The changing face of deep reflection seismic profiling

Andrew S. Long

along@pangea.stanford.edu

ABSTRACT

The often complex and poor-quality seismic events resolved by deep seismic profiling are generally not dissimiliar to those found on conventional exploration data. Historically however, the processing technology used to image these data has been simplistic, by comparison to exploration studies. This gap in processing technology is generally not viewed as an urgent issue by the crustal geophysics community, who are typically more concerned with broader geological issues. Nevertheless, it would appear that at least on one front, things are going to change. The future of deep seismic profiling is clearly taking two separate paths. On the gross scale, academic researchers are beginning to take time out from their fervent acquisition to review their techniques, their Earth geological models and their perceived future challenges. On the other hand, efforts using deep seismic profiling to place natural resources in a crustal-scale context are rapidly growing in strength, with many such surveys being acquired. These latter studies will become the technical leaders for deep seismic studies, incorporating more advanced processing technologies better known in the exploration industry. The results of these commercially-driven studies should then be of great use to the academic community, providing many previously unattainable insights into the Earth.