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Figure 1. Nonband-limited spectra of equal and opposite reflection coefficient pairs. The reciprocal of the notch spacing is equal to the bed thickness. The spectra of two pairs are shown: one with a thickness of 20 ms,
resulting in 50 Hz notch spacing, and the other with a thickness of 50 ms,
giving 20 Hz notches.
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Figure 2. Time series (top), spectra (middle), and cepstra (bottom) for the sounds [ss] and [ee], as spoken by the author. The unvoiced consonant is
random noise with a whitish spectrum and flat cepstrum. In contrast, the voiced vowel sound, which uses the vocal chords, has a notched spectrum,
giving rise to a strong cepstral peak at 11.9 ms. This reflects the pitch of the author's voice.
Figure 3. A synthetic seismic trace (top), its band-limited spectrum (middle), and its cepstrum (bottom). It is possible to measure the position of
the first spectral peak, then to double it, to get the notch spacing (middle).
Alternatively, the Fourier transform of the spectrum gives the cepstrum,
which has a peak at the bed thickness (bottom). The strong peak at the
short quefrencies is an effect of the limited bandwidth. Note that the cepstral peak is the first in a family of n harmonics of magnitude n-1.
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Figure 4. Nonequal reflection coefficients. Time series (top), spectra (middle), and cepstra (bottom) for three opposite reflection pairs with different
reflection coefficient ratios. The positions of the cepstral peaks are unaffected, but their gamnitudes are reduced significantly if reflection coefficients are not equal.
Figure 6. Time series (top), spectra (middle), and cepstra (bottom) for a
wavelet (left), a reflectivity series containing three 10-ms thin beds (middle), and the corresponding synthetic trace (right). The band-limited
wavelet has a featureless cepstrum, whereas the reflectivity series clearly
shows two sets of harmonic peaks, corresponding to the thin beds (each 10
ms thick) and the thicker composite package.
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FreeUSP.orgs tune3d tool. The software automatically normalizes the spectral slices, effectively whitening the spectrum
and making the otherwise very weak high frequencies resolvable.
A simple Widess wedge model (Figure 7) was decomposed using the discrete Fourier transform to give the spectrum. The natural log of the spectrum was calculated and the
result was then run through the spectral decomposition software a second time to give the cepstrum.
Again, the cepstrum is considerably easier to interpret
than the spectrum, both qualitatively and quantitatively. At
thicknesses below about 18 ms, it is clear that the interpreted horizons are no longer representative of the reflectivity model. This is much thicker than the theoretical tuning
thickness, which is 1/(1.4 60 Hz) 12 ms for this data
set. In contrast, the cepstral peak faithfully reproduces the
reflectivity model, even well below the tuning thickness.
In summary, the thickness of the wedge can be calculated in three ways: from the time difference of the interpreted seismic events, from the first spectral peak frequency,
or from the cepstral peak. A comparison of the thickness estimates from these three methods is shown in Figure 8. The
systematic errors in the time-difference and first spectral
peak estimates are very clear, but the cepstral peak gives
good estimates down to around 4 ms.
position has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of bed thickness estimation from seismic. In the oneand two-dimensional models presented in this paper, estimates are much more accurate than those from horizon
interpretation alone, or from traditional spectral decomposition workflows. In addition, the technique is able to characterize multiple beds of various thicknesses from the same
window, the inability to do this easily being one of the limitations of spectral decomposition. As with any seismic
attribute, indiscriminate and offhand application could result
in errors. In particular, likely pitfalls include having insufficient bandwidth to represent the target beds, a laterally
variable wavelet, or a window of inappropriate length. But
as a companion to these other techniques, cepstral decomposition promises to be a valuable stratigraphic analysis tool.
Suggested reading. The quefrency alanysis of time series for
echoes: cepstrum, pseudo-autocovariance, cross-cepstrum, and
saphe-cracking by Bogert et al. (Proceedings of the Symposium
on Time Series Analysis, Wiley, 1963). Interpretational applications of spectral decomposition in reservoir characterization
by Partyka et al. (TLE, 1999). The limits of resolution of zerophase wavelets by Kallweit and Wood (GEOPHYSICS, 1982).
How thin is a thin bed? by Widess (GEOPHYSICS, 1973). TLE
Acknowledgment: SpecDecomp software is a trademark of Landmark.
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