Hydrocarbon detection with passive seismic data

Abstract

Method for using seismic data from earthquakes to address the low frequency lacuna problem in traditional hydrocarbon exploration methods. Seismometers with frequency response down to about 1 Hz are placed over a target subsurface region in an array with spacing suitable for hydrocarbon exploration (). Data are collected over a long (weeks or months) time period (). Segments of the data () are identified with known events from earthquake catalogs (). Those data segments are analyzed using techniques such as traveltime delay measurements () or receiver function calculations () and then are combined with one or more other types of geophysical data acquired from the target region, using joint inversion (-) in some embodiments of the method, to infer physical features of the subsurface indicative of hydrocarbon potential or lack thereof ().