Fractal Models in Exploration Geophysics: Applications to Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

Page

Handbook of Geophysical Exploration: Seismic Exploration, Vol. 41, No. suppl (C), 2012

ISSN: 0950-1401

doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-045158-9.00001-4

Introduction of Fractals

Application to Gravity and Magnetic Data

V.P. Dimri, R.P. Srivastava, Nimisha Vedanti

Abstract

The classical geometry deals with objects of integer dimensions. Zero-dimensional points; one-dimensional lines; two-dimensional planes, like squares; and three-dimensional solids, such as cubes, make up the world as we have previously understood it, but many natural phenomena like a length of coast line and the shape of clouds are better described with a dimension partway between two whole numbers. To describe such irregular shapes, fractal geometry was coined, which describes the noninteger or fractal dimensions. So while a straight line has a dimension of one, a fractal curve like a rocky coast line will have a dimension between one and two depending on how much space it takes up as it twists and curves. The more that fractal fills a plane, the closer it approaches to two dimensions. So a fractal landscape made up of a large hill covered with tiny bumps would be close to the two dimensions, while a rough surface composed of many medium-sized hills would be close to the three dimensions (Peterson, 1984). Fractal geometry is a compact way of encoding the enormous complexity of many natural objects. By iterating a relatively simple construction rule, an original simple object can be transformed into an enormously complex one by adding ever increasing detail to it. The essence of fractal theory lies in fractional dimensions.

Keywords

Fractals Power law Spectral analysis Scaling exponent Power spectrum Fractional brownian motion Fractional Gaussian noise Optimum gridding Scaling power spectrum Power spectral density (PSD)

1.1 Introduction

The classical geometry deals with objects of integer dimensions. Zero-dimensional points, one-dimensional (1D) line, two-dimensional (2D) planes like squares, and three-dimensional solids such as cubes make up the world as we have previously understood it, but many natural phenomena like length of coast line and shape of clouds are better described with a dimension partway between two whole numbers. To describe such irregular shapes, fractal geometry was coined, which describes the noninteger or fractal dimensions. So while a straight line has a dimension of one, a fractal curve like a rocky coast line will have a dimension between one and two depending on how much space it takes up as it twists and curves. The more that fractal fills a plane, the closer it approaches to two dimensions. So a fractal landscape made up of a large hill covered with tiny bumps would be close to the two dimensions, while a rough surface composed of many medium-sized hills would be close to the three dimensions (Peterson, 1984). Fractal geometry is a compact way of encoding the enormous complexity of many natural objects. By iterating a relatively simple construction rule, an original simple object can be transformed into an enormously complex one by adding ever increasing detail to it. The essence of fractal theory lies in fractional dimensions.

Mandelbrot and van Ness (1968) extended the concept of fractals in terms of statistical self-similarity or scale invariance in time series analysis that was done within the context of self-affine time series. The basic definition of a self-affine time series is that the power spectrum has power law dependence on frequency. Fractal concept is very useful for interpretation of time series data in various branches of earth science like horizontal variability of temperature, humidity, rainfall, cloud water in atmosphere, etc. All these phenomena obey power law behavior over well-defined wave number ranges. These results are very important for understanding the variability of the atmosphere and for improved characterization of these fields into large-scale models of the climate system. A number of properties of the solid earth have been discussed in fractal terms (Turcotte, 1992). Fractal theory in geophysical observations has numerous applications in correlating and predicting situations from known to unknown and hence has attracted the attention of geoscientists (Dimri, 2000, 2005).

1.2 Fractal and Scaling

Geophysical data are in the form of time series. A geophysical time series can be characterized by combination of stochastic component, trend component, and periodic component (Malamud and Turcotte, 1999). To quantify the stochastic component of the time series, it is necessary to specify the statistical distribution of values and persistence. A variety of techniques exist to quantify the strength of persistence, but the most commonly used is the spectral analysis, where the power spectrum of time series is plotted against frequency (or wave number in the case of space series) and the value of slope, known as scaling exponent (say β), gives an estimation of persistence. Depending upon the value of scaling exponent β, persistence can be characterized as weak or strong.

Scaling exponent controls the balance of high and low frequencies and determines the degree of smoothness or correlation of the series. A relation exists between the scaling exponent, Euclidean dimension (E), and fractal dimension (D) of data, given