Compressional velocity, seismic attenuation and permeability relationships for sandstones from WOSPP

Nicolas Williams Martin, R. James Brown

Some experimental results measuring P-wave phase velocity and seismic attenuation in laboratory under dry and water-saturated conditions at ultrasonic frequencies and atmospheric pressure on sandstone samples of the Milk River Formation in the Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park (WOSPP), southern Alberta, are presented and are correlated with petrophysical data obtained from these samples as clay content, porosity and permeability. These sandstone samples present transverse anisotropy (TI) after analyzing its measured phase ve locities under dry conditions along three orthogonal axis. In addition, these sandstone samples present different degree of permeability anisotropy.

The principal objective of this study is try to estimate how these petrophysical properties and permeability anisotropy affect the observed behavior of P-wave phase velocities and attenuations on sandstone samples from WOSPP. Additionally, from this analysis is expected to sight which geophysical parameter, P-wave velocity or seismic attenuation, is more important for predicting permeability and its behavior from ultrasonic seismic data.