Trust but Verify: Overcoming Common Challenges in Seismic Data Management
Seismic data plays a key role for many professionals, whether it’s loading to workstations, managing repositories, interpreting datasets or preparing data for licensing. However, a common misconception is that the data we receive is clean and ready to use. After 50+ years of experience, we’ve learned to avoid “blind faith” and adopt a “trust but verify” approach instead.
Just because seismic data loads into a workstation doesn’t mean it’s accurate. Even new data can have issues like duplicate traces or spikes. Workstations create grids with one trace per line and crossline, so they may load only the first or last duplicate trace. Spikes are often clipped, but quieter intervals can still be affected. When data is loaded into Numpy arrays or cloud formats for analysis, they expect a clean 3D grid with one trace per cell, so any errors can disrupt the process.
EBCDIC headers and load sheets, often created manually, are prone to errors in projection systems, byte locations for lines/traces, SP/CDP, XYs, and other metadata. Verification is key.
If your wells tie reliably in the southwest but not in the northeast, there could be a simple reason. We’ve seen transposition errors in XY values, represented by fractional differences in spacing, cause offsets up to 1220 meters (4,000 feet). This explains why well control might not match seismic data, but the issue is easy to resolve once spotted.
These are just a few issues we’ll cover in future posts, with help from SeisShow for troubleshooting and AnalyzeSE for scanning thousands of SEG-Y files, with results in JSON metafiles for easy data management.
What challenges have you faced with seismic data (whether resolved or not)?
Share your experiences here to help guide the order of our future posts. You can also contact us here: resolvegeo.com/contact and share the post with others. Your insights are valuable, and we’re always surprised by new challenges.
About Don Robinson
Don Robinson has dedicated over 50 years to software development and seismic analysis. He founded Oklahoma Seismic Corporation in 1980 and co-developed the MIRA interpretation system, later acquired by Landmark Graphics in 1993. He then started Resolve GeoSciences in 1997, where he now leads the development of SeisShow and AnalyzeSE, software for analyzing and correcting SEG-Y seismic data.
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