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Seismic Images of
Carbonate Platform
PRESENTED BY AKRAM BENHAMMADI
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PLAN

 Introduction
 Definition
 Carbonate platform recognition by seismic images
 Conclusion
 References
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INTRODUCTION

 Fundamental advances in the seismic imaging have revolutionized

understanding of carbonate geomorphology, stratigraphy and reservoir
architecture.
 This presentation aims to synthesize these innovative developments and
how they are able to identify carbonate platforms and their characteristics
that can now be interpreted from modern and reprocessed seismic data.
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DEFINITION

 Seismic Imaging
 Seismic imaging is a tool that bounces sound
waves off underground rock structures to
reveal possible crude oil– and natural gas–
bearing formations. Seismologists use
ultrasensitive devices called geophones
(hydrophones) to record the sound waves as
they echo within the earth. By studying the
echoes, petroleum geologists seek to
calculate the depth and structures of buried
geologic formations. This analysis may also
help them identify carbonate platforms
hidden beneath the earth's surface.
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DEFINITION

 Carbonate Platform
 A number of different morphologies of
carbonate platform are recognized,
the most widely documented being
carbonate ramps, which are gently
sloping platforms, and rimmed
shelves, which are flat-topped
platforms bordered by a rim formed
by a reef or carbonate sand shoal.
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Carbonate platform recognition by
seismic images
 Schematic cross sections and seismic
images showing onlap of overburden onto
the margins of an isolated carbonate
buildup
 (A), contrasted with a situation where
depositional relief on the margins of the
isolated carbonate buildup was lower
because of contemporaneous infill of the
adjacent basin
 (B). In this case, carbonate material from
the platform top was transported away
from the platform margin to produce
depositional wings that interfinger with the
basin-fill strata.
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Carbonate platform recognition by
seismic images

 The development of reefs or organic

build-ups in which the seismic waves
often have a high velocity, induce
important pull-ups of the horizons
associated with their bottoms,
 Nevertheless, on the ground, in
geological models, reefs have bottoms
showing planar geometries.
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Carbonate platform recognition by
seismic images
 Part of the MS-29 seismic profile across the
Otranto Channel.
The green arrows highlight the top of the
carbonate platform
 A) Erosion of the recent shallow sequence
(toplap pointed out by blue arrows)
originated the Otranto Channel on the
Apulia platform. The detail of the profile in
 B) clearly shows the seismic signal
associated to the studied "bright spot"
(blue line). The red arrows point out the
Pliocene horizons onlapping the bright spot
or, in the Merlo-1 structure, the top of the
Messinian sequence (orange colour). A
further possible bright spot has been
interpreted (green dashed line) on the
right.
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Carbonate platform recognition by
seismic images
 This geometry, with a pull-up of the bottom of the reef, is
normal when the reef is developed over a low velocity
interval such as shale. However, if a porous reef is
developed over a tight calcareous environment, the
geometry of the bottom of the reef is inverted, that is to
say, the associated marker, if there is a marker, is pulled-
down.
 Actually, in certain basins, for instance in the Michigan
basin (USA), the recognition of reefal anomalies is mainly
based on the absence of reflector. In other words, when,
in a continuous and high amplitude marker, emphasizing
a limestone interval, an abrupt interruption of the reflector
occurs during few kilometers, it may be due to the
presence of a local porous reef.
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CONCLUSION

 The seismic imaging technologies is able to identify many other things in

subsurface like the siliciclastic deposits, reservoirs, traps…
 But is the technology precise enough for reconizing these deposits and
reservoirs or do we need a more advanced technique ?
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REFERENCES

 Anstey N.A.; 1977: Seismic interpretation: the physical aspects. International Human Development Corporation,
 Boston, 625 pp.
 Argnani A., Bonazzi C., Evangelisti D., Favali P., Frugoni F., Gasperini M., Ligi M., Marani M. and Mele G.; 1996:
 Tettonica dell’Adriatico Meridionale. Mem. Soc. Geol. It., 51, 227-237.
 Avseth P., Mukerji T. and Mavko G.; 2005: Quantitative seismic interpretation. Cambridge University Press, 359 pp.
 Ballauri A., Bega Z., Meehan P., Gambini R. and Klammer W.; 2002: Exploring in structurally complex thrust belt:
 Southwest Albania Case. In: AAPG Research Commitee (ed), Hedberg Conference “Deformation History, Fluid
 Flow Reconstruction and Reservoir Appraisal in Foreland Fold and Thrust Belts”, May 14-18, 2002, Palermo-
 Mondello (Italy), 4 pp.
 Bachtel, S. L., P. A.Dunn, S. P. Rahardjanto, R. D. Kissling, D. Martono, and B A.Macdonald, 2004, Seismic
stratigraphic evolution of the Miocene–Pliocene Segitiga Platform, East Natuna Sea, Indonesia: The origin,
growth, and demise of an isolated carbonate platform, inG. P. Eberli, J. L.Masaffero, and J. F.R. Sarg, eds.,
Seismic imaging of carbonate reservoirs and systems: AAPG Memoir 81, p. 309–328.
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