2 Seismic Response

Chapter 2
Seismic Response
Seismic response is measured by the reflection generated at an acoustic
impedance boundary according to the properties of the layers above and
below the boundary and the nature of the seismic pulse impinging on that
boundary.
Referring to Figure 1, the equation below defines acoustic impedance
(AI) as the product of compressional-wave velocity V and bulk density r:
AI = V
The following equation defines the reflection coefficient (RC) in terms
of AI for normal incidence of a seismic pulse at an AI boundary:
RC =
(V2 2 V11 ) ( AI2 AI1 )

=
.
(V2 2 + V11 ) ( AI2 + AI1 )
The Zoeppritz equations define the reflection coefficient for nonnormal

angles of incidence of a seismic pulse at an AI boundary; these equations
generally are applied in a simplified form (e.g., Shuey, 1985). For the purposes of this text and defining seismic as having to do with elastic waves
(Sheriff, 2002), here we describe seismic response in terms of compressional-wave (P-wave) reflections but do not discuss shear waves (S-waves)
or mode conversions in detail.
You can initially and most easily describe seismic response with reference to an isolated impedance boundary and can further develop understanding of the composite response from multiple, closely spaced boundaries by
way of the convolutional model (discussed later in this chapter). You need
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10First Steps in Seismic Interpretation

Incident
pulse
Upper layer
Reflected
pulse
V1, r1
Lower layer
V2, r2
V = compressional-wave velocity, r = bulk density

Figure 1. Definitions of acoustic impedance (AI) as a rock property, defined as the
product of compressional-wave velocity V and bulk density . The contrast in AI
between two layers of rock gives rise to a seismic reflection when a seismic pulse
impinges on the boundary between the layers.
to be familiar with a mathematical description for a waveform in terms of its

frequency, amplitude, and phase characteristics, being especially careful to
define phase and polarity as used in describing the shape or character of
a reflection. The confidence with which you identify and correlate a reflection from an acoustic impedance boundary, which interpreters call a seismic
event or horizon, based on its appearance or character depends on seismic
data quality, on simple and well-known impedance relationships, and, perhaps most importantly, on correlation of seismic data to available well data
via well ties.
The importance of horizon identification increases as you move along
the value stream from wildcat exploration through appraisal and development to production because this movement is toward greater detail of
description in telling your geologic story. When interpreting and mapping in
a frontier area, it may not be important to know whether a particular reflection corresponds to the top of a sand or a shale. But for a production project
in the same area many years and millions of dollars later, it could be crucial
to understand the seismic response for the top of a reservoir sand when
choosing well locations and calculating reserves hence, the importance
of understanding seismic response in identifying horizons for interpretation.
Understanding the seismic response to an AI boundary requires knowledge of the seismic pulse incident to that boundary and the behavior of the
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Chapter 2: Seismic Response11
pulse as it propagates through the earth. The seismic pulse causes particle
motion in the subsurface through a medium treated as elastic in response to
stress applied in the form of an impulse (e.g., detonating a charge of dynamite
or firing an air gun). Dix (1952, his Figures 11.4 and 11.5) presents schematic
diagrams illustrating these particle motions for positive and negative reflection processes. A seismic waveform is a description of this particle motion as
a function of time, which can be treated as a composite of many individual
functions of time for the different frequency components present in the waveform; the analytical representation of a seismic waveform as the sum of individual sinusoidal functions is called Fourier analysis (Sheriff, 2002).
For the sake of clarity and proper use of terminology, you should always
be careful to distinguish between a reflector and a reflection: the former is a
surface or boundary across which there is an acoustic impedance contrast,
and the latter is a measurement of the particle motion caused by impingement of a seismic pulse upon the former. Keep in mind that you observe
reflections and interpret reflectors (that is, elements of geology) from your
observations in that order. Maintaining a clear distinction between reflections and reflectors will help you remember that no seismic line or volume,
no matter how carefully acquired and processed, is a completely accurate
representation of true subsurface geology.
A seismic pulse propagates through a subsurface that is not really elastic, so you cant expect the pulse to retain its exact shape as it travels from
the seismic source to a receiver. The change in shape of a wavelet, which is
to say in the amplitude and phase characteristics of its different frequency
components, because of propagation through a nonelastic earth is called
attenuation. The physical properties of the subsurface of the earth cause
the higher-frequency components of a wavelet to be preferentially reduced
in strength, primarily because of converting the energy of particle motion
to the heat of friction. In general, the farther or longer a signal travels, the
more it is attenuated. Attenuation correction of seismic data, which can be
done probabilistically (based on measurements of the data themselves) or
deterministically (based on correlation with other physical measurements)
is an important step in a seismic data-processing sequence.
The change in shape of a wavelet as a result of attenuation suggests
that, all other things being equal, you should not expect to see the same seismic response to the same impedance boundary that occurs at two different
depths. A modeled product such as a synthetic seismogram, which usually
is generated with an invariant wavelet, will therefore be better for making
an accurate well tie in that portion of the seismic section where the wavelet
used for the synthetic seismogram is a good approximation for the actual
wavelet in the data. This is why wavelets are extracted from seismic data
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over windows or intervals of specific interest and then are used to generate
synthetic seismograms for correlation only in that interval. Where possible,
these extractions are done at or near points of well control so that log data
can be used in the extraction process.
In the time domain, a periodic function for a single frequency can be
described as a sinusoidal wave, as with the cosine wave illustrated in Figure 2. The general form of the equation for this cosine wave as a function
of time is
y(t ) = A cos (2 ft + ),
where A is the amplitude, f the frequency, t the traveltime, and the phase
of the waveform. The value is the angle, measured in degrees (where
360= 1 cycle), that represents the lead (the amount of time the waveform is
advanced) or lag (the amount of time the waveform is delayed) with respect
to a reference starting time. Phase is defined as the negative of phase lag
(Yilmaz, 2001), which is to say that a negative time shift (time delay) corresponds to a positive phase value and a positive time shift (time advance)
corresponds to a negative phase value. For example, Figure 3 shows that a
cosine wave lags a sine wave by /2 or 90:

sin = cos = cos(0) = 1, sin ( 0 ) = cos 0 = cos = 0,. . .
2
2 2
2
2
or
cos = sin + = sin( ) = 0, cos ( 0 ) = sin 0 + = sin = 1,. . . .

2
2 2
2
2
T
Figure 2. A simple sinusoid defined as a cosine wave. The shape of this waveform
is determined by its amplitude A, frequency f, and phase . T is the period of the
waveform.
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p/2 0
p/2
3p/2 2p
cos(0) = sin(0 + p/2) = sin(p /2) = 1

sin(0) = cos(0 p/2) = cos(p /2) = 0
Figure 3. Phase relationship between a sine wave (red) and a cosine wave (blue).
The sine wave leads the cosine wave by 90, and the cosine wave lags the sine
wave by 90.
The waveforms shown in Figures 2 and 3 are infinite, single-frequency

sinusoids; however, all of the wavelets with which you work in practical
seismic interpretation are finite and have limited bandwidth. They are the
summation of discrete sinusoids, each with its own amplitude, frequency,
and phase characteristics. This is the basis of Fourier analysis. An example of a finite, band-limited wavelet and its component sinusoids is shown
in Figure 4; in this example, the amplitude and phase of the components
are constant (phase = 0) and only the frequency of the individual sinusoids
varies.
Knowledge of the phase of a waveform is important in Fourier analysis
because this angle sets a reference for the starting time (zero time, effectively) for each component waveform defined by its own frequency and
amplitude. An illustration of phase rotation of a simple band-limited wavelet symmetric about t = 0 through one full cycle from 0 to 360 for 90
increments is shown in Figure 5. As expected, phase rotations of 180 and
180 are identical.
The wavelet in the center trace in Figure 5 is symmetric about t = 0,
meaning that it literally describes particle motion that occurs before t = 0,
which is physically nonrealizable. For this reason, the wavelet is called a noncausal wavelet (see Figure 6). Because of its symmetry, it is also referred to
as a zero-phase wavelet; each of its component sinusoids is zero phase, and
each is uniquely defined by its own amplitude and frequency according to
Figure 2. In terms of signal processing, a zero-phase wavelet has the shortest
time duration (pulse width) for a given bandwidth (frequency range). The
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Finite
band-limited
wavelet
t
40 Hz
30 Hz
20 Hz
10 Hz
5 Hz
Figure 4. Illustration of a finite, band-limited wavelet as the summation of five
component sinusoids. All of the components have the same amplitude and phase
(phase = 0).
180
90
+90
+180
Time
Figure 5. Phase rotation of a zero-phase wavelet (center trace) through a full 360
in increments of 90. The display convention used in this figure is described in
Figure 7.
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Noncausal
wavelet
Causal
wavelet
Time
+
Figure 6. Noncausal and causal wavelets. The causal wavelet involves particle
motion only after time = 0, whereas the noncausal wavelet involves particle
motion before time = 0, which is not physically realizable. The display convention
used in this figure is described in Figure 7.
seismic response for a zero-phase wavelet also is easier and more intuitive to
visualize because its maximum amplitude corresponds exactly to the position of the reflecting interface (see Figures 5 and 6). Displays that show the
amplitude and phase characteristics of the sinusoids for every frequency
component of a wavelet are called the amplitude (amplitude as a function
of frequency) and phase (phase as a function of frequency) spectra. Given
these amplitude and phase spectra, a resultant wavelet can be uniquely constructed by summing individual frequency components having the characteristics defined by these spectra.
Figures 5 and 6 use the same display convention, i.e., they represent
seismic response in the same way with reference to a standard impedance
configuration. The display convention most commonly used by SEG is the
positive standard polarity convention (Figure 7), in which polarity means
positive or negative trace deflection. When discussing or presenting your
work, you should state the phase of your data, to the degree it is known, and
the display convention you are observing. Similarly, you should ask about
wavelet phase and the display convention being used in any discussion or
presentation involving seismic data if that information is not communicated
or clearly annotated on seismic displays.
Figure 8 illustrates the four different display formats for reflection seismic data. Of these, the most common used on workstation displays is variable density, often with user-defined or customized color schemes. Wiggle
traces superimposed on a variable density background is also a popular display format.
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Acoustic
impedance
Low
Reflection
coefficient
Wavelet
+
0
High
Figure 7. The SEG positive standard display convention for reflection seismic
data. For a zero-phase wavelet, a positive reflection coefficient is represented by a
central peak, normally plotted black on a variable area or variable density display
(Sheriff, 2002).
In virtually all cases, reflection seismic data represent a composite

response to many closely spaced impedance boundaries, some of which
are sharp and distinct and others of which are gradational. This composite
response actually is the result of constructive and destructive interference
of the discrete responses to individual impedance boundaries, described
by the so-called convolutional model. Convolution is a mathematical
operation that, in simplest terms, involves multiplication, shifting, and
summation of two functions of the same variable (for seismic data the
variable is traveltime t). You can think of convolution as simulating the
propagation of a seismic pulse through a layered earth. The output of a
1D convolution, such as the convolution of an RC series calculated from
an AI log (which has been converted to the time domain) with a seismic
wavelet to produce a synthetic seismogram is probably much easier to
visualize than to describe in words or to understand from exacting mathematical language.
In Figure 9, the RC series consists of four coefficients, each corresponding to an AI boundary; the coefficients are not evenly spaced, and they do
not all have the same magnitude and sign. This RC series will be convolved
with the zero-phase wavelet shown to the left of the series, and both must
have the same sample rate. Note that this wavelet is a wiggle trace that
uses the SEG positive standard polarity convention. In the convolutional
model, the seismic response to a given RC is created by reproducing the
seismic wavelet scaled to the magnitude and sign of that RC. As shown in
Figure 9, the scaled wavelet is reproduced as the seismic response for each
of the four RCs, and the final convolution output or composite response is
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Variable density
Variable area
Wiggle
Variable-area wiggle
Figure 8. Four display formats for reflection seismic data. Display formats are
independent of the polarity convention used for a given data set.
the sum of the individual scaled responses. There is both constructive and
destructive interference between individual seismic responses in the composite response. This interference is substantial when the effective width
of the seismic pulse is greater than the interval between adjacent RCs. For
purposes of this discussion, consider the pulse width to be the breadth of the
central peak or peak/trough. Notice also that there is no individual seismic
response for any points in the RC series where RC = 0, that is, where there
is no impedance contrast. The differences between the composite responses
in Figure 9a and 9b indicate that your interpretation of geology from seismic
data depends critically on the wavelet in your data.
Knowledge of wavelet phase is important because it relates seismic
response to geology in terms of the characteristics of the source wavelet
(pulse) as defined in Figure 2, that is, the reflection seismic response to a
given geologic boundary or feature changes for different source wavelets.
The phase of the wavelet contained in any seismic data set can vary laterally
and vertically (temporally) and is estimated most accurately by deterministic methods using well control. In the absence of well control, you can
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Reflection
coefficients
a)
Individual
responses
Overlay
responses
Composite
response
Overlay
responses
Composite
response
+
Input
wavelet
b)
Reflection
coefficients
Individual
responses
+
Input
wavelet
Figure 9. (a) The convolutional model. The individual responses of each

reflection coefficient to the input seismic wavelet, scaled to the magnitude
and sign of the reflection coefficient, are summed to generate the composite
seismic response. There are destructive and constructive interference of the
individual responses in producing the composite response. (b) Convolution of
the reflection coefficient series shown in (a) with a different source wavelet.
The differences between the composite responses for the two wavelets show
that accurate interpretation of these responses depends on knowledge of the
source wavelets.
visually estimate wavelet phase by observing certain reflections that may be

present in your data (see Table 1).
Using reflections from any of the boundaries listed in Table 1 assumes
that the boundary can be identified conclusively, that there is a well-known
and consistent acoustic impedance contrast across it (the algebraic sign of the
reflection coefficient across the boundary is known), and that it is isolated
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Table 1. Subsurface boundaries that can be used for visual estimation of

wavelet phase. No single boundary is absolute or foolproof.
Best:
Seafloor
Hydrocarbon/water contact (seismic flat spot)
Use with care:
Top of salt/volcanics
Base of salt
Basement
from other nearby boundaries so that its character is not a composite reflection response. In marine settings, the seafloor reflection is commonly used to
check wavelet phase because the impedance contrast between seawater and
sediment is almost always positive. Similarly, a hydrocarbon/water contact,
which appears as a seismic flat spot in a reservoir that is thick enough to be
resolved seismically, can be used confidently to estimate wavelet phase (see
the discussion of seismic resolution and tuning in Chapter 6). A seismic flat
spot occurs because the presence of hydrocarbons as the pore-filling fluid
lowers the AI of the hydrocarbon-bearing portion of a reservoir below that of
the nonhydrocarbon-bearing or brine-filled portion of that reservoir. Not all
flat spots are perfectly flat because velocity effects in time imaging can tilt
or distort them and because some hydrocarbon/water contacts are not truly
horizontal. A flat spot can occur only for reservoirs in which the hydrocarbonbearing portion of the reservoir is seismically resolved because the seismic
response from a hydrocarbon-bearing interval whose thickness is below a certain value called the tuning thickness will be a composite of responses from
the top and base of the interval that will not directly represent wavelet phase.
The flat spot indicated by the arrow in Figure 10 shows a well-defined,
symmetric peak (black). According to the accepted polarity standard and
display convention for this image, within the visual acuity of the observer to
see asymmetry in the waveform, the phase of the data is zero. Note that near
the right-hand edge of this flat spot is a high-amplitude trough-over-peak
amplitude response; this point marks the tuning thickness of the low-impedance, hydrocarbon-bearing portion of the reservoir. Continuing to the right,
the decrease in the amplitude of the trough-over-peak signature reflects the
decrease in thickness of the hydrocarbon-bearing portion of the reservoir.
Note also that the top of the reservoir is not marked by a single, sharply
defined reflection (a trough or a peak) along its full extent, suggesting that
the top of the reservoir interval might be gradational in some places.
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Figure 10. Example of a well-imaged seismic flat spot, denoted by the yellow
arrow, on time-migrated data. This image suggests that the seismic data are zero
phase (courtesy PGS).
The problem with using boundaries such as top and/or base of salt, top
of volcanics, and basement (which can take on a variety of geologic and economic meanings) for estimating wavelet phase is that these boundaries often
are gradational and poorly defined, so their seismic responses are effectively composite responses to multiple, closely spaced impedance contrasts
rather than to a single, well-known impedance contrast. At the same time,
the impedance properties of the materials above and below these boundaries, especially for basement, are not necessarily well known or regionally
consistent; so neither the magnitude nor the sign of the impedance contrast
across such boundaries can be inferred confidently without well control.
Most interpreters prefer to work with zero-phase data, for which a seismic event or horizon is symmetrically disposed about its correlative impedance boundary and thus is most easily and intuitively visualized. Knowledge
of wavelet phase and the display convention of your data should enable you
to draw geologically reasonable conclusions when correlating a given seismic response to a particular AI boundary. At the same time, you should recognize that a given impedance boundary can give rise to different seismic
responses, depending on the phase of your data. This knowledge is critical for
accurate interpretation of seismic attributes, as discussed in the next chapter.
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2 Seismic Response

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2 Seismic Response

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Chapter 2

(V2 2 V11 ) ( AI2 AI1 )

The Zoeppritz equations define the reflection coefficient for nonnormal

10First Steps in Seismic Interpretation

V = compressional-wave velocity, r = bulk density

to be familiar with a mathematical description for a waveform in terms of its

Chapter 2: Seismic Response11

12First Steps in Seismic Interpretation

cos = sin + = sin( ) = 0, cos ( 0 ) = sin 0 + = sin = 1,. . . .

Chapter 2: Seismic Response13

cos(0) = sin(0 + p/2) = sin(p /2) = 1

The waveforms shown in Figures 2 and 3 are infinite, single-frequency

14First Steps in Seismic Interpretation

Chapter 2: Seismic Response15

16First Steps in Seismic Interpretation

In virtually all cases, reflection seismic data represent a composite

Chapter 2: Seismic Response17

18First Steps in Seismic Interpretation

Figure 9. (a) The convolutional model. The individual responses of each

visually estimate wavelet phase by observing certain reflections that may be

Chapter 2: Seismic Response19

Table 1. Subsurface boundaries that can be used for visual estimation of

20First Steps in Seismic Interpretation

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