Enhancing Discontinuities in Seismic Data and Automated Fault Mapping

Geol 510 – Computer aided subsurface interpretation
Fault patch generation - Supplementary materials

Enhancing discontinuities in seismic data and automated fault mapping
Valerie Smith in 2007.
PART 1. An overview of the ant tracking workflow.
• Ant tracking is a Petrel process that identifies discontinuities in 3D seismic data.

The process can be applied to amplitude or other seismic attributes.
• These discontinuities may be associated with faults or fracture zones.
According to the Schlumberger’s Petrel help manual, the process “can be divided into
four activities:
1. Seismic conditioning (structural smoothing)
2. Edge detection (chaos and variance)
3. Edge enhancement (ant tracking)
4. Interactive interpretation of surfaces, which can include fault extraction (from fault
patches).” Fault patches are described in lecture 5.
The tracking is based on measures of variance or chaos in the attribute. The ant-tracking
process is usually applied to secondary 3D volumes that provide measure of variance or
chaos in the 3D attribute being evaluate. In the Petrel help files these are simply
described as follows.
1
Ant Tracking Workflow
Ant tracking is performed within Petrel’s Geophysics > Volume Attributes process. The
ant tracking process is preceded by smoothing and variance or chaos processes. Each
time one of these algorithms is run, a new “output” file is inserted in the input tree. Each
of these new 3D volumes serves as input to subsequent processing in the flow.
The flow chart below illustrates typical ant-track workflows. The smoothed volume is
then either subjected to a Variance or Chaos analysis. The resulting variance or chaos
volume is then used in the ant-track computations. The ant track process is usually run
twice.
The different output volumes can be superimposed on each other for comparison using
the seismic calculator. Use of the seismic calculator is illustrated in the following notes,
but will not be demonstrated in class.
2
3
4
5
6
PART 2. Ant track workflow.
• Seismic volume attribute

calculations can take some time to
run. Limiting your seismic volume to
your region of interest can save
considerable processing time.
• If your zone of interest is fairly

limited, consider cropping the 3D
seismic volume as we did in our
introductory exercise (i.e. right click
on your seismic volume and select
“Insert virtual cropped volume”.
• During the cropping process you can

select a certain range of times,
inlines and crosslines.
• A new, cropped seismic volume will

appear in the input tree ready for
processing
7
The workflow involves a series of
volume attribute calculations
performed on the 3D seismic cube
(either in time or depth) from the
Process Tab>
Geophysics>Volume attributes
The “Input seismic” should be a

cropped and realized seismic volume.
The process to select is:

Structural smoothing.
Highlight the seismic volume in your

process list and click the blue arrow to
insert that volume into the “input
seismic” field. You can also define the
output file name in “set output name”
box.
Original Seismic
Smoothing
Look for the results in

your input tree.
Basically, the Volume

attribute dialogue is
repeated in the Ant Track
workflow. Making your
output file names clearly
identifiable will help you
stay organized in later
processing workflows.
8
Make Variance (after structural Smoothing)
Original Seismic
Smoothing
Variance
Ant Tracking (after Variance)
Original Seismic
Smoothing
Variance
Ants
Note here the many parameters

one can use to control the ant
tracking process. Each of the
parameters are described under
the blue question marks.
9
Make Chaos (after structural Smoothing)
Original Seismic
Smoothing
Chaos
Ant Tracking (after Chaos)
Original Seismic
Smoothing
Chaos
Ants
10
Ants Ants (after Chaos)
Original Seismic
Smoothing
Chaos
Ants
Ants
As with any other seismic volume, the output data are viewable in 3D Windows and
Interpretation Windows.
11
Variance-Ants-Ants on Seismic
Using the seismic calculator, you can add or superimpose the “variance-ants-ants” onto
the original seismic data. This can reveal faults right upon the 3D seismic rendering.
In the equation we see that for any

“variance-ants-ants” greater than -0.4
we set it equal to 1 (one). Otherwise,
we just keep the original seismic.
Thus, the “variance-ants-ants” is
effectively integrated into the original
seismic volume.
12
Chaos-Ants-Ants on Seismic (SKIP - will not be covered in class)
Using the seismic calculator, you can add or superimpose the “chaos-ants-ants” onto the
original seismic data. This allows you to inspect interrelationships between input and
output data sets.
In the equation box (below) you

can see that values in the “chaos-
ants-ants” volume that are greater
than -0.4 are set equal to 1.
Otherwise, the original value is
retained. Thus, the “chaos-ants-
ants” is effectively integrated into
the original seismic volume.?
13
Chaos-Ants-Ants on Seismic
Shown below is a time slice at ~ 1100 ms with “Chaos-Ants-Ants on Seismic”. Fault
sticks from original fault interpretations are superimposed upon this realization. Note
how the algorithms have indeed resolved the major faults. This is especially true of Fault
S0 and S1 in this image, followed by S3 which is a little more shallow. The S2 fault
doesn’t run as deep as 1100 ms so there isn’t a strong connection in this time slice.
14
Sum of All Ants -Ants-Ants
In this illustration of the seismic calculator, the “variance-ants-ants” volume is

superimposed on the “chaos-ants-ants”. The calculator combines the results of each
realization into one realization. The equation for this operation is given below and makes
use of “If” statements again. Notice that this time the combined results are divided by two.
Variance-Ants-Ants + Chaos-Ants-Ants
15
Conclusion
The procedures discussed above are summarized in the image below taken from the
Petrel software help manual.
The edge detection volumes generated in the preceding section also serve as input files
for another process called Automatic Fault Extraction. This process is introduced in the
last half of today’s workshop.
16
Fault Patches
In this exercise you will learn how to:
- Generate fault patches using the ant-track volume as input.
- Use interactive fault patch filtering tools.
One could also try this using the chaos and variance seismic volumes. The ant-track
volume is ideally suited for the automatic fault detection process since its purpose is to
enhance discontinuities in the seismic data that might be associated with faults or fracture
zones. The fault extraction process will provide an integrated 3D view of the distributions
of these features.
Extracted fault patches can also be interactively filtered as described in the following
pages.
The Automatic fault extraction> Extract

fault patches process fits roughly planar
features to seismic discontinuities
enhanced in the ant-track volume.
The Extract fault patch dialogue is shown

at right. Select the ant-track volume and
click the blue arrow to insert.
Click the Extract fault patch button will

result in a new file in your input tree that
contains the newly generated fault patches.
These patches can be viewed in an open 3D

window (at right).
17
Numerous fault patches may be present and can overwhelm the 3D view and the
interpreter. There are a couple of interactive filtering
tools that are used to selectively reduce the number
of faults in the display
Right click on the fault patch folder and select

settings.
The Operations tab enables you to cut the faults in

the z-direction. This basically lets you remove
patches from above or below the zone of interest to
facilitate viewing. You can also filter by surface. In
the class demo we will filter the Stratton fault
patches using the Upper Vicksburg and Deep Listric
fault surfaces as confining intervals.
The Stereonet tab lets you interactively filter out patches

by based on azimuth and dip. You may wish, for example
to isolate particular sets or clusters present and examine
their relationship to a particular reservoir or stratigraphic
interval.
The Histogram tab lets you interactively filter out fault

patches by their azimuth.
18
In this example from Teapot Dome, the “Stereonet” tool
was used to focus on the steeply dipping patches. These
surfaces will have poles that are nearly horizontal in
orientation.
The grayed-out region in the stereonet (right) represents

fault patches that have been filtered out. This does not
remove or delete them. The filter simply removes them
from the display. They can be re-added if desired.
Compare the figure at right to that at the bottom

of page 17. Note that displayed faults are
limited to those with nearly vertical orientation.
The top and base limits specified under the

operations tab also helped limit displayed faults
to those between 1 and 2 seconds.
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Geol 510 – Computer aided subsurface interpretation

Fault patch generation - Supplementary materials

PART 1. An overview of the ant tracking workflow.

• Ant tracking is a Petrel process that identifies discontinuities in 3D seismic data.

• These discontinuities may be associated with faults or fracture zones.

• Seismic volume attribute

• If your zone of interest is fairly

• During the cropping process you can

• A new, cropped seismic volume will

The “Input seismic” should be a

The process to select is:

Highlight the seismic volume in your

Look for the results in

Basically, the Volume

Ant Tracking (after Variance)

Note here the many parameters

Ant Tracking (after Chaos)

In the equation we see that for any

In the equation box (below) you

In this illustration of the seismic calculator, the “variance-ants-ants” volume is

The Automatic fault extraction> Extract

The Extract fault patch dialogue is shown

Click the Extract fault patch button will

These patches can be viewed in an open 3D

Right click on the fault patch folder and select

The Operations tab enables you to cut the faults in

The Stereonet tab lets you interactively filter out patches

The Histogram tab lets you interactively filter out fault

The grayed-out region in the stereonet (right) represents

Compare the figure at right to that at the bottom

The top and base limits specified under the

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