 Introduction to seismic acquisition and the difference

between the land and marine seismic acquisition

Seismic data acquisition is the gathering / recording of
seismic data in the field (be it on land or at sea) with the
ultimate goal to make a seismic image of the subsurface.
Various supporting field activities are required for good
seismic data acquisition. For example, seismic exploration for
oil and gas is a complex interaction of activities requiring
good management. Important aspects are:
_ General administration/exploration concession and permit
work ("land and legal"); topographic surveying and mapping,
which is quite different for land- or marine work.
_ More specific seismic aspects: placing and checking the
seismic source, which on land is either an explosive (for
example dynamite) or Vibroseis and at sea mostly an array of
air-guns; positioning and checking the detectors, geophones
on land, hydrophones at sea; operating the seismic recording
system.
The organisation of a seismic land crew, often faced with
difficult logistics, terrain- and access road conditions is quite
different from that of marine seismic crew on board of an
exploration vessel, where a compact streamlined
combination of seismic and topo operations is concentrated
on the decks of one boat; different circumstances require
different strategies and different technological solutions.
Seismic Data Acquisition Sequence
 Planning and Design
Before any measurements in the field are carried out, all
the field parameters have to be set. For instance, if we
decide to use dynamite, it is important to know how deep
we must place it. A key parameter is the distances between
shot and geophone positions.
Another parameter is the setting of filters in the recording
instrument in order to suppress unwanted signals. All
these aspects can be caught under the caption of seismic
survey design. This is important for the oil company who
relies on the seismic contractor to carry out the
measurements, as the quality of the data is often very
much dependent on the parameter settings. In order to set
these parameters, one has to understand certain
characteristics of the seismic equipment.
  Different Seismic Energy Source and the advantages and
disadvantages of these seismic sources
In seismic acquisition, an elastic wave field is emitted by a
seismic source at a certain location at the surface. The
reflected wavefield is measured by receivers that are located
along lines (2D seismics) or on a grid (3D seismics). After
each such a shot record experiment, the source is moved to
another location and the measurement is repeated.
A choice must made about the seismic source being used: on
land, one usually has the choice between dynamite and
vibroseis and at sea, air guns are deployed.
Vibroseis
In seismic exploration, the use of a vibrator as a seismic source
has become widespread ever since its introduction as a
commercial technique in 1961.
Two basic features of the force generated by the seismic
vibrator: first, the non-impulsive signal generated by a seismic
vibrator having a duration of several seconds;
second, the monitoring system of the seismic vibrator allowing
control over the outgoing vibrator signal.
The vibrator is a surface source, and emits seismic waves by
forcing vibrations of the vibrator baseplate which is kept in tight
contact with the earth through a pulldown weight.
The driving force applied to the plate is supplied either by a
hydraulic system, which is the most common system in use, or
an electrodynamic system, or by magnetic levitation, the latter
being a new development in the field of seismic vibrator
technology. The direction in which the plate vibrates can also
vary: P wave vibrators (where the motion of the plate is
in the vertical direction) as well as S wave vibrators (vibrating
in the horizontal direction) are used.
Dynamite
Until the arrival of the Vibroseis technique, dynamite was the
mostly used seismic source on land. Dynamite itself is very
cheap, the costs involved are mainly the costs of drilling
the shot-holes to place the dynamite. These costs may run up so
high as to make the Vibroseis a good competitor of the dynamite
source. Dynamite is usually used in non-urban areas for obvious
reasons. A nice characteristic of dynamite is that it is resembling
a (band-limited) form of the delta pulse, something we would
ideally like to have, since we are interested in the impulse
response of the earth.
Dynamite is a chemical composition which burns extremely fast
when detonating.
Typically, 1 kilogram of dynamite burns in about 20
microseconds. In this very short time it vaporizes and generates
very high pressures and temperatures.
Explosives can be classied by their chemical composition.
Dynamite itself consists of a combination of the explosives
glyceroltrinitrate and glycoldinitrate.
Since the burning of the dynamite takes place in a very short
time generating sudden high pressures and temperatures, it is
obvious that in the ground, immediately around the explosive a
non-linear zone is created, that means the rock or soil will have
undergone some permanent change by the explosion.
The airgun
Many oil and gasefilds are found in water-covered areas. Since
the 1960's companies were not allowed to use dynamite
anymore as seismic source because of fish dying massively due
to the sharp and destructive strong shock-wave from the
dynamite. Exploration companies had to look for alternatives.
Many sources were developed since then, such as airguns,
waterguns and even a marine equivalent of the Vibroseis.
Airguns became the most popular marine source in the oil
industry because of their renowned reliability and signature
repeatability. The signature of one airgun has an inconveniently
long and oscillatory character, the reason why airguns are used
in specically designed arrays, consisting of airguns with
different volumes. The characteristics of the airgun, the array
effects, i.e. directivity, and the effect of the free surface on the
outgoing signal will be considered.
As is obvious from the name, the driving mechanism of the
airgun is supplied by (compressed) air.
Air under pressure is pumped into a chamber. Using the piston,
the air is suddenly released and the air leaves the chamber and
starts to create a bubble in the surrounding water. Inside the
bubble we have the air but there is a turbulent region which
consists of many little bubbles .
In the beginning of the explosion, a shock wave is generating the
initial pressure pulse, and from then on the oscillations start
and will be damped.
Source type Advantages Disadvantages

Vibroseis 1. Much less destructive than 1. Surface noise: many Rayleigh

dynamite : can operate in
urban areas
2. Not labour-intensive: cheap
in operation
3. Some control over outgoing
signal
waves
2. Correlation not perfect: correlation
noise.
3. Can only operate in areas that can
support 14 tons
4. One truck does not deliver enough
energy: arrays, so directivity

Dynamite 1. Buried source: much less 1. Destructive: cannot operate in

surface waves generated than urban areas.
with Vibroseis 2. Labour intensive for making shot-
2. Signal close to -pulse holes: expensive in operation.

 Recording System
The modern seismic data recording system is a compound of
electric subsystems (amplifiers, filters, etc.). The (glasfibre)
cable system may often be considered integral part of it. It has as
input analog electrical signals from the seismic detectors and
puts digital data out on magnetic tape. Nearly all systemsoer the
facility of instant data verication through the creation of output
on paper.
The first stage in the system is a pre-amplifier and a set of filters,
as many as there are channels (each channel is receiving analog
data from a geophone group). The next stage is the mul-tiplexer
which sequentially samples the analog input: it chops the analog
input into little portions (short blockpulses) and outputs one
long sequence of block pulses representing
data of all channels arranged in a cyclical manner. Then, in
order to sample the data, the A/D converter is used, together
with the extra needed components; conventional A/D
conversion with so-called sample-and hold, amplifier and A/D
conversion is discussed, and then the converter using the so-
called sigma-delta technology is used, with its modulator
and decimator. The data will be ordered in a sequence such that
we get it on tape as wished. Finally, in order to write the data
onto tape, we have to amplify it again.
-Pre-amplifier
The first stage in any data recording system is an amplification
of the signal voltage before filtering in order to reduce the
relative magnitude of the noise generated in the filters. Mostly,
the amplification can be set in fixed steps by a switch on the
system. As a use of a recording system, one often keeps this
setting fixed.
-Filters
What is more important, is the setting of the different filters.
Some of these filters may be pre-determined but others must be
left at the discretion of the user and must be adjustable in the
field. Usually there are three types of filters available to the user
in the field: low-pass (high-cut), notch and high-pass (low-cut)
filters.

 Data Recording and QC data.

Data QC.
In order to process the seismic data, it is required to know the
relative positions and elevations of all the source and receiver
stations in the survey, and the absolute position of the survey on
the earth’s surface. Typically the points are set out to sub meters
accuracy. Once the operator is satisfied that the initiation is
good, the positions of the points are recorded along with
selected QC data. Frequent checks are carried out during the day
and on return to the camp the position and the QC data is
downloaded from the controller to a PC and various checks on
the quality are carried out. Positioning of the receivers and the
sources is critical and the use of GPS satellite is less accurate
(within 15m), therefore RTK (real time kinematics) is used
(within 5cm).
Independent Quality Assurance and Quality Control of seismic
data during its acquisition is recognised as an essential and
highly cost-effective function of exploration management.
Seismic and navigation means faster identification of problem
data and a faster fix, in the right place. In the last few years there
has been more emphasis on ensuring the quality of the
navigation data. For seismic data, high quality is defined as high
signal-to-noise ratio and wide bandwidth, or range of
frequencies contained in the signal. Figuring and reducing the
contribution of the noise is the main quality enhancement of the
seismic acquisition. The nois can be due to a drilling operation
air plains, heavy vehicles or heavy construction etc. Good data
arrival with minimal noise is the first primary check on the data.
-Response of poor quality data.
Poor or noisy arrival of data will require a repeat of the survey.
A truck is available on the location to view the quality of the data
which being received through a fibre-optic cable which can
transmit a huge amount of data on real time. The truck is in a
contact with the vibrators therefore the communication is fast.
Data Recording :
- Recording the data – Onshore:
Onshore seismic data is recorded using a simple (normally
electro-magnetic) device known as a geophone.
A moving-coil geophone consists of a coil of wire, suspended
from a spring, surrounded by a "W" shaped magnet. The metal
spike is pushed into the ground, and any upward-travelling
energy from the seismic shot is recorded as the electric current
generated by the movement of the coil relative to the magnet.
The amount of energy recorded by the geophone is, of course,
minute. Where conditions allow (for example on relatively flat
ground), several geophones may be grouped together, or place
in strings around the central (nominal) receiver position. This
not only improves the total signal output from the group, but
also "tunes" the geophones so that energy from below is
enhanced whilst that from the side (ground-roll) is attenuated.
We'll see more on this when we discuss marine seismic sources.
In some cases, where the surface elevation varies rapidly, or
there is very loose near-surface material, it may be necessary to
drill holes and bury the geophones below ground level. In other
cases (for example along a shopping street in the middle of a
town) the geophones may be mounted on metal cones and just
placed in contact with the ground. Both of these techniques have
their own problems which must be addressed in the processing
of the data.
Once the shot positions have been marked, the geophones are
laid out (in groups if necessary) and connected either by wire or
radio (a telemetric system) to the recording truck.
Although this may seem a trivial task, the planting of one
geophone every metre over maybe 5 kilometres is non-trivial,
and an enormous amount of planning (and labour) must be used
to "lay" the line of geophones. Remember once again the
possible environmental problems - from desert to frozen
tundra!
The geophone groups may be laid out for several kilometres
prior to the start of shooting. As the shot position advances
down the line, different sections of the recording groups are
made "live" by the recording instruments to maintain a similar
range of offsets (distances from shot to receiver) for each shot.
At some stage the groups of geophones must be physically
moved in order to maintain the "live" section.
- Recording the data – Offshore:
The recording of offshore seismic data is complicated by the fact
that all of the recording equipment must be encased in an oil-
filled cable or streamer (about 10 cm in diameter) that is towed
behind the vessel.
Unlike land geophones, the hydrophones used in marine
recording normally use a piezo-electric device to record the
incoming energy. These hydrophones are connected together in
groups (just like land recording) and may be placed every metre
or so along a 3000 metre streamer.
The front-end of the streamer is connected to the vessel by a
complex system of floats and elastic stretch-sections, which are
designed to eliminate any noise reaching the streamer from the
vessel. The end of the streamer farthest from the vessel is
connected by similar stretch-sections to a tail-buoy. This buoy
may contain its own GPS receiver and radar reflector so that its
position can be established.
There are several problems associated with marine acquisition:-
1. Keeping the streamer at a constant depth is important.
2. Determining the position of (possibly) multiple gun arrays,
and every hydrophone group in multiple streamers (vessels are
now on the drawing board with up to 20 streamers!).
3. Getting all of the seismic signals from all of the recording
groups (in all of the streamers) back to the recording system on
the vessel.
All of these problems are solved by the complex system of
mechanical and electronic systems inside or on the outside of
the streamer itself. Here's some of them:
Although the oil used within the streamer is designed to give the
streamer neutral-buoyancy, changes in tides and currents can
effect the depth of the streamer. Mechanical depth controllers
(known as birds) are placed at intervals along the streamer
which (using pressure as a guide) adjust the angle of their
"wings" to correct for undesirable changes in depth.
Combinations of acoustic transceivers (transmitter-receivers),
operating at frequencies above the normal seismic frequencies
can be used to establish distances from one part of one streamer
to another and to the source array. Compasses are also used
within the streamer itself to check the angle of the streamer at
several positions along it's length.