Geostatistical interpretation of sparsely obtained seismic data combining with satellite gravity data

Abstract

We have studied feasibility of the geostatistics approach to enhancing analysis of sparsely obtained seismic data by combining with satellite gravity data. The Yellow Sea, west of Korea, is one such difficult location. The shallow depth and numerous fishing nets interfere with seismic surveys which already involve substantial cost and effort. Therefore, we have attempted to use geostatistics for integrating the seismic data along with gravity data. To evaluate the feasibility of this approach, we have extracted only a few seismic profile data from previous surveys in the Yellow Sea and performed integrated analysis combining with the results from gravity data under the assumption that seismic velocity and density have a high physical correlation. First, we analyzed the correlation between extracted seismic profiles and depths obtained from gravity inversion. Next, we transferred the gravity depth to travel time using non-linear indicator transform and analyzed residual values by kriging with varying local means. Finally, the reconstructed time structure map was compared with the original seismic section given in the previous study. Our geostatistical approach demonstrates a relatively satisfactory result and, especially in the boundary area where seismic lines are sparse, gives us more in-depth information than previously available.