Warren Hamilton

Earth's First Two Billion Years: The Era of Internally Mobile Crust

Distinguished Senior Scientist, CSM Department of Geophysics

Regional magnetic anomalies, crustal strength, and the location of the northern Cordilleran fold-and-thrust belt

Tectonic Evolution of a Complex Plate Boundary - Fiordland to Macquarie Ridge, New Zealand

Gavin P Hayes
USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Host: David Wald

Danny Harvey (President, Boulder Real Time Technologies, Inc.) and
Frank Vernon (Director, USArray Network Facility, UCSD)

Host: T. Davis

No Heiland Lecture

Michel Verliac

The role of geophysics in CO2 storage

Spectral decomposition applied to time lapse seismic interpretation at Rulison Field, Colorado

Ludmila Adam
PhD candidate

Carbonate rock properties at laboratory seismic and ultrasonic frequencies and at reservoir conditions

Jesse Lawrence

Reducing Uncertainty in Reservoir Modeling

3:00-5:00 Metals Hall

Read details.

Warren B. Hamilton
Distinguished Senior Scientist
Department of Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines
January 10, 2008

Earth's First Two Billion Years:
The Era of Internally Mobile Crust

Abstract
Fractionation by 4.45 Ga yielded core, irreversibly separated upper and lower mantle, and thick mafic protocrust. Ancient crustal rocks (3.8-2.5 Ga; recycled zircons to 4.4 Ga), associations, and structures differ strikingly from modern ones, and no geologic evidence supports the popular assumption that plate tectonics operated. Ancient crust is dominated by ~30 km of felsic gneisses, derived incrementally from since-vanished mafic, not ultramafic, material, and now bounded sharply against extremely depleted Archean upper mantle. Partial melting of protocrust accounts for occurrence and isotopics. Dense mafic restite incrementally delaminated and sank through hot, light olivine-orthopyroxene mantle, which rose and produced more melting. Basalts and ultramafic lavas overlie such gneisses; no oceanic rocks are known. Mafic melts crystallizing atop the mobile crust produced a density inversion, and slowly sank as synforms between rising granitic diapirs. The hot lower felsic crust simultaneously flowed and mixed, and the variably coupled upper crust deformed in a floating mode. Continued delamination, and much later, subduction, progressively enriched the upper mantle by mixing crustal material down into it, a trend (opposite to conventional models) that still continues.

Biography

Much of Warren Hamilton’s USGS research career addressed interrelationships between plate tectonics and the variations with depth
and time of the dynamic and petrologic development of continental crust. Since his post-retirement move to CSM in 1996, he has worked with the driving mechanism and 3-D circulation of plate tectonics, and the
evolution of Venus and the young Earth. He has received many honors
for his contrarian syntheses.

Richard W. Saltus
U.S. Geological Survey, Denver
Co-author: Travis L. Hudson
Applied Geology, Inc., Sequim, WA

January 17, 2008

Regional magnetic anomalies, crustal strength, and the location
of the northern Cordilleran fold-and-thrust belt

Abstract
The northern Cordilleran fold-and-thrust belt in Canada and Alaska lies at the boundary between the broad continental margin mobile belt and the stable North American craton. The fold-and-thrust belt is marked by several significant changes in geometry: craton-ward extensions in the central Yukon Territory and northeastern Alaska are separated by margin-ward reentrants. These geometric features of the Cordilleran mobile belt are controlled by relationships between lithospheric strength and compressional tectonic forces developed along the continental margin. Regional magnetic anomalies indicate deep thermal and compositional characteristics that contribute to variations in crustal strength. Our detailed analysis of one such anomaly, the North Slope deep magnetic high, helps to explain the geometry of the fold-and-thrust front in northern Alaska. This large magnetic anomaly is inferred to reflect voluminous mafic magmatism in an old (Devonian?) extensional domain. The presence of massive amounts of mafic material in the lower crust implies geochemical depletion of the underlying upper mantle, which serves to strengthen the lithosphere against thermal erosion by upper mantle convection. We infer that deep-source magnetic highs are an important indicator of strong lower crust and upper mantle. This stronger lithosphere forms buttresses that play an important role in the structural development of the northern Cordilleran fold-and-thrust belt.

Biography

Richard W. Saltus is a senior research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Crustal Imaging and Characterization Team (CICT), Lakewood, Colorado. Dr. Saltus is an internationally known expert in his field with over 20 years of professional experience and over 120 published papers, reports, and abstracts. Dr. Saltus earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and his Masters and Doctorate in Geophysics from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. His research has focused on development and application of interpretive techniques for geological analysis of potential field (gravity and magnetics) and heat flow data. He has published interpretive reports on tectonic problems in the western United States including Alaska. He is an elected fellow of the Geological Society of America. His current research includes (1) application of gravity, magnetic, and seismic constraints to the understanding of deep basin and basement constraints on the oil and gas potential of the North Slope of Alaska, (2) regional crustal-scale implications of merged aeromagnetic datasets for understanding compressional margin tectonics, and (3) application of new circum-arctic potential field compilations to tectonic framework for energy assessment.

Peter M. Duncan
President, MicroSeismic, Inc.
Houston, TX

January 24, 2008

Passive Seismic Frac Monitoring

Abstract
The bull market for unconventional gas has been great for microseismic monitoring both as a business and a technical driver. As gas shale and other tight gas plays have developed in the Fort Worth Basin and beyond, operators increasingly have turned to microseismic monitoring of frac treatments to help understand what really is happening to the reservoir during frac treatment. Microseismic monitoring of hydro frac operations show us that real frac’ing is much more complex than the models might predict and as such provides critical information to reservoir exploitation. A surf through the web pages of the players in the unconventional gas game throughout the lower 48 will uncover numerous references to the importance of microseismic monitoring in the development of these reservoirs. Monitoring is shedding light on how to best frac these reservoirs and what well spacing is really required.

Biography
Dr. Peter M. Duncan, President, MicroSeismic, Inc. Duncan holds a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Toronto. He began his career as an exploration geophysicist with Shell Canada before joining Digicon Geophysical, first in Calgary then in Houston. In 1987 he helped Digicon found ExploiTech, Inc, an exploration and production consultancy. He was named President of ExploiTech when it became a subsidiary of Landmark Graphics in 1989. In 1992 he was one of 3 founders of 3DX Technologies Inc., a publicly traded independent oil and gas exploration company where he served as Vice President and Chief Geophysicist until March 1999. Since 1999, and prior to founding MSI, he participated in the startup of 2 technology based exploration service companies in Houston. Duncan is a past President of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists

Gavin Hayes
Post-Doctoral Researcher
USGS National Earthquake Information Center
(Contracted by Synergetics Incorporated)

January 31, 2008

Tectonic Evolution of a Complex Plate Boundary - Fiordland to Macquarie Ridge, New Zealand

Abstract
The response of lithospheric plate boundaries to rapid changes in plate motions provide constraints used to determine the manner in which transitions in plate motions and plate boundary configurations can occur. In the case of the Australia ~V Pacific plate boundary in
the Macquarie Ridge region south of New Zealand a substantial change in plate motions has occurred since the Oligocene. Over a period of less than 15Ma, this boundary changed from mid-ocean ridge spreading to simple translation, the details of which are recorded in the fabric
and fracture zones of the oceanic lithosphere. Application of available well-constrained plate motions imply that substantial deformation of the oceanic lithosphere must have occurred after
fracture zone formation to create the arcuate structure of these fracture zones today.

We use Plate reconstructions of this plate boundary system coupled with analyses of modern seismicity to isolate the timing and scale of deformation that has occurred within the oceanic crust of the Australian since this plate boundary transition occurred. The persistence of this deformation through time indicates a link with the evolution of subduction of the Australian Plate further north at the Puysegur Trench over the same time period, and may be a result of
stress build-up within the plate as a consequence of resistance to that subduction.

Biography

Gavin Hayes (Ph.D., Penn State, 2007) is a postdoctoral researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, CO. His work is focused on issues related to the evoluation and structure of complex plate boundaries, using approaches primarily from seismology. Gavin's Ph.D. research involved both the evolution of the Mendocino triple junction and formation of the San Andreas system in northern California and the Pacific:Australian plate boundary through New Zealand. He has developed tools to resolve three-dimensional crustal structure and properties with receiver functions at medium-resolution seismic networks, straightforward approaches to extract the velocity ratio properties of the seismogenic upper crust and the aseismic shallow crust, and methods to analyze high-resolution plate motions and rotations. Currently, Gavin is developing approaches to constrain the three-dimensional geometry of the seismogenic part of subducting plates using global earthquake catalogs and probabilistic assessments of location uncertainties.

Danny Harvey
President,
Boulder Real Time Technologies, Inc., Boulder Colorado

Frank Vernon
Director,
Array Network Facility, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
February 7, 2008

The USArray Project: Passive Seismic Exploration for
Deep Earth Structure

Abstract
In August 2004 the US National Science Foundation announced funding for a new $200 million Major Research Equipment program called Earthscope. This program has as its goal “exploring the structure and evolution of the North American continent at scales from hundreds of kilometers to less than a millimeter - from the structure of a continent, to individual faults, earthquakes and volcanoes”. One of the three major components of Earthscope is USArray, consisting in part of a 400 station Transportable Array that is intended to provide two years of continuous real-time telemetry of passive seismic waveform data over a quasi-rectilinear grid of points at an average 70 km spacing covering the entire continental US plus Alaska. In this seminar we will provide an overview of the USArray project focusing mainly on the Transportable Array Facility that has just recently come into its full operational state. We will describe how Earthscope came into being and how USArray fits within the overall scientific objectives of Earthscope. We will then discuss the technical and engineering hurdles that had to be overcome in order to realize the USArray facility as we see it today. In particular we will contrast how long duration passive source seismic arrays differ in their design and operational requirements from short duration active source seismic arrays used for oil and gas exploration and monitoring. We will cover the operational realities of the Transportable Array as it exists today and how we think these might change over its lifetime. Next we will provide an overview of some of the new and innovative science that is starting to come out of the research community using data from the new USArray facility. Finally, we will invite the attendees to join us in speculation about how, or if, the lessons we are learning in the technology and science of the USArray facility could be used in solving the problems of oil and gas exploration and monitoring.

Biographies:
Danny J. Harvey (right) received the B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1971. While an undergraduate student, Dr. Harvey worked for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and was working mainly in the Apollo Program. After graduation, Dr. Harvey continued working for NASA and worked in the preliminary design phases of the Space Shuttle Program. After NASA, Dr. Harvey worked for the Lockheed Missile and Space Corporation on the design team for the Trident C-4 SLBM program. In 1976 Dr. Harvey decided to go back to graduate school at the University of Colorado, Boulder and pursue an advanced degree in Geophysics. He received the Ph.D. degree in Geophysics from the University of Colorado in 1985. While a graduate student, Dr. Harvey worked at various professional jobs including the USGS Branch of Global Seismology in Golden and designing processing software for an oil industry services company in Denver. After receiving his Ph.D. degree Dr. Harvey established a consulting business and also worked as a Research Associate at the University of Colorado. In 1991 Dr. Harvey became Director of the Joint Seismic Program Center at the University of Colorado. Dr. Harvey, along with two partners, established a new business, Boulder Real Time Technologies, Inc., in 1996 and he has been President and CEO until the present. Dr. Harvey is married with one daughter and lives in Eldorado Springs, Colorado.

Frank Vernon (left) is a Research Seismologist at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. His current research interests are focused on developing distributed networked real-time sensor networks in terrestrial and marine environments. Currently he is the Director for the USArray Array Network Facility for the NSF EarthScope MRE. This network currently has over 400 seismic stations delivering real-time data to UCSD, which are redistributed to multiple sites. The ANF is responsible for real-time state-of-health monitoring for the network in addition to the real time data processing, archiving, and distribution. Data are acquired over multiple types of communication links including wireless, satellite, and wired networks. Dr. Vernon is also PI on the ANZA broadband and strong motion seismic network that has operated since 1982 providing real-time seismic monitoring capability for southernmost California. In addition Dr. Vernon is co-PI on the HPWREN program creating a large-scale wireless high-performance data network that is being used for interdisciplinary research and education applications, as well as a research test bed for wireless technology systems in general. HPWREN provides wide area wireless internet access throughout southernmost California including San Diego, Riverside, and Riverside counties and the offshore regions. Under UCSD’s HPWREN program, research being conducted on building “last kilometer” wireless links and developing networking infrastructure to capture real-time data from multiple types of sensors from seismic networks, hydrological sensors, oceanographic sensors, video sensors as well as data from coastal radar and GPS.

Vernon obtained a B.A. in Physics with Specialization in Earth Sciences from UCSD in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from UCSD in 1989.

Tadeusz J. Ulrych
Spring 2008 SEG Distinguished Lecture
Professor Emeritus of Earth and Ocean Sciences,
University of British Columbia
February 14, 2008

The role of amplitude and phase in processing and inversion

Abstract
The object of seismic exploration is encoded in the data that are acquired on or near the surface of the earth. The goal of decoding these data is, essentially, to find out where and what this object is. Although we record our information in space and time, we always, at some stage, follow the teachings of Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier and transform our measurements into the frequency domain. In this domain, our data live in the phase and temporal and spatial frequency dimensions. The "where" is encoded in the phase, the "what" is encoded in both the phase and amplitude.

The aim of the processing of the data is to remove obscuring artifacts such as coherent and incoherent noise, statics, and the ubiquitously deleterious effect of the seismic source signature. The aim of inversion is to answer the question, "what?" Processing in our industry has achieved an enviable level of success. This success, I will argue, has been achieved, to a large extent, by concentrating on the role of the amplitude properties of the inherent distortions cause by undesired components. Phase has played a much lesser role and consequently, so has the retrieval of the vital information concerning the "where". Inversion, successful as it has been, has also in my humble opinion, placed amplitude in a lofty position as compared to that of phase.

The purpose of this presentation is to convince you that treating amplitude and phase with the equal dignity that each deserves can lead to some interesting and important results. Specifically, I will deal with only-phase reconstruction, by which I mean the inversion of information by using only the phase component without any a priori assumption concerning the amplitude (championed by Alan Oppenheim and colleagues in the early 1980's). I will also reintroduce, after a 35 year absence from this field and because of exciting new developments, cepstral processing and its application to the deconvolution of thin beds. Finally, I will foray into the dangerous territory of attributes. Dangerous because there are so many and dangerous because I know so little. However, my colleagues (Mauricio Sacchi, Mike Graul, and Tury Taner) and I have recently had some hopefully interesting thoughts and results which we would like to share.

For figures and examples relating to this abstract visit http://ce.seg.org/dl/spring2008/index.shtml.

Biography
Tadeusz J. Ulrych was born some time ago in Warsaw, Poland. His travels began early, 1939 to be exact, when Adolf had a brain blitzkrieg. Following sojourns in Rumania, Turkey, and Cyprus, he ended up in London, England, where he obtained a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering (like all geophysicists?) at London University. A year working in ultrasonics convinced him to seek deeper pastures and he moved to Canada where, at the University of British Columbia, he received both his M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees (1961 and 1963) in the study of lead isotopes under Don R. Russell. His first academic position was as Assistant Professor at the University of Western Ontario. Following a thrilling PDF at Oxford and the Bernard Price Institute at the University of Witwatersrand, Ulrych joined the University of British Columbia where he has remained these many and happy years. He has been an Invited Professor at PPPG (now CPGG) at the Federal University of Bahia, the University of Kyoto and OPERA, University of Pau. He has consulted and given courses in various locations around the globe, and continues to do so in spite of mandatory retirement which earned him his present position of Professor Emeritus (office, graduate students, research projects, no salary but free parking). Tad's interests are signal processing, information and inverse theory, and a plethora of other topics that change bimonthly. He has supervised a few students, published some papers and coauthored a book with Mauricio Sacchi. His hobbies include visits to the Pyramids of Giza with his most cherished wife, via camel.

William L. Ellsworth
Senior Research Geophysicist
U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA
February 21, 2008

Earthquake Science in the Source:
The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth

Abstract
The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) was drilled into the San Andreas Fault Zone to study the physics of earthquake nucleation and rupture and determine the composition, physical properties, and mechanical behavior of an active, plate-bounding fault at seismogenic depths. SAFOD is located 10 km NW of Parkfield, CA, and penetrates a section of the fault that is moving through a combination of repeating microearthquakes and fault creep. Almost two miles below the surface of the Earth, down at the depth where earthquakes are spawned, we have successfully extracted intact rock samples of the active fault and established a research observatory within the heart of the fault. Up to now, scientists seeking to understand how the great faults bounding the Earth's tectonic plates generate earthquakes have had to infer the processes through indirect means. Now, for the first time, the inner workings of a major earthquake fault can be studied directly at SAFOD. This talk will highlight some of the scientific results being obtained at SAFOD and place them in the context of major, unanswered questions about earthquakes that are critical for understanding earthquakes and the hazards they pose to society.

Biography
William L. Ellsworth is a senior research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA. He received his Bachelors degree in Physics and Masters in Geophysics from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. in Geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is a Consulting Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University. He is currently the President of the Seismological Society of America and co-principal investigator for the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth component of the National Science Foundation’s EarthScope project. Over the course of a 36 year career with the USGS, he has conducted research on fundamental problems in seismicity, seismotectonics, probabilistic earthquake forecasting, earthquake source processes and earth structure, while providing leadership and direction in areas of critical importance to the USGS Earthquake and Volcano Hazards Programs. Some of his recent activities include the study of the near-field motions in earthquakes ranging from M -3.5 to M 7.8, ultra-high-resolution studies of seismic processes using the double-difference method, and development of a widely adopted physically-based model for earthquake recurrence.

Michel Verliac
Schlumberger Carbon Services
March 6, 2008

The Role of Geophysics in CO2 Storage

Abstract
Recent advances in the understanding of Global Warming have suggested that the CO2 emission in the atmosphere is playing an important role in the climate change. If underground CO2 storage is not the answer by itself, it is expected to become an important part of the global solution in the future. Numerous projects and experiments have been initiated worldwide to understand and to demonstrate the feasibility of permanent storage. They are addressing technical challenges, use of advanced technologies but also non answered questions. Geophysics is involved at two different levels: firstly for the site selection and characterization and secondly for the CO2 Plume displacement monitoring. Seismic is not the only tool available to the Geophysicist. His ability to combine the different disciplines and techniques will contribute to the success of CO2 Storage. In this presentation we will review the general frame of CO2 storage, the geophysics technologies available or missing, the challenges and risks associated to this activity and some existing projects.

Biography
Michel Verliac, Product Champion Geophysics CO2, is based in Clamart (France) where he is leading the Geophysics Department of Schlumberger Carbon Services. After several student internships at the French Institute of Petroleum, Schlumberger, the French Atomic Energy Agency, Petrofina and Elf Aquitaine Petroleum, Michel joined Schlumberger Wireline in 1991. He was assigned to Luanda ( Angola) as Bore Hole Geophysicist covering the West and South Africa region until 1996. From 1996 to mid 1997, he was special project leader for Schlumberger in Tengiz
(Kazakhstan). He spent the next two years as geophysicist and Computing and Interpretation Center manager for south Latin America, based in Buenos Aires (Argentina). In 1999, Michel moved to Villahermosa ( Mexico) to become Bore Hole Seismic geophysicist for Mexico and Latin America. In 2002, Michel transferred to Schlumberger Wireline Headquarters in Paris to be in charge of the worldwide Bore Hole Seismic activity. This included business development, research and product development, staffing and training. He moved then early 2007 to the Carbon Services division of Schlumberger to develop the Geophysics applications for Co2 storage.

Michel holds a MS degree in Geophysics and Geochemistry from the University of Sciences Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, an Engineering Degree from the Strasbourg Earth Physics Institute and an Engineering Degree in Exploration Geophysics from the Ecole Nationale Superieure du Petrole et des Moteurs in Rueil Malmaison ( France). Michel is member of the SEG, EAGE, AAPG and SPE. He is also life member and president of Geophysics Alumni association from the Strasbourg University. At SEG, Michel is member of the Research Committee and Chairman of the CO2 Sub-Committee.

Nelson Rojas
Geophysics M.Sc. Candidate
March 20, 2008

Spectral Decomposition applied to time lapse seismic interpretation at Rulison Field Colorado

Abstract
Spectral decomposition (SD) refers to any method that produces a continuous time-frequency analysis in each time sample from a seismic trace. I used this technique for time-lapse seismic interpretation of nine-component 4-D seismic data particularly at Rulison FieldRulison Field is located in northwest Colorado in the Piceance Basin. It is a heterogeneous tight-sandstone gas reservoir that produces in a commingled flow stream from a 2000-2200 foot thick interval of thin inter-bedded sandstones, coals, and shales. I applied SD to multicomponent 4-D seismic data and synthetic models in order to understand and predict the time-lapse response of gas production in the reservoir. I used the exponential matching pursuit decomposition method to obtain the frequency spectrum of the seismic data. The peak amplitude and peak frequency are SD attributes that I used for time-lapse interpretation .Time-lapse maps with P-wave data show changes related to the peak amplitude; meanwhile maps with S-wave data show changes related to the peak frequency. In both cases, the stronger time-lapse anomalies occur at the Cameo interval, where a fault with associated fractures is present. These changes are related to the gas production in the field. The Cameo interval is an active source of gas that migrates upward to the upper reservoirs through faults and fractures. The faults and their related fractures play an important role in the gas production, generating high productivity areas at Rulison Field; through multicomponent seismic data, it is possible to identify these areas.

Biography
Nelson Rojas is a MS. candidate in geophysics at Colorado School of Mines. He is from Colombia. He received his bachelor’s degree in Geology (1992), and after that has been working with the Colombian national oil company ECOPETROL S.A., initially in exploration and in the last years in reservoir development. Nelson has been involved with seismic interpretation and interacting with multidisciplinary work teams in reservoir characterization projects. He returned to school in Fall 2006. His areas of interest focus on reservoir characterization with seismic data and its integration with dynamic models. Nelson likes to play basketball, jog and explore new places.

Merrick Johnston
Geophysics M.Sc. Candidate
March 20, 2008

Heavy Oil in Carbonates: Grosmont Formation, Canada

Abstract
The Grosmont Formation underlies the Cretaceous Giant Athabaca oil field in the Upper Devonian as a complex carbonate platform. There is potentially three billion bbls of 5-9 API oil, which makes up 1/6 of the Canadian proved reserves. Thus far, heavy oil in carbonates have not been extracted by secondary production. Heavy oil and carbonates are both difficult items to characterize with current geophysical practices. This research conducts low frequency measurements on core plugs in the area of interest as well as several chemistry lab tests to define the viscoelasticity of the oil. I will discuss the low frequency measurements as a function of temperature, pressure, and time. Measurements were made at reservoir pressure conditions from -10 to 80 C at frequencies from 1-200 hz. There is a 30% shear velocity change at 50hz from 20C to 80C. This means that geophysical techniques could be advantageous in 4D monitoring of the heavy oil production in the Grosmont Formation.

Biography
Merrick Johnston is a MS. candidate in geophysics at Colorado School of Mines. She received her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. At CSM, Merrick's advisor is Prof. Mike Batzle of the Center for Rock Abuse. No stranger to rocks, Merrick is an avid climber. She began ice climging at age 8, rock climbing at age 9, and mountain guiding at age 14. She is the youngest to climb and guide Mt. mcKinley at age 12 and 18. Merrick loves other sports as well: kayaking and skiing. She was a member of the Jr. US Snowboard team for three years, and placed 3rd overall at the Junior World competition in snowboarding. Upon graduation from Mines, Merrick will join Statoil Hydro in Norway as a heavy oil geophysicist.

Ludmila Adam
Geophysics Ph.D. Candidate
March 20, 2008

Carbonate rock properties at laboratory seismic and ultrasonic frequencies and at reservoir conditions

Abstract
Laboratory measurements of rock properties are mostly performed at frequencies higher than exploration surface seismic data. However, the modulus and velocity of samples measured with the stress-strain experimental procedure are at seismic frequencies. In visco-elastic materials, the velocity or modulus increases with frequency, meaning that what we measure at high frequency might not resemble the observations at lower frequencies. In this study we compare measurements on eleven carbonate samples from the Middle East at 10~Hz and 0.8~MHz. We compare how the measurements at these two frequencies probe the sample. We make observations on the dispersion of the different rock properties and its effect when performing fluid substitution with Gassmann's relation. And finally, we will show that for this sample set the discrepancy between low and high frequencies could be reduced if the ratio between dispersive parameters is analyzed.

Biography
Ludmila Adam is from Venezuela and received an undergraduate degree in geophysical engineering from Simon Bolivar University. She then worked for SINCOR to produce the heavy oils from the large reserves in the Orinoco Belt. She came to Colorado and finished a master's degree with the Reservoir Characterization Project on anisotropic parameter estimation from VSP data at Weyburn Field. She joined the Green Center "garden level" in 2004 to squeeze rocks, and her research focuses on carbonates rock properties for reservoir characterization. She enjoys any outdoor activity, especially telemark skiing.

Jesse F. Lawrence
Asst. Professor and Turman Fellow
Department of Geophysics, Stanford University
March 27, 2008

From Gigabyte to Petabyte Seismology While You Sleep

Abstract
In collaboration with Elizabeth Cochran at UC Riverside, Dr. Lawrence is developing a large-scale seismic network of computers for data collection, data processing, earthquake simulation, and possibly even earthquake early warning. Many laptops are now manufactured with
inexpensive accelerometers built in to protect the hard disk in case of a shock. These same accelerometers can be used to detect earthquake vibrations. Dr. Lawrence and Dr. Cochran are developing a distributed computing system to analyze emerging seismic signals and transmit data rapidly from laptops back to a central server. When the server is flooded with detections, we know there is a large earthquake. Digital data transmission is much faster than the damaging earthquake waves, so it is feasible that warnings from a few laptop/sensors close to an
earthquake could provide several seconds warning to individuals and institutions several kilometers away.

The system uses the same underlying architecture (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, or BOINC) as SETI@home, Einstein@home, and others. While an individual's computer would be otherwise unused (either in screensaver or sleep mode), BOINC provides
scientific tasks for the computer to work on. Previous distributed computing experiments in astrophysics and protein folding have benefited from more than 300,000 individuals donating unused CPU time. This demonstrates the untapped potential seismology can gain from applying the same techniques. Processes that were unthinkable a year ago may be possible within the year.

Biography
Dr. Jesse Lawrence is an assistant professor and Turman Fellow in the Department of Geophysics at Stanford University. As an earthquake seismologist Dr. Lawrence primarily uses vibrations from earthquakes to learn more about Earth's deep interior. Jesse's work extends from crust to core on subjects relating to tomography, reflection imaging, mountain building, seismic attenuation, broadband field seismology, computational geophysics, and inverse theory. He received his PhD in Seismology from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at
Washington University in St. Louis and did postdoctoral work at Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Michael F. Hochella, Jr.
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Environmental Geosciences
Virginia Tech
April 3, 2008

Nanominerals, Mineral Nanoparticles, and Earth Systems

Abstract
Minerals are more complex than previously thought because of the discovery that their chemical properties vary as a function of particle size when smaller, in at least one dimension, than a few nanometers, to perhaps as much as several tens of nanometers. These variations are most likely due, at least in part, to differences in surface and near-surface atomic structure, as well as crystal shape and surface topography as a function of size in this smallest of size regimes. It has now been established that these variations may make a difference in important geochemical and biogeochemical reactions and kinetics. This recognition is broadening and enriching our view of how minerals influence the hydrosphere, pedosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.

Biography
Dr. Michael Hochella is University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Geosciences at Virginia Tech, concentrating in the areas of nanoscience and biogeochemistry. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Virginia Tech in 1975 and 1977, respectively, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1981. After two years at the main research labs of Corning, Inc. in Corning, N.Y., he returned to Stanford for nine more years as a research associate and later as a research professor. In 1992, he returned to the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech and has been there ever since. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany in 1998, served as President of the Geochemical Society during 2000 and 2001, received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award and Fellowship in 2001, and was awarded the Dana Medal by the Mineralogical Society of America in 2002. He was named Virginia Scientist of the Year in 2005 by Gov. Mark Warner, and was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2006. He is a Fellow of five other professional societies, including AAAS, the Geochemical Society, the European Association of Geochemistry, the Geological Society of America, and the Mineralogical Society of America. At the National Science Foundation, he served on the Advisory Committee for Geosciences from 2000 through 2002, and is currently serving on the Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee. He has briefed the U.S. Senate and several other federal agencies in Washington, D.C. on nanotechnology and the environment. He was a founding Principal Editor of the science magazine Elements. He has over 130 professional publications to date and has edited two books, and has raised over $12M in research funding. In 2007, he was promoted to University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, the highest faculty rank at the University which is afforded to only 1% of the faculty.

Afolabi Babalola
MSc Candidate, Geophysics
April 10, 2008

Using AVO to delineate areas of high fracture density within the
Cameo coal interval at Rulison Field in Piceance Basin, Colorado

Abstract
AVO has been used in the oil and gas industry as a Direct Hydrocarbon Indicator (DHI) and lithology indicator since 1980 (Rutherford et al, 1980). This concept has been extensively applied to gas-sand reservoirs and this is due to the Poisson’s ratio contrast that exists between a gas-sand reservoir and the surrounding rocks. In contrast, AVO technology has not been widely applied to coalbed methane (CBM) exploration.

The objectives of my research are to use the amplitude variation with offset (AVO) technique to delineate areas of high fracture density within the Cameo coal interval at Rulison Field in Piceance basin, Colorado, using multi-azimuth prestack P-wave data, and also to investigate the influence of AVO on the orientation of seismic lines with respect to the fractures .

Biography
Afolabi Babalola holds a BS degree in geophysics from Nigeria. He came to CSM in 2005 and is a student in the Reservoir Characterization Project. As a master's student, Afolabi has interned with ExxonMobil, Landmark, Chevron, and Schlumberger WesternGeco.

Matthew S. Casey
PhD Candidate, Geophysics
April 10, 2008

Reducing Uncertainty in Reservoir Modeling

Abstract
There have been recent advance in geo-statistics that allow the creation of rapid conditional simulations of channelized reservoirs. This new type of geo-statistics differs from it predecessors by incorporating multiple well points simultaneously instead of two at a time. Kernel principal component analysis is used to honor these higher order statistical images of geology. Uncertainty reduction happens by projecting seismic data into these orthogonal kernel spaces and recovering an expression of the data. This is shown to have much less error than the traditional methods used in geo-statistics while honoring geologic priors, core data, well logs, and seismic data. Examples will be given from Rulison Field, Piceance Basin, CO.

Biography
Matthew Casey grew up in a suburb of Boston, Newton, Massachusetts. He attended Northeastern University in Boston for his BS degree in geology. He then went on to work in environmental and near surface geophysics in the New England area. One of the most memorable experiences, and what spurred Matthew to apply to grad school, was working underground mapping tunnels and monitoring ground vibrations of tunnel boring machine. He then attended Montana Tech of the University of Montana for his MSc in geophysical engineering. During his master's research Matthew was fortunate enough to travel overseas to Australia and work with CSIRO Petroleum in Perth on time-lapse data from physical modeling experiments of deep-water turbidites. Matthew graduated Montana Tech Summa Cum Laude.

Colin Barnett
Principal, BW Mining
Boulder, CO
April 17, 2008

The Data Mining Approach to Target Generation in Mature Districts

Abstract
It is commonly observed that there has been a surge over recent years in the quantity of mineral exploration data available. A similar explosion in the collection of digital data has taken place in bio-informatics, for example, as well as in fields such as particle physics and astronomy. It seems we are now collecting data almost faster than they can be absorbed.

In my view, conventional methods of interpretation in exploration, though remaining important, are no longer sufficient to extract the full information content from this wealth of data, in particular from the multivariate relations between data sets. For that purpose, new methods are required, which collectively can be comprised under the heading of Data Mining. This is an umbrella term covering a range of techniques. Several of these have already been known for some time, including those I believe to be especially applicable to mineral exploration, namely statistical pattern recognition, visualization and machine learning.

In mature districts, a supervised machine-learning approach offers new possibilities for improved target identification. Neural networks are particularly suitable since they can provide quantitative probabilistic target rankings. Care is needed, however, in devising suitable data representations, and in ensuring robust and reliable probability modeling.

Three case studies, from the USA, Australia and Canada, will be presented to illustrate the approach. These studies range from Archaean lode gold and Ordovician porphyry gold to Tertiary volcanic-hosted gold deposits, and from regional to mining camp scales. Each exhibits the sharply defined nature of the neural network targeting process. In the case where results of drilling subsequently became available, the accuracy of the statistical data mining model has been corroborated.

Biography
Colin Barnett received a BA and MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge, an MSc in Geophysics from Imperial College London, and a PhD in Geophysics from Colorado School of Mines. He joined Newmont Mining Corporation as a geophysicist in 1972, and he worked in mineral exploration all around the world before retiring in 2001 as their Director of Exploration Technology.

Detection of channels in seismic images using the steerable pyramid

Abstract
Channels have always been important geologic features in the exploration for
oil and gas. With 3-D seismic data they can often be mapped easily on time or depth
slices. In other situations they can be difficult to detect, due to structural
complexity or other factors. There are a number of image-processing algorithms that can be used to enhance linear features such as channels in 3-D seismic volumes.

One way involves the use of steerable pyramid filters to partition a seismic image in terms of scale and orientation. Features can then be characterized according to dimensionality and direction using the partitioned image. Here, we explain our implementation of the steerable pyramid in 2-D and 3-D, and show how it can be used to enhance image features.
Examples of channel enhancement on synthetic seismic images demonstrate the efficacy of this processing.

Biography
John Mathewson graduated from CSM in 1981 with a BSc in geophysics. Since then he has been working in the geophysical industry, primarily with WesternGeco (and Western Geophysical), in various locations around the world. During his time at WesternGeco, John has worked in land seismic acquisition, land and marine data processing, and has specialized for the past few years in depth imaging. Two years ago John decided to return to CSM, while continuing to work for WesternGeco in their Denver office. His research interests include image processing and seismic imaging and inversion.

Characterization of frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibility in
UXO electromagnetic geophysics

Abstract
The United States Army Corps of Engineers has estimated that there are approximately 10 million acres of land within the United States contaminated by Unexploded Ordnance (UXO). The use of geophysics, in particular electromagnetic induction (EMI) and magnetics, has become a large component of the clean-up effort. Common practice for processing and inverting geophysical data for UXO detection assumes there is no influence from local geology or simply ignore its presence. Recent studies show that soils with viscous remanent magnetization (VRM) render EMI data noisy and may mask the response of buried metallic objects. Soils with VRM will have a delayed response when subjected to an applied magnetic field such as that generated by the transmitter in EMI instruments. The delayed response is a result of a slow rotation of the magnetic domains within ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic materials. VRM in soils is characterized by a frequency-dependent, complex magnetic susceptibility and will exhibit a 1/t decay in EMI data. The 1/t decay is strong enough that it may mask the practically exponential response associated with buried conductive bodies (UXO).

The work presented here was done as a joint collaboration with the University of British Columbia, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and Sky Research, Inc., and funded by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) under project MM-1414. The MM-1414 project looks to understand the geologic origins of magnetic soils and the influence on geophysical data collected for UXO detection. The project also aims to develop methodology for reducing or removing, through data processing, the influence of magnetic soils on geophysical data. To this end, soil samples and geophysical data were collected at the Navy QA Grid 2E on the Island of Kaho’olawe, Hawaii. Multi-frequency susceptibility measurements were made in the field and in laboratory to identify the presence of VRM. The influence of VRM on geophysical data was analyzed using 1-D forward modeling of time-domain electromagnetic data.

This talk will present the multi-frequency susceptibility measurements on soils from Kaho’olawe Island, show the correlation between the susceptibility measurements and geophysical data, and characterize the influence soils with VRM have on time-domain electromagnetic induction data using a 1-D forward model.

Biography
Todd Meglich is a M.S. candidate in the Geophysics Department at the Colorado School of Mines. After finishing his B.S. in Geophysics from CSM, he found employment at a local geophysical consulting firm where he specialized in Unexploded Ordnance projects. He is currently working for Zonge Geosciences in Lakewood, CO while finishing his M.S..

Virtual Real Source

Abstract
Estimation of the seismic source signature is an important problem in reflection seismology, especially in seismic imaging problems. Existing methods of source signature estimation (statistical methods and well-log-based methods) suffer from several drawbacks. Here, I introduce a method of extracting the source signature based on the theory of seismic interferometry, also known as the virtual source method. The only requirement for this method is to have a receiver location lie at the shot position whose source signature we want to estimate (not necessarily a zero-offset receiver). Through modeling examples, I show that the Virtual Real Source method produces accurate source signatures even for complicated subsurface and source signatures. Source signature of each shot can be extracted reliably if they all have similar amplitude spectra even though their phase spectra might be completely different. This method of source signature estimation not only gives accurate traveltimes and amplitudes of reflection events, but also has the potential to solve other issues, such as finding source radiation patterns, measuring intrinsic attenuation, and estimating statics.

Biography
Jyoti has a BSc (2001) in geological sciences and an MSc (2003) in exploration geophysics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. Since then he has been working with the CWP on issues related to seismic wave propagation in attenuative media and seismic interferometry. He research interests also extend to rock physics of unconventional hydrocarbon resources like heavy oils and oil shales. Over the past few years, he has interned with the Advanced Seismic Imaging Team at BP, Occidental Oil and Gas Corp, and Reliance Oil and Gas Corp. Jyoti is a recipient of the SEG scholarship and the ConocoPhillips Spirit scholarship. During his stay at IIT Kharagpur, apart from other awards, he received a silver medal for academic excellence. To release all the stress, Jyoti hits the badminton or tennis court, and on weekends, the ski slopes.