Geology topics
A. H. Balch
Publications and source records attributed to A. H. Balch.
National energy research seismic library; Powder River basin, Montana-Wyoming; surface reflection and vertical seismic profile data used in seismic-stratigraphic investigations for ground-water aquifers and hydrocarbon traps
This Digital Data Series publication contains both raw and processed seismic data recorded during the period 1975 through 1978 by several geophysical service companies under contract to the USGS in the following study areas of the Powder River Basin, Montana and Wyoming: 1. Powder River and Custer Counties, MT (T. 1 S., T. 1-2 N., R. 53-54 E.) 2. Carter County, MT (T. 57-58 N., R. 65 W.) and Crook County, WY (T. 9 S., R.57-58 E.) 3. Powder River and Carter Counties, MT (T. 8 S., R. 53-55 E.) 4. Niobrara County, WY (T. 36-38 N., R. 61-62 W.) and Weston County, WY (T. 45 N., R. 61 W.) Four multichannel Vibroseis seismic lines, six Vertical Seismic Profiles (VSP's), and associated support material (observer's notes, X-Y coordinates, elevations of source and receivers, for example) are included. The raw (unprocessed) field data and a processed version of each surface profile and VSP are contained in standard SEG-Y format files; support material are in ASCII format text files. The processed surface data are versions which were reprocessed by the USGS in 1995 using state-of-the-art seismic data processing software.
Detection of potential inundation hazards by overwater seismic methods
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Seismic amplitude anomalies associated with thick First Leo sandstone lenses, eastern Powder River basin, Wyoming
Several new discoveries of oil production in the Leo sandstone, an economic unit in the Pennsylvanian middle member of the Minnelusa formation, eastern Powder River basin, Wyoming-Nebraska-South Dakota, have renewed exploration interest in this area. Vertical seismic profiles (VSP) and model studies suggested that a measurable seismic amplitude anomaly is frequently associated with the thick First Leo sandstone lenses. To test this concept, a surface reflection seismic profile was run between two wells about 12 miles apart. The First Leo was present and productive in one well and thin and barren in the other. The surface profile shows the predicted amplitude anomaly at the well where a thick lens is known to exist. Two other First Leo amplitude anomalies also appear on the surface seismic profile between the two wells, which may indicate the presence of additional lenses.
Examples of deep-water-bottom multiple dereverberation techniques applied to seismic-reflection data from the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf
Seismic-reflection data recorded in deep water over the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf are often dominated by multiply-reflected seismic energy. This energy reverberates between the surface of the water and the seafloor (or other strong reflectors), and makes portions of the seismic data completely useless. Several different data-processing techniques can be applied to partially suppress these multiples and enhance the interpretability of the data. These techniques include (1) the three-point operator, (2) predictive deconvolution, (3) near-trace muting, (4) spatially variant bandpass filters, (5) Nth root stack, and (6) trace distance weighting. Application of these methods to several seismic lines indicates that trace distance weighting is the most useful method studied for suppressing deep-water-bottom multiples for data from the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf.