Castagna paper
summaries
• Our Class III sands differ from Rutherford and Williams
Class III sands in that we include only those reflections which
occur in quadrant III. These sands are lower impedance than
the overlying unit and are frequently “bright.” They have
negative A and B and the reflection coefficient becomes
increasingly negative with offset. These are the quintessential
gas sands for which amplitude increases versus offset.
• Our Class IV sands are those low impedance sands which
occur in quadrant II. These sands have negative A but a
positive B. The reflection coefficient becomes less negative
with increasing offset and amplitude decreases versus offset,
even though these sands may be bright spots. These are low
impedance gas sand overlain by tight streak shale.
• Hydrocarbon-bearing sands should be classified
according to their location in the A-B plane, rather than
by their normal-incidence reflection coefficient alone.
• Class I sands are higher impedance than the
over-lying unit. They occur in quadrant IV of the A-B
plane. The normal incidence reflection coefficient is
positive while the AVO gradient is negative. The result
is that the reflection coefficient decreases with
increasing offset.
• Class II sands have about the same impedance
as the overlying unit. They exhibit highly variable
AVO behavior and may occur in quadrants II, III, or IV
of the A-B plane. The normal incidence reflection
coefficient (A) may be positive or negative and B is
negative. The reflection coefficient becomes
increasingly negative versus offset, but the reflection
amplitude may increase or decrease depending on the
sign of the reflection coefficient. When the reflection
coefficient is positive at near offset, amplitude will
initially decrease and may reverse polarity and then
increase with offset (the and Class IIp of Ross and
Kinman, where “p” indicates phase reversal). Class II
sands often exhibit poor ties between conventional
synthetic seismograms and the stacked seismic data.
Principles of AVO cross-plotting
JOHN P. CASTAGNA, University of
Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma
HERBERT W. SWAN, ARCO Exploration
and Production Technology, Plano, Texas