The Marine VHR 2.5-D Seismic Brute Stack Cube as a Feasible Tool for Low Budget Investigation and Research

Abstract

Between 1997 and 1999 several marine seismic surveys were carried out in Kiel Bay aimed towards the development of a three-dimensional acquisition and interpretation technique for small scale subsurface structures using high-frequency sources and multichannel streamers. The data set was recently revisited by the author and reprocessed to obtain a multichannel stacked seismic data cube. Nominal hydrophone positions are deduced by determining offsets from first arrival times and estimating the hydrophone positions under consideration of the ships track. Processing towards a ‘seismic cube’ mainly comprised CMP sorting, constant velocity NMO correction and stacking. The resulting VHR 3-D seismic ‘brute stack cube’ reveals rich structural details. The fluvial Pleistocene channel system already documented in an earlier publication was tracked further to the north. It is situated below a flat cover of gas-bearing Holocene sediments, which locally constitute the seafloor. This till-horizon is superimposed on a second till layer showing strong topographic variations. Seismic signal phase and shielding effects indicate the possible presence of gas in these formations. This case history demonstrates that the VHR 3-D seismic method is a feasible tool for low budget investigation and research.