J., and Marfurt, K.J., 1999. Delineation of tectonic features offshore Trinidad using 3D seismic coherence.  The Leading Edge v.23 p.921.

Marfurt, K.J., Sudhaker, V., Gersztenkorn, A., Crawford, K.D., and Nissen, S.E., 1999. Coherence calculations in the presence of structural dip.  Geophysics v.64 p.104

For further information, contact:

G. R. J. Cooper
School of Geosciences
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg 2050
SOUTH AFRICA
Tel : RSA 11-717-6608
Fax : RSA 11-717-6579