Seismic Soundoff

Chester Weiss discusses the latest research from The Leading Edge to successfully use geophysical tools at well sites. Chester shares the impact of well infrastructure on geophysical assessment, how to use EM successfully, the challenges of using near-surface, and the applicability of this research in other cluttered environments. Along with our conversation in episode 141 on the life cycle of a well (https://seg.org/podcast/Post/13689), this episode will help provide the full geophysical picture of working at a well. Chester Weiss is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to read the full show notes and find the full archive for Seismic Soundoff. RELATED LINKS * Chester J. Weiss, Michael J. Wilt, and Tom Daley, (2022), "Introduction to this special section: Life of the well," The Leading Edge 41: 82–82. (https://library.seg.org/doi/10.1190/tle41020082.1) * Read the special section: Life of the well (https://library.seg.org/toc/leedff/4

Aria Abubakar, the SEG-AAPG IMAGE 2022 Technical Program Chair, discusses what to expect for the Technical Program at IMAGE 2022. Aria highlights the changes for 2022, breaks down the themes and tracks for the program, answers common questions, and shares why you should submit your abstract before the deadline (17 March 2022). He also discusses the benefits of attending the fully in-person meeting in Houston, Texas. Visit https://seg.org/podcast/Post/14733 to read the full show notes and find the complete archive for Seismic Soundoff. ABOUT IMAGE 2022 International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy 2022 is the integrated annual conference and exhibition of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and in conjunction with the Society for Sedimentary Geology. IMAGE '22 takes place from 28 August to 2 September 2022 in Houston, Texas. RELATED LINKS * Submit your abstract for IMAGE 2022 by 17 March 2022 (https://imageevent.org/2022/Program/Technical-Pr

Pico de Orizaba is the highest volcano in Mexico and preserves a glacier at the top. The volcano is an old structure and has experienced several cone collapses and subsequent rebuilds in its eruptive history of fewer than 600,000 years. Thinking about the potential threat to villages located along the major river drainages, Drs. Katrin Sieron and Blake Weissling submitted a Geoscientists without Borders (GWB) proposal (https://seg.org/About-SEG/Geoscientists-Without-Borders/Projects/detail/veracruz-and-puebla-states-mexico-2) to monitor precipitation at altitudes over 4000 meters above sea level and to better characterize the lahar forming zone at the proglacial ramp. They also wanted to work on lahar (mud or debris flows) detection and monitoring and create a lahar-warning system for local habitants. More than 15 students were involved during the project execution, several of whom worked on virtually supported thesis proposals (geomorphology, hydrology, glacier modeling, lahar modeling, vulnerability studi

Don Lawton of Carbon Management Canada and Mark Tinker of Quantum Technology Sciences discuss the latest technological advances for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). In this cutting-edge conversation on the state of technology for CCUS, Don and Mark highlight the need to accelerate the development and implementation of CCUS technologies, illustrate what better carbon storage monitoring technologies would mean for the climate, and outline how to overcome the challenges to scale CCUS. Mark also discusses real-field applications of the latest technology and the unique opportunities Carbon Management Canada offers to develop new tools to address a net-zero emission future. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to read the full show notes and find the complete archive for Seismic Soundoff. BIOGRAPHIES Dr. Don Lawton is a Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary. In 2013, he was appointed Director of CMC’s Containment and Monitoring Institute to lead research i

Sue Carr and Patrick Meroney discuss the life of the well from the February 2022 special section in The Leading Edge. Sue and Patrick discuss the importance of a shared definition of a well, spotlight the most important well component for geophysicists, highlight the five life cycles of a well, and break down why well logs are the key piece for successful drilling. This conversation will help geophysicists better connect their work across the entire production chain and support their work in being more useful and practical to others. Sue Carr is Solutions Manager, Subsurface Consulting at Katalyst Data Management. Patrick Meroney is Vice President, US Operations and Professional Services at Katalyst Data Management. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to read the full show notes and find the full archive for Seismic Soundoff. RELATED LINKS * Chester J. Weiss, Michael J. Wilt, and Tom Daley, (2022), "Introduction to this special section: Life of the well," The Leading Edge 41: 82–82. (https://library.seg.org/doi

Amine Ourabah discusses carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) from the January 2022 special section on seismic acquisition in The Leading Edge. Amine explains why CCUS is at the center of the net-zero-emission conversation, the need for cheaper and easier-to-use technology, and the unique innovations explored in his field trial. This conversation lays out the seismic and technological needs and innovations to move carbon capture and renewable energies forward. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to read the full show notes and find the full archive for Seismic Soundoff. RELATED LINKS * Keith Millis, Guillaume Richard, and Chengbo Li, (2022), "Introduction to this special section: Seismic acquisition," The Leading Edge 41: 8–8. (https://doi.org/10.1190/tle41010008.1) * Amine Ourabah and Allan Chatenay, (2022), "Unlocking ultra-high-density seismic for CCUS applications by combining nimble nodes and agile source technologies," The Leading Edge 41: 27–33. (https://doi.org/10.1190/tle41010027.1) * Read the

Laura Bandura discusses her 2022 Distinguished Lecture, "Quantifying the Business Impact of Seismic Technology to Deepwater Exploration." In a low oil price environment, it is more important than ever to prioritize technology projects to ensure the greatest return on investment. There is much pressure to accelerate the time-to-impact of corporate research and technology programs. In many cases, the geoscientists who are developing these breakthrough technologies are expected to demonstrate the value of these initiatives, which requires both a high degree of subject matter expertise and business fluency. In this practical conversation, Laura and host Andrew Geary showcase how to communicate technological value and your expertise to decision-makers. Laura shares how to tie your work to financial metrics, the power of simplicity and brevity, and how geoscientists can better understand decision-makers. This episode provides a useful practicum to maximize the scientist's knowledge and expertise to make a differe

Danilo Jotta Ariza Ferreira discusses modern geostatistic methodologies from the December 2021 special section on Latin America in The Leading Edge. Danilo shares how to avoid two common pitfalls in geostatistical modeling, why models are always wrong (but you should still use them), and highlights a few innovations in seismic-based geophysical solutions. This conversation will help geophysicists working in Latin America, those using modern modeling techniques, and those looking to connect modern research to their work, no matter the location. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to read the full show notes and find the full archive for Seismic Soundoff. RELATED LINKS * Antonio J. Velásquez, Wagner Moreira Lupinacci, and Carlos Eduardo Molinares, (2021), "Introduction to this special section: Latin America," The Leading Edge 40: 874–874. (https://doi.org/10.1190/tle40120874.1) * Danilo Jotta Ariza Ferreira, Gabriella Martins Baptista de Oliveira, Thais Mallet Castro, Raquel Macedo Dias, and Wagner Moreira Lupinac

Klaus Holliger discusses his 2022 Honorary Lecture, "Using Near-Surface Geophysics to Estimate Soil and Rock Physical Properties." The shallow subsurface contains our drinking water and produces our food, and it is also where we ultimately discharge much of our waste. Recent history has taught us that overuse, let alone abuse, of our environment, may lead to the long-term detriment to our livelihood. The protection and sustainable use of this fragile surficial environment has therefore become a societal and political issue of critical importance. Near-surface geophysics has an essential role to play in this endeavor. Klaus and host Andrew Geary explore near-surface geophysics using Klaus's Honorary Lecture as a starting point. They discuss the advantages of geostatistical techniques and two approaches to relating easy-to-measure geophysical data to more elusive rock and soil physical properties. This episode showcases the value of near-surface geophysics to the public and highlights cutting-edge techniques

Joe Dellinger discusses his 2022 Distinguished Instructor Short Course, "Forensic data processing." Are you a geophysicist that processes seismic data, or someone who uses the processed results of that data? If so, you probably think of seismic data as something that arrives on a tape or "from the cloud." However, your data also has other, hidden stories to tell - stories that likely were shredded and lost when you chopped the data into traces and fed it into your algorithms for processing. We typically call anything our algorithms are not designed to deal with "noise." Can we make use of such "noise," or at least better understand it? If we understood it, could we do something useful with it (or at least have a better idea of how to suppress it)? The goal of Joe's course - and this conversation - is to get you thinking more critically about your data. How was it recorded? What is in it? What happened to it on the way from the field to numbers in a file? Joe brings his experience, expertise, wisdom, and h

Miguel Bosch discusses his Honorary Lecture, "The new paradigms in seismic inversion." Miguel explains how elastic Full Waveform Inversion and the Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach improve seismic inversion, discusses if data analysis and machine learning are essential to practice inversion, and highlights new tools that will improve the accuracy of inversion. This conversation provides great value and insight into the essential work of inversion. RELATED LINKS * Watch Miguel's course: The New Paradigms in Seismic Inversion (https://www.knowledgette.com/p/the-new-paradigms-in-seismic-inversion) * Discover SEG on Demand (https://seg.org/Education/SEG-on-Demand) * The SEG podcast archive (https://seg.org/podcast) BIOGRAPHY Miguel Bosch’s expertise is in the field of geophysical inversion with a focus on advanced seismic inversion methods and data integration in complex reservoir models. He has worked on inference problems at different earth scales. In the topic of oil and gas reservoir description, he develo

Thomas Finkbeiner discusses geomechanics from the November 2021 special section in The Leading Edge. In this episode, Thomas highlights the link between geophysics and geomechanics in developing renewable and unconventional resources, explores case studies presented in the special section, shares the current state of research on induced seismicity during CO2 injection, and illustrates how geomechanics impacts the entire life cycle of a reservoir. No matter your subject matter expertise, this conversation impacts all topics regarding the oil and gas industry. Thomas Finkbeiner is a Global Geomechanics Advisor at Baker Hughes RDS. He holds a Ph.D. in geophysics and seismology from Stanford University. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to read the full show notes and all the past episodes of Seismic Soundoff. RELATED LINKS * Thomas Finkbeiner and Arpita P. Bathija, (2021), "Introduction to this special section: Geomechanics," The Leading Edge 40: 792–792. (https://doi.org/10.1190/tle40110792.1) * Ahmad Ramdani,

SEG President Anna Shaughnessy discusses the major challenges and decisions facing the SEG and the geosciences in the years ahead. In this episode, Anna discusses the recently formed Strategic Options Task Force addressing possible collaboration with other societies. She also highlights the new JEDI Committee (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee), offers words of wisdom to young geoscientists, and showcases the Geophysical Sustainability Atlas and the upcoming Geoscience Sustainability Atlas. Anna also shares what it means to represent SEG in this role and offers what she thinks is the most important question facing SEG. This conversation offers an important look into the meaningful events impacting the SEG and the greater industry. RELATED LINKS * Contact the Strategic Options Task Force at sotaskforce@seg.org * Read Anna Shaughnessy's article in The Leading Edge (https://library.seg.org/doi/10.1190/tle40110790.1) * Listen to the episode on the Geophysical Sustainability Atlas (https://seg

Mark Zoback discusses his Honorary Lecture, "Geomechanical Issues Affecting Long-Term Storage of CO2." In this episode, Mark highlights how oil and gas companies are best positioned to address the needs for large-scale carbon storage. He discusses the role of depleted oil and gas reservoirs for CO2 storage, as well as the geomechanical issues that have to be considered. Mark also shares what is most essential to unlocking long-term CO2 storage and how government officials and companies can work together. This is a timely conversation that addresses real-world needs with the geophysical knowledge to solve problems. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to find the link to listen to Mark's lecture. BIOGRAPHY Mark D. Zoback is the Benjamin M. Page Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University, Director of the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative, and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity, and the Stanford Center for Carbon Storage. Zoback conducts research on in situ stress, fault mechan

Vemund Thorkildsen discusses his paper, "Revisiting holistic migration," published in October's The Leading Edge. In this episode, Vemund discusses questioning the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, mining gaps in past research, and examining the applicability of holistic migration to seismic field data. He also shares how he connected with Enders Robinson to serve as co-author on the paper. Vemund Thorkildsen is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Oslo studying passive and active electromagnetics in the Barents Sea. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to find the link to Vemund's article, as well as the rest of the special section on quantitative interpretation in October's The Leading Edge. RELATED LINKS * Vemund S. Thorkildsen, Leiv-J. Gelius, and Enders A. Robinson, (2021), "Revisiting holistic migration," The Leading Edge 40: 768–777. (https://doi.org/10.1190/tle40100768.1) * Read the special section: Quantitative interpretation (https://library.seg.org/toc/leedff/40/10) SPONSOR This episode is brought

Michael Burianyk discusses his new book, Understanding Amplitudes: Basic seismic analysis for rock properties. In the book, methods and techniques used to estimate rock properties from seismic data, based on an understanding of the elastic properties of materials and rocks and how seismic reflection amplitudes change, are described. Using AVO and other techniques, we can characterize rocks and the reservoirs inside them with a degree of qualitative, and even quantitative, detail. In this episode, Michael explains why Newton's ideas still matter despite Einstein, how to approach machine learning with healthy skepticism, why real data can be a hindrance to learning, and why he took the time to discover who was R. Hill. This is a conversation that scientists of all experiences will benefit from and learn. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to find links to Michael's books and past podcasts. RELATED LINKS * Check out the book, Understanding Amplitudes (https://seg.org/shop/products/detail/351710806) * Listen to Mi

Henning Hoeber discusses a new tool for rock physics in his recent paper published in September's The Leading Edge. In this episode, Henning explains the theory of omitted variable bias (OVB) and its connection to rock physics, why OVB hasn't appeared before in the geoscience literature, how OVB helps geophysicists understand biases in models, the real-world implications for improving a bias model, and how he will apply OVB to his future research. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to find links to Henning's article, as well as the rest of the special section for September's The Leading Edge. RELATED LINKS * Henning Hoeber, (2021), "Model misspecification and bias in the least-squares algorithm: Implications for linearized isotropic AVO," The Leading Edge 40: 646–654. (https://doi.org/10.1190/tle40090646.1) * Agnibha Das and Madhumita Sengupta, (2021), "Introduction to this special section: Rock physics," The Leading Edge 40: 644–644. (https://doi.org/10.1190/tle40090644.1) * Read the special section: Rock phys

Bill Harbert highlights his SEG course, "Petrophysics and Geophysics Relevant to CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery." In this forward-looking conversation, Bill shares why it's the right time to discuss enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the geophysical method that will have the greatest impact on EOR, one of the biggest pitfalls when geophysical methods are applied to CO2 monitoring and EOR, and what will happen when CO2 enhanced oil recovery reaches its full potential. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to find links to sign up for Bill's course. BIOGRAPHY Dr. William Harbert received his MS in Exploration Geophysics and Ph.D. in Geophysics from Stanford University. He is a lifetime member of SEG, a registered professional petroleum geophysicist, and a member of AAPG and SPE. He has been a DOE ORISE Research Associate and a Resident Institute Fellow of the NETL-Institute for Advanced Energy Solution (IAES). He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the In Salah CO2 Injection Project facilitated by British Petrole

Myrto Papadopoulou and Farbod Khosro Anjom spotlight the recent advances in surface-wave tomography for near-surface applications from August's The Leading Edge. In this episode, Myrto and Farbod discuss why surface-wave tomography has not been applied regularly to near-surface applications, highlight more efficient models they developed, explain how automatic data screening allowed for their breakthroughs, and imagine what future advances in surface-wave tomography will occur. Myrto and Farbod are both postdoc researchers at the Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering at Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to find links to Myrto and Farbod's article, as well as the rest of the special section for August's The Leading Edge. SPONSOR This episode is brought to you by TGS. TGS offers a wide range of energy data and insights to meet the industry where it’s at and where it’s headed. TGS provides scientific data and intelligence to companies active in th

Jack Dvorkin highlights his upcoming Honorary Lecture, "Modern Rock Physics – Challenges and Solutions." Jack explains why some scientists have embraced unnecessary complexity, the best way to generate new scientific questions, the first step to embrace simplicity, and possible consequences if rock physics continues to trend towards complexity. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to find links to all the episodes mentioned in this conversation. BIOGRAPHY Jack Dvorkin is the program leader of the Rock Science Program at the College of Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He earned his Ph.D. in Continuum Mechanics from Moscow State University in the USSR. Between 1989 and 2017, Jack worked at the Stanford Rock Physics Program. He has developed many of the rock physics theoretical models currently in use. Jack is an SEG Honorary Member and has published more than 170 technical papers, 5 books, and 9 U.S. patents. He has supervised more th