Explorer Geophysical Corner

Vertical seismic profiling (VSP) began to be popular among non-Soviet scientists in the late 1970s, about the time that my previous employer, Phillips Petroleum Company, and our partners were trying to determine development strategies for newly discovered fields in the Greater Ekofisk area of the Norwegian North Sea.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

What’s good for the Gulf is good for the mountains, too: 3-D seismic acquisition is proving its value in the rugged Rocky Mountains.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

A beautiful enigma: The geological complexity of central Utah may intimidate some, but for many it projects a powerful potential.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

“Go West, young man …” and women, too, because there seems to be plenty of work for everyone: The Rocky Mountains beckon to oil and gas players like never before.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Expanding the frequency bandwidth of surface seismic data is an unending quest for geophysicists, because increased seismic resolution is essential for extracting stratigraphic detail from seismic images.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The Good, the Bad and the (Possibly) Ugly: An AAPG member assesses Iraq and the Middle East in terms of hydrocarbon potential, probabilities and possible consequences.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Two constraints can be imposed on the frequency behavior of a digital seismic wiggle trace

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

To help convention-goers 'Pursue The Unconventional,' EMD offers a forum to discuss the 'Future of Unconventional Resource Plays.'

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Deep in the heart of Texas . . . there are a lot of new approaches and strategies that are being applied in a lot of older areas, providing a fresh appearance to a familiar face.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Pass the salt, please: How advances in 3-D seismic technology opened the subsalt exploration door in the Gulf of Mexico – and why that matters to the rest of the industry.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Workshop
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tuesday, 18 February Wednesday, 19 February 2025, 7:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Join us for AAPG Orphan, Abandoned, Idle and Marginal Wells Conference 2025. This workshop will focus on orphan, abandoned, idle, and marginal wells and the business opportunities and technology associated with plugging and repurposing wells, reducing methane emissions, protecting water supplies, and extending the lives of marginal wells.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Field Seminar
Houston, Texas
Saturday, 1 February 2025, 8:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Everyone in Houston lives within a few miles of a bayou. Some people think of them as permanent, but the bayous are constantly changing, especially during high water events like Hurricane Harvey. This trip is a 2.5 mile walk down a section of Buffalo Bayou where we will look at the archives of past storms and discuss what to do for future storms.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection surveys provide one of the most important data types for understanding subsurface depositional systems. Quantitative analysis is commonly restricted to geophysical interpretation of elastic properties of rocks in the subsurface. Wide availability of 3D seismic-reflection data and integration provide opportunities for quantitative analysis of subsurface stratigraphic sequences. Here, we integrate traditional seismic-stratigraphic interpretation with quantitative geomorphologic analysis and numerical modeling to explore new insights into submarine-channel evolution.

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Request a visit from Jacob Covault!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
VG Abstract

In comparison with the known boundary conditions that promote salt deformation and flow in sedimentary basins, the processes involved with the mobilization of clay-rich detrital sediments are far less well established. This talk will use seismic examples in different tectonic settings to document the variety of shale geometries that can be formed under brittle and ductile deformations.

Request a visit from Juan I. Soto!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Around 170 million years ago, the Gulf of Mexico basin flooded catastrophically, and the pre-existing landscape, which had been a very rugged, arid, semi-desert world, was drowned beneath an inland sea of salt water. The drowned landscape was then buried under kilometers of salt, perfectly preserving the older topography. Now, with high-quality 3D seismic data, the salt appears as a transparent layer, and the details of the drowned world can be seen in exquisite detail, providing a unique snapshot of the world on the eve of the flooding event. We can map out hills and valleys, and a system of river gullies and a large, meandering river system. These rivers in turn fed into a deep central lake, whose surface was about 750m below global sea level. This new knowledge also reveals how the Louann Salt was deposited. In contrast to published models, the salt was deposited in a deep water, hypersaline sea. We can estimate the rate of deposition, and it was very fast; we believe that the entire thickness of several kilometers of salt was laid down in a few tens of thousands of years, making it possibly the fastest sustained deposition seen so far in the geological record.

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Request a visit from Frank Peel!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Physics is an essential component of geophysics but there is much that physics cannot know or address. 

Request a visit from John Castagna!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

Related Interests

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