Volume 44 September 1979 Number 9

GEOPHYSICS

Acoustic impedance logs computed from seismic traces

M. Becquey*, M. Lavergne*, and C. Willm*
Acoustic impedance, the product of seismic velocity and density, is a basic physical property of rocks.

Seismic traces are converted into pseudoreflection-coefficient time series by appropriate initial processing.
then into acoustic impedance by the inversion of the time series. Such pseudologs are rough11 equivalent to
logs recorded in wells drilled at every seismic trace location. They yield important information concerning the
nature of the rock and variations in lithology
To obtain the best quality pseudologs, careful initial processing is necessary: true-amplitude recovery.
appropriate deconvolution. common-depth-point (CDP) stack. wave-shaping, wave-equation migration, and
amplitude scaling.
The low frequencies from moveout velocity information are inserted. Both the short-period information
computed from reflection amplitudes and the long-period trend computed from reflection moveout are displayed
on acoustic impedance logs.
Possible causes of pseudolog distortions are inaccuracies of amplitude recovery and scaling, imperfection
of deconvolution and migration. and difficulties of calibrating the pscudolog to an acoustic Iof derived from
well logs. Such calibration increases the precision; facies variations observed in well logs cau bc extrapoled
to large distances from the wells. leadin, (7 to a more accurate estimation of hydrocarbon resel.ves.

and ki is the pressure amplitude reflection coefficient

INTRODUCTION
at the ith interface; the acoustic impedance Z, in the
Acoustic impedance, the product of seismic ve- first layer is assumed to be known.
locity and density, is a basic physical rock property. The low-frequency component, absent on seismic
It can yield important information concerning the traces, is inserted on the acoustic impedance pseudo-
nature of the rock and changes in litholopy. The logs using reflection-moveout velocity information
generanon of acoustic impedance and velocity and a velocity-density relationship to convert veloc-
pseudologs has been published previously (Lavcrpne, ity to acoustic impedance. Appropriate processing
lY75; Lindseth, IY76). A number of examples of methods. such as amplitude corrccticrn and decon-
acoustic impedance pseudologs will be shown using a solution, are described. Acoustic impedance traces
technique close to that described by Lavergne ( 1975). are displayed in variable amplitude 01 in color, and
The seismic traces are first transformed into calibration of pseudologs to acoustic logs derived
pseudoreflection-coefficient time series, then con- from well logs is performed to increa\c the accuracy
verted into acoustic impcdanccs using the recursive of the former.
algorithm It will be shown in several field examples how
acoustic impedance logs are suitable for detecting
q+, zr Zi 1 (1) lateral lithologic variations, and hoI+ they can be
1 -ki
used for detailed investigation of hydrocarbon fields
where Z, is the acoustic impedance in the ith layer, and for exploration of offshore continental margins.

Presented at the 46th Annual International SEG Mcctinp October 26, 1976 in Houston. Manuscript recei\cd by the Editor
May 16, 1977; revised manuscript received Februarv 13. 1979.
:i;institute Franc& du Petrole, B.P. 3 I I, 92506 Ruejl-Malrnaison Cedex, France.
0016.X033/79/0901~1~8.5$03.00. @ 1979 Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.

1485
 (I) (2) ( 3) (4) (5)
SYNTHETIC
ACOUSTIC
IMPEDANC
VELOCITY DENSITY ACOUSTIC SYNTHETIC LOG
IMPEDANCE SEISMOGRAM
(m/s) ( g/cd I m4$jDc me3)
ISO? 20,oo ?500 I,5 2;: q5 , 6000

(71
SEISMIC PULS,E
#++->
 SEISMIC WELL # I
ACOUSTIC IMPEDANCE PSEUDO LOGS h=? ACOUSTIC

0.5 -
24 H 25

SYNTHETIC WELL#l
ACOUSTIC ACOUSTIC
IMPEDANCE IMPEDANCE
LOG LOG

LITHOLOGY

L SHALE

I SAND
- GAS-BEARING SAND

FIG. 2. Gas field no. I-comparison of seismic acoustic inlprdance pseudologswith synthetic acousticimpeda
1488 Becquey et al
FIELD EXAMPLES
Two examples, each from a gas field, and one
example from a continental margin in an offshore
basin are illustrated.
Gas field no. 1
The first example (Figures I to 6) consists of a
3.5km long seismic section from a sand-shale se-
quence containing a gas reservoir. Logs from well
WI were used to calibrate the pseudologs.
Data acquisition.-Seismic records were re-
corded In shallow water, 8 to !2 m in depth, with:
1200 inch3 aigun array at a depth of 4 m, 33 m be-
tween shotpoints, 32 hydrophone-groupstreamer, 50
m between groups, binary gain recorder with a 4-msec
sample interval, and an 8-62 Hz prefilter.
Initial processing.-The initial processing se-
quence was: demultiplexing and editing, true-
amplitude recovery and application of a gain pro-
gram, muting, deconvolution before stack (DBS),
reflection-moveout velocity analysis, 12-62 Hz
filtering, moveout correction and 24-fold common-
depth-point (CDP) stacking, deconvolution after
stack (DAS), wave-equation migration, and ampli-
tude scaling.
BLACK = POSITIVE
FIG. 3. Gas field no. I-24-fold
The initial processing was conducted such that
amplitudes of the processedsection would be, insofar
as possible, proportional to the reflection coefficients
derived from the well logs. All factors affecting
amplitude variations that do not contain subsurface
information, such as source strength variation and
source and detector coupling, were tentatively elim-
inated by trace-amplitude equaliwtion, together with
subsurface dependent factors such as geometrical
divergence, absorption, and focusing effects due to
reflector curvature (ODoherty and Anstey, 1971;
Sheriff, 1973).
Well ! !ogs were used to compute synthetic seis-
mograms and synthetic acoustic impedance logs by
the method describedby Lavergnc and Willm (1977).
These are displayed in Figures 1 and 2 for comparison
with well logs, pseudologs, and lithology.
True-amplitude recovery was applied to remove the
effects of variable gain in field recording. The gain
program was derived from the observation of ampli-
tudes of synthetic seismogram (4) of Figure 1. A
geometrical divergence correction program (New-
man, 1973), consisting of multiplying each trace-
amplitude sample by a factor proportional to TV2
where V is the root-mean-square(rms) velocity and 7
is the two-way reflection time was tried first. This
led to an essentially constantaverage absolute value
-0.5
-1.0
.I.5
SEISMIC SIGNAL
CDP stack.
 Acoustic Impedance
BLACK = POSITIVE
FIG. 4. Gas field no. l-migrated
of the amplitude over 600.msec time intervals, ex-
cept within the zone of the gas reservoir, where it
was 15 percent larger. Experience showed that in
the 0.5-I .7-set interval, the divergence correction
program was practically equivalent to applying an
average amplitude equalization over 600.msec win-
dows. The amplitude obtained by this method was in
agreement with the synthetic seismogram.
Long-offset traces were muted to eliminate re-
flections with incidence angles greater than 26 de-
grees. DBS then was performed by a predictive opera-
tor, 96 msec in length. One operator was computed
for each trace from the autocorrelation of the 1240
to 1700 msec trace sector. The main purpose of DBS
was to remove the very intense water layer reverbe-
rations present on initial records. A 12-62 Hz
prefilter also was used to eliminate a very strong
low-frequency wave with a predominant frequency
of 8 Hz, propagating horizontally at 800 misec.
Reflection-moveout velocity analysis was per-
formed~aboutevery 20 shotpointsto determine move-
out corrections and velocity-time curves. The curves
obtained are practically the same on both ends of the
section. The velocity increases linearly from 1480
m/set at the surface to 2300 m/set at 1400 msec and
remains practically constant thereafter.
Trace-amplitude equalization was performed be-
Logs 1499
.0.5
.I .o
4 .5
SEISMIC SIGNAL
section.
fore stack, adjusting the average amplitude over an
interval of O-1800 msec such that the average am-
plitudes of the traces were comparable, thus com-
pensating for amplitude variations due to offset and
instrument gain variations.
DAS was performed to obtain an appropriatewave-
let shape. Our experience shows that the best shape
is a zero-phase wavelet, which introduces minimum
distortion of acoustic impedance. DAS performed
with a 140.msec operator obtainccl by a least-
squares method gave a wavelet 64 msec in length
with a 24-msec period, a positive central lobe, and
two negative side lobes whose peak amplitudes did
not exceed 0.4 times that of the central lobe.
The CDP section then was migrated by the finite-
difference wave-equation method which eliminated
part of a diffraction hyperbola causctl by faulting.
Amplitudes of the migrated seclion finally were
scaled such that the sum of sampled values of the
central lobe of each reflection was made equal to the
reflection coefficient derived from the acoustic im-
pedance log (log 3 in Figure I).
The CDP section after DAS is shown in Figure 3,
and the corresponding migrated section is shown in
Figure 4. The high-amplitude event due to gas is
clearly visible in the center of the section, its lateral
extent is about 3 km, and its two-way time is I.25
1490 Becquey et al
Acoustic Impedance Logs 1491
1492 Becquey et al
set (3600 ft). Black bands(peaks) correspondroughly
to positive reflection coefficients, and white (troughs)
correspond to negative reflection coefficients. The
negative reflection coefficient at the top of the gas
sand gives a large negative central lobe (white) pre-
ceded and followed by smaller positive lobes (black).
The front black lobe is clearly visible; the back lobe
interferes with later reflections, probably with the
gas sand bottom reflection or with reflections from
interbedded shale layers.
Acoustic impedance computation.-Acoustic
impedance was computed from the pseudoreflection-
coefficient time series (Figure 4) from equation (I),
using an initial impedance value of 3600 at 0.45 set
(velocity 1800 misec, density 2.0 g/cm3). Before
computing the acoustic impedance, the traces of Fig-
ure 4 were resampled from 4 to I msec, for direct
comparison with well logs converted to a time scale
with amplitudes at I-msec intervals. The seismic
pseudologs obtained are displayed in Figure 2 in
variable amplitude and in Figure 5 in color. Figure 2
shows the amount of distortion in the seismic pseudo-
logs. which is due to the following:
2.5
BLACK = NEGATIVE
FIG. 7. Gas field no. 2--4%fold
1) The high and low frequencies are missing due to
the limited frequency spectrumof the seismic data;
in particular, the low-frequency acoustic im-
pedance trend is absent.
2) The basic wavelet is not a spike, but a wavelet
with negative side lobes. This introduces artifacts
such as positive lobes prior to large decreasesand
negative lobes prior to large increasesof acoustic
impedance; the positive lobe at I .2 set just above
the gas sand is probably such an artifact.
3) lnterbed multiples have not been attenuated. This
can cause distortions, such as the small changesin
wavelet character observed within the reservoir
between I .2 and I .3 sec.
In Figure 2, 48 acousticimpedance pseudologsare
shown which were computed from 38 migrated traces
close to well 1, without inserting the low-frequency
trend: thus only relative variations of acoustic im-
pedance are represented. The correlation between the
well I acousticimpedance log (log 3 in Figure I) and
the seismic pseudologsis fair, and helps to correlate
the seismic section to the lithology The acoustic im-
pedance variations are directly lclated to the lithol-
ogy and hydrocarboncontent, as indicated by the two
-1.5
-2.0
-2.5
SEISMIC SIGNAL
CDP stack.
 Acoustic Impedance
w w2
1.5,
2.5,
3.0,
BLACK = NEGATIVE
FIG. 8. Gas field no. L-migrated
impedance minima opposite the gas bearing sands
(Figure 2). We notice on the right side of Figure 2,
close to trace 33, that the gas sand event character
changes;the top of the gas sand seems to be shifted
38 msec downward by a fault.
Figure 5 shows the acoustic impedance section
computed from the migrated section of Figure 4 using
equation (I). Low frequencies were not included;
thus, only the relative variation of acoustic im-
pedance is representedin color. White representsthe
average, green the lowest, and purple the highest
impedance. The low-impedance gas sand is repre-
sented by the dark green zone in the middle of the
section between 1.24 and I .27 set; it is underlain
by a high-impedance layer (red) between 1.27 and
I .30 sec. The faulting is clearly shown, especially
by the low-impedance shale layers (light green)
located between .90 and 1.25 sec. The fault throw
decreasesupward, and the 40-msec throw in the gas
sand reduces gradually to zero in the overburden.
Low-frequency information was inserted using
reflection-moveout velocity analysesand an approxi-
mate velocity-density relation to convert velocities to
impedances (Lavergne, 1975). The spectrum ob-
tained from these velocity analyses is estimated to
Logs
-1.5
-2.0
-2:5
-3.0
SEISMIC SIGNAL
section
extend from 0 to 8 Hz. It is impossibleto obtain infor-
mation at frequencies higher than 8 Hz, because
interval velocities based on reflection moveout be-
come very inaccurate for intervals smaller than
approximately I25 msec. On the other hand, there is
no information at frequencies lower than I2 Hz on
seismic traces, due to the low-cur lilter. There is,
therefore, a gap between the low-frcclucncy(O-8 Hz)
and the high-frequency (12-64 HY I portions of the
spectrum, leading to some distortioll of the acoustic
impedance pseudologs. The amount of distortion ob-
tained can be estimated in Figure I by comparing
the synthetic acousticimpedancelog (6) with the well
acousticimpedancelog (3). For example, the acoustic
impedance trend between I, I5 and I .35 set is not
exactly duplicated on the two logs. Higher-frequency
seismic data, providing more detailed reflection-
moveout velocity analyses, would have given better
results.
The velocity-density relation used to convert the
velocity to acoustic impedance is given by Gardner
et al ( 1974), which is approximately correct for brine-
saturated sedimentary rocks, over a wide range of
basins, geologic ages, and depths. If velocity V is
expressed in ftisec and density D iu g/cm, this re-
1494 Becquey et al
lationship is
D = 0.23 V.25.
If velocity is expressed in misec, equation (3) be-
comes
D = 0.3 1 V.25, (4)
and the relationship between velocity and acoustic
impedance is given by
z = 0 31 Vl.2 (5)
where V is velocity in misec and Z is acoustic
impedance in (m/set) (g/cm3). This enables velocity
to be computed from acoustic impedance, and vice
versa, in most sedimentary rocks, except for salt,
anhydrite, and hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Fi_pure6 shows the acoustic impedance section
with low-frequency trends included. The acoustic
impedance values are represented by a color scale.
The impedance increasesfrom 3500 to 5.500(miscc)
(g/cmJ) as indicated by the color which changes
downward, generally from light blue to green, yellow.
red, purple. violet. and dark blue. The low impedance
due to the gas sand is represented by the green-
yellow zone in the middle of the section between 1.24
and I .27 set: the gas sand impedance is about 3X00-
4000, and that of the overlying and underlying layers
is. respectively. 4600 and 5000 (misec) (g/cm).
Well i encountet-edgas in ihis i~~W-i~llpd2lKCc mm
(Figures 5 and 6). Well logs indicated an average
impedance of 3800 in the gas sand, 4600 in the over-
lying. and 5200 (miaec) (g/cm) in the underlying
layer.
This first example indicates that acoustic im-
pedancepscudologsare sufficiently accurateto define
the position and to detect thickness and structural
variations of the gas sand.
Correlation of seismic pseudologsto well logs pro-
vides accurate detection of lateral facies variations
along the seismic section. The vertical resolution of
the method, however, is limited by the resolution of
the seismic data. Our experience shows that for a
basic wavelet with a 24msec dominant period, it is
possible to measure the thickness and acoustic im-
pedance of beds for which the two-way time is no
less than 15 msec.
Gas field no. 2
The second example (Figures 7 to I 1) consistsof a
7-km long portion of a 25.km long section containing
gas reservoir reflections. Well W2 was used to cali-
brate the seismic pseudologs.
Data acquisition.-Seismic data were recorded in
water, 120 m in depth, with: 250 g of explosive at a
depth of 12 m, 2.5 m between shotpoints, 38 hydro-
phone-group streamer at a depth of 13 m, 50 m be-
tween groups. I.F.P. (instantaneousfloating point)
recorder with a 4-msec sample interval, and a 2-62
Hz prefilter.
Initial processing.-The initial processing se-
quence was similar to that of example no. I, i.e.,
demultiplexing and editing, true-amplitude recovery
and application of a gain progranl. muting, decon-
volution before stack (DBS). reflection-moveout
velocity analysis, moveout correction and 48.fold
CDP stacking, deconvolution after stack (DAS),
wave-equation migration, 8-62 HI filtering, and
amplitude scaling.
True-amplitude recovery and the application of a
gain program were similar to thee for the gas field
in example no. I. Initial decon\olution was per-
formed to eliminate the source bubble effect.
Reflection-moveout velocity analysis was per-
formed every 12 shotpoints.Eleven velocity functions
irregularly spaced along the profile were applied for
moveout correctionswith linear interpolationbetween
functions. DAS was performed with a 240-msec
predictive operator obtained from the autocorrelation
of a 2400-msec time interval centcrcd on 1300 msec
r&e&on time The p~dseshape,ohtainedaf~e~ DBS
is very close to a zero-phase wavelet with a large
positive central lobe and two negative side lobes
whose peak amplitudesare 0.4 time\ that of the central
lobe; the total length is 80 msec and the dominant
period is 36 msec.
Finite-difference wave-equation migration shifted
inclined reflections updip to their- proper position,
and restituted the amplitude of convex reflections,
especially on the anticline between 2.6 and 2.9 set
(compare Figures 7 and 8). An X -62 Hz filter was
applied to eliminate low-frequency noise. Amplitudes
of the migrated section finally were scaled to those
of a synthetic seismogram derived from the acoustic
impedance log of well W2.
The CDP section after DAS is shown in Figure 7
and the migrated section is shown in Figure 8. Black
bands(peaks) correspondto negative reflection coeffi-
cients. and white (troughs) to positive reflection
coefficients; this is emphasized on the two-color
representation in Figure 9, where red corresponds
to negative and green to positive reflection coeffi-
cients. In agreement with well W2 logs, the inclined
red reflection appearingat 2.05-2. IO set is related to
the top of gas-bearing sandstones,and the horizontal
Acoustic Impedance Logs

4
8
E
c
.Z
3
 -

Becquey at al
Acoustic impedance Logs 1497
1498 Becquey et al
 Acoustic Impedance Logs 1499

green reflection at 2.11 msec to the gas-water contact. gressively to a clean sandstone with higher \elocit\
It is clear here that the zero-phase wavelet provides and higher density toward the right side of the anti-
an accurate determination of the gas-sandstone cline. It should be noted that the progres\l\c increase
boundaries. of acoustic impedance from left to right \sithin the
reservoir produces a sign inversion of the reflectIon
coefficient at the top of the gas-bearing sandstone:
Acoustic impedance computation.-Acoustic thi\ in\crsion is iisible immediately to the right ot
impedance was computed from the pseudoreflection- well W2 in Figure 9. The lateral facies LarIation i\
coefficient time series using equation (I). with an iisualired in Figure I I where the IitholoFic interprc-
initial impedance value of 5000 (misec) (g/cm:) at tation has been superposed on the color-coded
I .S sec. acoustic impedance. A rig-~12 line has been drlrv,n

The I-msec sample interval was maintained. Lou- tentatively separating a low-acoustic impedance
frequency information below 8 Hz was reinserted LOW. assumed to bc argillaceous sandstone on the
using reflection-moveout velocity analyses and left, from a high-acoustic impedance zone (with reel
Gardners velocity-density relation. Eleven low- color in the gas-bearing sandstone and pinh color in
frequency acoustic impedance time curves irregularly the water-bearing sandstone). assumtxl to be clean

spaced alonf the profile were applied with lineal iandstone on the right. These tno facie\ were known
interpolation between them. in wjell W2. but their rcrpective distribution awa!
Figure IO shows the acoustic impedance section from the well was not known. This type of sci\mic
in color and the migrated section in black. The interpretation, although tentative and inaccurate.
acoustic impedance values are represented by a color 2CGves very useful information for c\timatinp possible
scale: the impedance increases from 4000 to I 1,500. recoverable reserves.
as indicated by the color which changes downward This example shows that acoustic impedance
from blue to green, yellow, red. pink. and violet. The pseudologs are suitable for determination of lateral
low impedance due to the gas-sandstone is visible at facics variations within hydrocarbon reservoirs. The
about 2.10 set, main11 to the left of well W2. The vertical resolution. however. is limited b! the rc-
thickness of the gas-sandstone is shown to decrease solution of the seismic data. For a basic wavelet with
from right to left, from 70 msec to about 15 msec. a 36-msec dominant period, it is impossible to mea-
The presentation on the same display of the m- sure the thickness and acoustic impedance of beds for
pratcd section in black and the acoustic impedance in which the two-way time is less than 24 mscc or so. It
color permits determination of the reservoir bound- is likely, therefore. that neither the IS-msec two-waq
aries. In Figure 10 black peaks of the migrated section time nor the green-yellow zone limit on the left of the
represent roughly positive reflection coefficients. The low-impedance zone represents the true thickness and
flat event at 2. I I msec indicating the gas-water con- the actual edge of the gas-bearing zone. Hisher-
tact is shown clearly. It separates the low-impedance resolution seismic records would give better delimita-
zone (yellow-green) due to gas-bearing sandstone tion of reservoir extent.
from the high-impedance zone (purple) due to water-
bearing sandstone. When black peaks represent
Offshore continental margins
negative reflection coefficients, as in Figure 8. the The third example consists of two seismic lines,
top of the gas-bearing zone is shown, separating the J 2 I I and J 212 (Figure 12) recorded IO miles east of
gas reservoir from the overlying layer. Minorca, in the wcstcrn Mediterranean basin. near
The acoustic impedance value is 4800-6000 site 372 of the Glomur Challrr~ger drilling campaign
(misec) (g/cm3) in the gas-bearing sandstone on (Scientific Party, 1975). J 21 I is a 14km long east-
the left side of the section, 6800 in the overlying west section. and J 2 I2 is a I3-km long north-south
layer. and 8000 (misec) (g/cm3) in the water-bearing section.
sandstone. Figure 10 shows that impedance of the
gas-bearing sandstone increases from 5800 on the left Data acquisition.-Seismic records were obtained
to 7200 (misec) (g/cm3) on the right side of the in deep water, 2500 m in depth, with: one 123-20
section, as indicated by the progressive color change Flexichoc unit at a depth of I6 111. SO m between
from green to yellow and red. This variation is prob- shotpoints, 24 hydrophone-group streamer, at a depth
ably due to a lateral facies variation within the reser- of 20 m. 100 m between proups. binary gain re-
voir. The sandstone is argillaceous with low velocity corder with a 3-mscc sample interval, and a 12.5-80
and low density on the left side and changes pro- Hz pretilter.
1500 Becque y et al

Initial processing.-The initial processing se- differentiate light green and dark green zones, with
quence was: demultiplexing and editing. true- velocities of about 1800-2200 m/set. yellow Lanes
amplitude recovery and application ofa gain program, with velocities of 3200-3800 misec, red zones with
muting, reflection-moveout velocity analysis, move- velocity of 4500 misec, and blue zones with velocities
out correction and 24-fold CDP stacking, deconvolu- higher than 5500 misec.
tion after stack (DAS), wave-equation migration, DSDP site 372 was drilled a few miles southof line
12-80 Hz filtering, and amplitude scaling. J 2 I I. The borehole penetrated 884 m of sediments,
The initial processingsequence was similar to that down to Lower-Burdigalian mudstones and sand-
of examples I and 2, except that no DBS was per- stones. A core analysis was made, yielding velocity
formed due to the absence of water-layer reverbera- variations with depth very similar to the seismic
tion; the gain program also was different. The gain velocities; however, velocities measuredon cores are
program applied consistedof multiplying each trace- systematically IS to I8 percent less than seismic
amplitude sample by a factor T1.aaT~~o),where (Y is velocities. This is perhapsdue to decompaction when
the absorptioncoefficient taken equal to 0.23 Npisec core samples are brought to the surface. Using the
(2 dB/sec), T is the two-way reflection time and core velocity analysis, an attempt was made to
To is the two-way water-bottom reflection time The identify lithology. The light green and dark green
program was designed to compensate both for geo- zones probably correspond to Plio-Pleistocene and
metrical divergence and absorption. Upper-Miocene marl formations, the green-yellow
Continuous reflection-moveout velocity analysis zones to Lower Miocene mudstones;the orange zone
was performed along both sections, and I7 and I3 in the central trough of J 2 I2 could be related to
velocity-time curves irregularly spaced were ap- Oligocene sandstones, the yellow pillows on J 2 I I
plied, respectively, on lines J 21 I and J 212 for to anhydrites, and the high-velocity blue and red
moveout corrections, with linear interpolation be- layers on the right side of J 21 I to salt.
tween them. It is interesting to notice the velocity variations in
DAS was performed with a 200-msec operator ob- the Plio-Pleistocene and Miocene formations; they
tained by a least-squaresmethod from the recorded could correspond to lithologic facies variations and/
Flexichoc wavelet (Lavcrgne, 1975; Cholet et al, or compaction. The color display is well adapted to
1975). Finite-difference wave-equation migration facies representation: variable-amplitude displays
was applied using known velocity information. The are better adapted to bed delimitations.
migration moved the dipping reflections to their Correlation of seismic sections to the lithology is
proper positionsand eliminated most of the diffraction difficult here becauseno well logs are available, but,
hyperbolas associatedwith the basement. even in this case, velocity pseudologscan help in the
In the absence of well logs for calibration, ampli- detection of facies variations.
tudes of the migrated sections were scaled such that
the sum of the sampled amplitudes of the water-
bottom reflection central lobe was made equal to the CONCLUSIONS
water-bottom reflection coefficient. This was esti- These examples show that seismic pseudologs
mated close to 0.3 from the amplitude ratio of bottomrepresenting acotistic impedance or velocity can give
reflection and water reverberation before stacking. useful lithologic information. The pseudologscan be
used for detailed investipations of oil and gas fields
by indicating the reservoir structure and the limits of
Velocity computation.-Velocity was computed hydrocarbon zones. Correlation with well logs im-
from the migrated traces using equation (1) and as- proves the accuracy and helps identify facies and
suming a constantdensity. The initial 4-msec sample facies changes at large distances from the wells.
interval was maintained. The low-frequency trends Pseudologs also provide an efficient geologic tool
were inserted using the reflection velocity analyses. for deep-water offshore exploration.
Figure I2 shows migrated sectionsin black and the When the low-frequency information is inserted,
velocity in color. The velocity scale increases from the pseudolog is more complete than that obtained
1000 to 6000 misec, correspondingto color changes only from the migrated section, for it contains
from light green to green, yellow, red, and blue. On acoustic impedance variations in both the seismic
the section the velocity increases downward from frequency band and the low-frequency band. Even
1500 m/set in the water to 6000 m/set in the base- when the low-frequency trends are not inserted,
ment. In the sedimentary zone, it is possible to acoustic impedance pseudologs are more directly
 Acoustic
correlated to lithologic variations than are corre-
sponding conventional seismic traces. They contain
the same information as the seismic traces, displayed
in a manner more directly correlatable to geologic
layers.
The accuracy of the acousticimpedance pseudolog
depends on the accuracy of amplitude scaling, qua-
lity of wave shaping, and the amount of low- and
high-frequency information. The proper form of the
seismic wavelet is essential. Wavelet shapingdepends
on the nature of the initial seismic sourcepulse; if it is
short, reproduceson each recording, and is recorded
on an auxiliary channel, the effectiveness of wavelet
shaping is greatly enhanced.
Future enhancements are directly related to im-
provements in field data acquisition. These should
include higher-resolution sources, smaller hydro-
phone-group intervals, and wide-band recording.
Data acquisition and processing should provide 3-D
migration of reflections, accounting for lateral dips
and nonvertical raypaths. In the future, we believe
that it will be possible to obtain acoustic impedance
logs from seismic traces in structurally complex
areas, by the iterative use of seismic sections and
models. In reservoir evaluation, this migration
should improve the accuracy of detailed maps dis-
playing lithologic and petrophysical variations be-
tween wells.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Our thanks are due E. Maffiolo and B. H&not
Impedance Logs 1501
of I. F. P., who have been involved in all stages of
the data processing.
We are indebted to SociCteNationale Elf-Aquitaine
(Production) who provided some of the seismic data
and gave permission to publish these. We are par-
ticularly indebted to J. Lacaze of SNEA(P), who took
an active part in the interpretation of the acoustic
impedance sections.
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