Integrating streamer and ocean-bottom seismic data AND OCEAN- for sub-basalt imaging on the Atlantic margin

• Published in: Petroleum Geoscience
• Main Authors: Lau, K. W. H., White, R. S., Christie, P. A. F.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: 02 - Geodynamics; Geophysics and Tectonics; Fugloy; Lopra; Faroes; Fugloy*
• Online Access: http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/1416/; http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/1416/1/white_lau_pegeo349.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1144/1354-0793/10-023

Stacked basalt flows cover much of the NW European continental margin, including potentially prospective sediments of the Faroes shelf. Such flows attenuate seismic energy, hindering sub-basalt structural imaging which is critical for both exploration and tectonic studies. Low-frequency, long-offset reflection surveys have yielded improved images below top basalt, while coincident ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) data have mapped low velocity zones (LVZ) from tomographic inversion. Image correlation in a common depth domain is challenged by low spatial resolution of the tomographic image, the absence of turning rays in a LVZ and the lack of wide-angle arrivals in the reflection data. We integrate densely sampled reflection data with deep velocities from OBS data to give a common velocity model in a new, iterated, pre-stack depth-migration workflow using complementary constraints from the two datasets. The matched velocity model and depth image enable interpretation of (i) a uniform flood basalt sequence, 2–4 km thick beneath the Fugloy Ridge, with velocities correlating with those in the Lopra 1/1A borehole and (ii) a sub-basalt LVZ with chaotic reflections corresponding to sill-intruded, probably syn-rift sediments. Such a workflow could be extended to targets beneath high velocity salt or basalt and could provide constraints for 3D datasets.