Physical modeling of a 3D marine seismic survey

Joe Wong, Rolf Maier, Eric V. Gallant, Donald C. Lawton

The U of C Seismic Physical Modeling Facility was used to acquire scaled-down 3D marine seismic data. An array of sixteen receiver piezopins was used to represent a marine hydrophone streamer. Data were collected with two transmitters, one at either end of the receiver array. About 50,000 traces were collected over an area measuring X=270mm by Y=250mm, with grid spacing of X=mm by Y=mm. The acquisition rate was about 4000 traces per hour. Data were written into SEGY files, and gathers of seismograms were plotted using PROMAX for visual inspection and evaluation of the data. We found that attenuating the strength of direct arrivals relative to reflection amplitudes before digitization is important for increasing the quality of the reflections. The results of this 3D survey helped us to identify needed improvements in our acquisition procedures.