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1994 | Book

Imaging Systems Read chapter Read first chapter

Satellite Hydrocarbon Exploration

Interpretation and Integration Techniques

Author: Dr. Zeev Berger

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Included in: Professional Book Archive

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About this book

Opening Remarks and spectral signatures which are manifested on satellite imagery data. The debut of satellite imaging systems on board This book aims to fill that gap. It is based on ex­ Landsat I in 1972 was a technological advance of perience gained in the past 14 years by me and considerable interest to earth scientists in general other members of the remote sensing and the and exploration geologists in particular. Two major structural analysis research groups at Exxon Pro­ uses were anticipated for the satellite data. First, it duction Research Company. Explorationists from was expected to replace the traditional aerial pho­ various Exxon affiliates which have used image tograph that had proven to be useful for mapping data to support hydrocarbon exploration have also geological structures, whether well exposed at the contributed. The examples used here, therefore, surface or obscured by thick vegetative and soil co­ are taken directly from Exxon's case studies and verage. In addition, it was predicted that the spec­ training material. The reader must bear in mind tral information provided by the imaging systems that some of the examples which are illustrated could be used to directly detect hydrocarbons from here have been modified to some extent for the sake space. of simplicity as well as for proprietary reasons.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Fundamentals of Remote Sensing Technology, Interpretation and Integration

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Imaging Systems
Abstract
The basic principle behind all satellite imaging systems is similar: an orbiting platform containing imaging equipment gathers data from a specified section of the earth and transmits the data to an earth-bound receiving station where it is analyzed. Imaging systems can be divided into those that use framing and those that use scanning techniques. The former method captures an area as one image using a photographic plate or other recording medium. This is the technique used in traditional aerial and space photography. The vast majority of spacebased imaging systems now in operation are scanning systems, where one or more detectors collect data by sweeping over the target in parallel scan lines. Figure 1.1 shows a schematic of such a system and illustrates some important scanning-system terminology.
Zeev Berger
Chapter 2. Digital Image Manipulation
Abstract
As discussed in Chapter 1, most satellite images are in the form of digital data. Data is therefore stored as a series of digital numbers (DNs), each representing the intensity value for a particular pixel. Each pixel covers one resolution cell of terrain (whose size is determined by the spatial resolution).
Zeev Berger
Chapter 3. Image Interpretation Techniques: Exposed Structures
Abstract
The ability to recognize and map geological structures from remote sensing data is dependent primarily on two main factors: the level of bedrock exposure of the mapped structures and their magnitude of deformation. These factors determine: (1) the type of imagery data (i.e., monoscopic versus stereoscopic) that is required for structural mapping; (2) the kind of interpretation techniques (i. e., structural versus geomorphic) that must be employed; and (3) the level of integration with other data sets that is needed to constrain the interpretation of the image data (Fig. 3.1).
Zeev Berger
Chapter 4. Image Interpretation Techniques: Obscured and Buried Structures
Abstract
As illustrated in the previous chapter, satellite imagery can provide an excellent tool for detection and analysis of geological structures that are well exposed at the surface and manifest clear expressions of inclined bedrock strata and fault-line traces. However, a large percentage of the world’s onshore hydrocarbon reserves is either obscured by thick cover of vegetation and soil in areas of low topographic relief or is completely buried under younger and relatively undeformed rock units. In these regions, the recognition of subtle topographic expression of structures can no longer be accomplished by measurement of exposed outcrops. Rather, the interpreter must rely on the recognition of local drainage, moisture and fracture patterns which indirectly reveal the presence of subsurface structures in the area.
Zeev Berger
Chapter 5. Interpretation Techniques: Detection and Analysis of Basement Warp Structures
Abstract
This chapter explores the second main branch of the obscured and buried structures category, basement warp structures (BWSs). The recognition of these structures on imagery is quite similar to the first group and employs the same image interpretation techniques. However, because these structures are more subtle and originate in the deep basement, they differ from the first group in two significant aspects. First, their subsurface constraints are often difficult to define with conventional interpretation techniques. Second, they usually do not form pure structural traps, but rather exert significant control on the development of reservoir rocks in their vicinities, particularly the development of structurally controlled incised valleys.
Zeev Berger
Chapter 6. Interpretation Techniques: Structural Mapping with Stereo Data
Abstract
All of the structures encountered so far in this book have been analyzed using monoscopic imagery data. It was noted, however, that the accuracy of reconstructing exposed geological structures diminishes as they approach the extremes of being highly or mildly deformed. In these cases, the variable relationships between geological structures and their topographic expressions as well as the lack of diagnostic features from inclined bedrock strata create a need for some sort of stereo mapping. Such efforts can be done by using satellite stereo data directly or by supplementing monoscopic interpretation of satellite imagery data with local mapping of structures with stereo aerial photography or radar. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the principles involved in creating stereo imagery data, specific applications to structural mapping and the equipment used for this analysis. Further discussions related to stereo photography equipment and general applications in geology may be found in Ray (1960), Wolf (1974), Slama (1980) and Petrie (1992).
Zeev Berger
Chapter 7. Structural Analysis of Sedimentary Basins
Abstract
At this stage of the book, all the aspects of imagery interpretation of different structural features have been covered and methods for constraining the analysis with surface and subsurface controls have been illustrated. The next step is to introduce methods to integrate the analysis of the imagery data into a conventional exploration program. Presented here is a systematic approach which begins with the analysis of the entire sedimentary basin and progresses towards the recognition of regional-scale features and their associated hydrocarbon leads. This process often leads to the recognition of new concepts and leads in both frontier and mature areas. As emphasized throughout this book, the analysis is limited to the recognition of geological features that can be constrained with other surface and subsurface exploration tools (seismic, gravity, magnetic, etc.). An additional step in this approach may include the analysis of small-scale linear features that cannot be constrained with subsurface data. This step is not illustrated here for the sake of brevity and the lack of encouraging results experienced by the author in this endeavor.
Zeev Berger
Chapter 8. Other Applications
Abstract
The main objective of this book is to review techniques for the analysis of geological structures with satellite imagery. Such techniques are the main application of satellite imagery in hydrocarbon exploration geology today. Any comprehensive treatment of remote sensing would not be complete, however, without mentioning several other related uses of this technology. Covered here are
  • detection of surface alterations which directly indicate the presence of hydrocarbons in the subsurface;
  • emerging concepts of outcrop mapping which are being used to establish the stratigraphic framework of sedimentary basins and to detect levels of maturation of source rocks;
  • the extensive use of satellite image data for various types of logistical and environmental applications associated with hydrocarbon exploration activities.
Zeev Berger
Closing Remarks
Abstract
Remote sensing brings new and exciting tools to surface mapping which are constantly undergoing substantial improvements. Towards the end of the century, it is expected that most of the satellite images used in this book will be deemed obsolete and replaced by higher resolution images that are more easily obtained. Some of the new imaging systems that are currently being designed include a new generation of SPOT and Landsat satellites as well as a wide range of space radar data which include the Japanese JERS-1 and the Canadian Radarsat. Russian imaging capabilities, previously unavailable, have now entered the common market with the introduction of the ALMAZ satellite.
Zeev Berger

Additional Examples of Remote Sensing Interpretation and Integration

Frontmatter
Introduction
Abstract
While in Part 1 of this book, techniques for satellite imagery interpretation and integration were introduced, this part provides the reader with more detailed examples of interpreted imagery and related surface and subsurface constraints. In selecting these examples, an attempt was made to cover several different types of tectonic regions and climatic settings where structures exhibit different levels of bedrock exposure. The examples are presented in a specific order beginning with the interpretation of well-exposed structural regions and progressing to areas of buried and obscured structures. Furthermore, examples in this part of the book may be used by the reader as exercises to practice interpretation skills. The areas selected are the following:
  • Salt Flat Graben, West Texas — a well-exposed tectonic feature that exhibits an extensional fault block structural style and the presence of reactivated basement faults.
  • Death Valley Region, Nevada and California — a well-exposed tectonic feature that exhibits several different structural styles, including wrench fault assemblages, complex fold and thrust belts and high- and low-angle normal faults.
  • Fort St. John Graben, Western Canada — a buried graben feature characterized by the presence of subtle drape structures that can be mapped and analyzed by their geomorphic expression as well as stereo imagery data.
  • Canadian Foreland Fold and Thrust Belt, British Columbia — typical structurally complex fold and thrust belt that is best analyzed with radar imagery.
  • The Paris Basin, France — a large, low relief intracratonic sag characterized by the presence of obscured and buried structures related to reactivated basement warps and large-scale fault systems.
  • East Texas Region — obscured and buried structures in a predominately extensional setting of a passive margin including an example of a huge basement warp structure (the Sabine Uplift).
Zeev Berger
Chapter 9. The Salt Flat Graben, West Texas
Abstract
The Salt Flat Graben is a north-trending, extensional feature located in the western part of West Texas and the southern tip of New Mexico (Fig. 9.1). The graben was formed during Late Cenozois Basin and Range extensional events. The faulting is believed to be mainly Paleozoic and younger, with evidence of Holocene offsets on some faults (Goetz 1980). The development of the graben and some of its structural features were locally influenced by the presence of preexisting, west-northwest-trending high-angle basement-involved reverse faults and monoclinal flexures of the Diablo Platform (see Fig. 9.1).
Zeev Berger
Chapter 10. Death Valley Region, Nevada and California
Abstract
Death Valley represents a complex tectonic region that developed at the intersection of three major deformational belts (Figs. 10.1, 10.2): (1) the Late Cenozoic Basin and Range province that is predominately extensional (Fig. 10.3); (2) a diffuse zone of Late Cenozoic, northwest-striking, right-slip wrench fault systems and west to southwest-striking left-slip faults that were active between the North American and the Pacific lithospheric plates (Fig. 10.4); and (3) a belt of Mesozoic folds and thrusts, localized near the hinge zone of the Late Proterozoic and Paleozoic miogeoclinal wedge (Stewart 1978; Fig. 10.5). Figure 10.1 illustrates the present structural setting of Death Valley which is characterized by the presence of both major wrench and extensional fault systems. The map also shows the location of three unique structural features known as turtlebacks which have been quite controversial in their origin (Wright et al. 1974).
Zeev Berger
Chapter 11. The Fort St. John Graben, Western Canada
Abstract
The Fort St. John Graben (FSJG) is a regional-scale, west-trending, fault system located at the center of the Peace River Embayment of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (Fig. 11.1). The FSJG forms the central arm of a larger fault system known as the Dawson Creek Graben Complex which was filled with sediments in several stages during Carboniferous to Permian times (Figs. 11.2–11.4), Barclay et al. 1990). Although the Dawson Creek Graben Complex was formed during a long period of extension, its bounding fault systems often display alternate zones of both compressional and extensional structural styles. The unique structural characteristics of the graben complex have been attributed to Carboniferous to Permian strike-slip faulting as well as to late reactivation and inversion processes associated with the development of the nearby Rocky Mountain Fold and Thrust Belt (R.D. Oggy, pers. comm.).
Zeev Berger
Chapter 12. The Canadian Foreland Fold and Thrust Belt, Northern British Columbia
Abstract
The Foreland Fold and Thrust Belt of northern British Columbia represents a small segment of the much larger Cordilleran Belt that extends 10000 km from the Yukon-Alaska boundary in the north and south into Mexico (King 1959). The fundamental stratigraphic and structural elements of this long belt change little along its strike and the Canadian portion of the Cordillera, which is shown here, provides many of the geological attributes that can be observed with remote sensing data.
Zeev Berger
Chapter 13. The Paris Basin, France
Abstract
The Paris Basin is a large intracratonic sag that was formed and filled with sediments during Triassic and Jurassic erustal extensional events that are related, in most parts, to the initial separation of the African and North American continents and the creation of the North Atlantic Ocean (Ziegler 1982; Pages 1987; Figs. 13.1 and 13.2). The basin exhibits structural styles that are common to many other intracratonic sags, meaning that the dominant structures are low-amplitude folds, domes, monoclinal flexures and other basement warp features (Harding and Lowell 1979; Figs. 13.3–13.14).
Zeev Berger
Chapter 14. The East Texas Region
Abstract
The East Texas Region is a passive continental margin characterized by extensional tectonics with various structures that develop within it (Figs. 14.1 and 14.2). These include large-scale basement warp structures such as the Sabine Uplift and the Angelina Coldwell flexure, extensional fault blocks and listric normal fault systems such as the Mount Enterprise and Mexia-Talco fault systems and salt-related structures of the northeast Texas basin (Figs. 14.3–14.14; Nichols 1964).
Zeev Berger
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Satellite Hydrocarbon Exploration
Author
Dr. Zeev Berger
Copyright Year
1994
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Electronic ISBN
978-3-642-78587-0
Print ISBN
978-3-642-78589-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78587-0