Predicting Missing Seismic Velocity Values Using Self-Organizing Maps to Aid the Interpretation of Seismic Reflection Data from the Kevitsa Ni-Cu-PGE Deposit in Northern Finland

• Published in: Minerals
• Main Authors: Niina Junno, Emilia Koivisto, Ilmo Kukkonen, Alireza Malehmir, Markku Montonen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019
• Subjects: self-organizing map; missing data; geophysical borehole data; seismic interpretation; Mineralogy; QE351-399.2; Northern Finland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/min9090529; https://doaj.org/article/c6cfb8ab5588453ea1d6886bc0b2bc60

We use self-organizing map (SOM) analysis to predict missing seismic velocity values from other available borehole data. The site of this study is the Kevitsa Ni-Cu-PGE deposit within the mafic-ultramafic Kevitsa intrusion in northern Finland. The site has been the target of extensive seismic reflection surveys, which have revealed a series of reflections beneath the Kevitsa resource area. The interpretation of these reflections has been complicated by disparate borehole data, particularly because of the scarce amount of available sonic borehole logs and the varying practices in logging of borehole lithologies. SOM is an unsupervised data mining method based on vector quantization. In this study, SOM is used to predict missing seismic velocities from other geophysical, geochemical, geological, and geotechnical data. For test boreholes, for which measured seismic velocity logs are also available, the correlation between actual measured and predicted velocities is strong to moderate, depending on the parameters included in the SOM analysis. Predicted reflectivity logs, based on measured densities and predicted velocities, show that some contacts between olivine pyroxenite/olivine websterite-dominant host rocks of the Kevitsa disseminated sulfide mineralization—and metaperidotite—earlier extensively used “lithology” label that essentially describes various degrees of alteration of different olivine pyroxenite variants—are reflective, and thus, alteration can potentially cause reflectivity within the Kevitsa intrusion.