FRACTURE SURFACE EXTRACTION FROM IMAGE VOLUMES COMPUTED FROM PASSIVE SEISMIC TRACES

摘要

The invention comprises a method of imaging a volume of the earth's subsurface. A selected volume of the earth's subsurface is divided into a three- dimensional grid of voxels. Seismic signals representing seismic energy emanating from the earth's subsurface and detected by sensors deployed in proximity to said selected subsurface volume and conducted to a recorder for recording. The recorded signals are transformed into a grid of discrete voxel signals representing energy emanating from voxels included in said three-dimensional grid of voxels in the earth's subsurface. A smooth analytic function is defined in three dimensional space based on the grid of discrete voxel signals; and fracture surfaces are derived from the smooth analytic function.