VELOCITY AND RESOLUTION

Velocity measurements are often used to determined the nature

of sediment.
Effects of various factors on Velocity:
1. The decrease in velocity with increasing porosity
2. Velocity increases with density, the range of density values is
small
3. Velocity decreases slightly with increase in temperatures and
to increase slightly with grain size.
4. Effect of hidrocarbon saturation especially low gas saturation
5. Velocity decreases with interstitial fluid pressure and
increases with overburden pressures.
HIGH POROSITY VALUES generally are associated with LOW
VELOCITY
And LOW POROSITY VALUES are generally associated with HIGH
VELOCITY

 MEASUREMENT of Velocity
Velocity measurements are usually based on the change in the arrival
time of reflections as the shot-to-geophone distance changes.
The distance is called offset, the time diffrence because of offset is
called normal move out.
The velocity that the normal move out implies is called stacking
velocity because it is what yields the optimum CDP stack, and
calculation procedure is called velocity analysis.
RESOLUTION:
Is defined as the minimum distance between two features so
that one can tell that there are two features.
The reflections from a wedge that has a velocity intermediate
between the velocities above and bellow the wedge
(fig.6.9).
The minimum thickness of bed in order to see the effects of
the top and base of the bed as distinctly separate is the
resolvable limit and it is about wavelength.

If velocity above and bellow a wedge is the same (fig.6.11a) the

reflection pattern is almost indistinguishable from that of single
interface unless the wavelet exceeds wavelength in htickness.
The detectable limit, the minimum thickness for a layer to give a
reflection, is of the order of 1/30 wavelength.
In shallow part of the earth, the velocity is generally small and the
frequency is apt to be high, resulting in wavelength of the order
of 40 m, or resolvable limit of 10 m and detectable limit of 1.3 m.
Deeper in the section velocities are higher (5km/s) and frequencies
lower (20 Hz), so wavelength are of the order of 250 m, with
resolvable and detectable limits of 62.5m and 8.3 m respectively.
SYNTHETIC SEISMOGRAM:
Synthetic seismogram provide a means for linking borehole log with
actual seismic records.
Their principal use is in identifying reflections in determining which
event relates to a particular interface or sequence of interfaces.

The input data can be changed to illustrate the effect on

seismic record if the geologic section changes; a variation
in the thickness of units, removal of units, or assuming
changes in the lithology also affects the seismic record.
The input to make a synthetic seismogram should be complete
velocity and density log, and the end product is usually the
zero-offset seismic trace which is expected:
1. Velocity and density values are multiplied to get an
acoustic impedance log
2. A reflection coefficient log is generated from the acoustic
impedance values
3. The reflection coefficient log is convolved with a seismic
wavelet.
Syntethic seismogram are sometimes generated for primary
reflection events only, sometimes for primaries plus certain
classes of multiple reflections, and sometimes effort is
made to include all multiple.
SEISMIC EVENTS OTHER THAN REFLECTION AND MULTIPLE ARE
SELDOM INCLUDED.