Marine Seismic Sources –Airgun

SUBMITTED TO:- SUBMITTED BY :-

Dr.Rajesh R.Nair Nagendra Kawat

Associate Professor PE20M010
Petroleum Engineering
OUTLINE
Seismic Source
Type of Seismic Sources
Air-Gun
Working of Air-Gun
Bubble oscillations
Source Ghost
Air-Gun Signature
Paper review
References
Seismic Source
 A seismic source is controlled
seismic energy .

 Perform both type of survey

• Reflection seismic surveys a
• refraction seismic surveys.

 Both types of seismic sources

generate seismic waves, which
travel through a medium such as
water or layers of rocks
Type of Seismic Sources
• Two type of seismic sources:-
▫ Land source
 Impulsive sources
 Non impulsive sources

▫ Marine source
 Air gun
 Sparkers
 Boomers
Air-Gun
 Most common in offshore survey

 This gun releases highly

compressed air into water.

 It uses a compressed air at 2000 -

5000 PSI to produce an explosive
blast of air.

 Several air guns with different

sizes are fired to enhance their
initial pulses & reduce their
bubble effects.
WORKING OF AIR-GUN
 High
pressure
air line solenoid

Air
chamber

shuttle

Air
chamber
BUBBLE OSCILLATIONS
Assuming an incompressible fluid, it can be derived
that the bubble period T amounts to:

where,

“in” = the pressure inside the air gun before

firing
“Vin” =is the volume of the chamber,
“Pr” =is the hydrostatic pressure and
K= is some constant
SOURCE GHOST
 The time delay therefore is given by :-

where
d =is the source depth,
c =is the sound of speed in water, and
q =is the offset angle of the initial
downwards primary pulse measured
from the vertical axis.
AIR-GUN SIGNATURE

 The air-gun ‘signature’, recorded by a hydrophone. below the gun, has three
characteristic features:

 the direct arrival produced when the gun fires;

 the source ghost; and
 the bubble pulse caused by the expansion-collapse cycle of the air bubble.

 The signature is characterized by two parameters:

 the primary pulse peak-to-peak (P-P) amplitude, or “strength”, the useful part
of the signal,
 and its bubble period.
 The near field signature (upper
trace) shows the measurement of
the released air producing a
steep-fronted shock wave
followed by several oscillations
resulting from the repeated
collapse and expansion of the air
bubble.

 The signal strengths of the direct

wave and the first bubble are P
and B. respectively
A new seismic survey technology using underwater speaker detected a low‑
velocity zone near the seafloor: an implication of methane gas accumulation
in Tokyo Bay

Authors:-
Tetsuro Tsuru1* , Kazuo Amakasu1, Jin‑Oh Park2,
Junichi Sakakibara3 and Mamoru Takanashi4
 underwater
Air gun Replace speakers
(UWSs)

Explosive non-explosive
sources type

non-impulsive
impulsive waves with
waves with high low sound
sound pressure, pressure
Methods
Experiment
a. The survey area is located at the northernmost part of Tokyo Bay.

b. Resulting seismic reflection profile, which was stacked by a constant velocity of 1500 m/s.

positive
amplitude

negative
amplitude.
C . Fish finder images that suggest the presence of a gas foaming phenomenon.

Seabed lithology

Gray Mud

Orange Sand

Red Gravel

Brown Rock facies

Results and Discussion
a. One-layer velocity model with 1500 m/s velocity.
b. Two-layer model with velocities of 1500 m/s and 1100 m/s.
c. Two-layer model with velocities of 1500 m/s and 1600 m/s.
Conclusions
• The shallow geological structures were clearly imaged down to at least 37.5 m below
the seafloor.

• A low-velocity zone, methane gas accumulation, was discovered about 7–8 m below
the seafloor.

• Considering both the high level of greenhouse effects and flammability of methane

• The features and volume of its accumulation must be investigated from the
perspective of environmental conservation and earthquake disaster prevention.
REFERENCES

 A Ziolkowski 1970; A method for calculating the output pressure waveform from
an air gun: Geophys. J. R. astr. Soc. 21, 137-161.
 G Parkes and L Hatton 1986; The marine seismic source: Kluwer.
 J Langhammer 1994; Experimental studies of energy loss mechanisms in air-gun
bubble dynamics: PhD thesis, NTNU.
 B Dragoset 2000; Introduction to air guns and air-gun arrays: Leading Edge, 8,
892-897.
 J Caldwell and B Dragoset 2000; A brief overview of seismic air-gun arrays:
Leading Edge, 8, 898-902