1.3.2 Seismic Acquisition Seismic surveying technology is the key tool helping us to ‘see’ underground both on land and beneath the sea.
Figure 1.26: Inge Grødum’s artistic view of seismic acquisition and processing. In seismic surveying, a sound wave is generated and sent into the earth. When the wave reaches boundaries between geologic layers having different impedances (product of velocity and density) part of the wave will be reflected back to the surface where it is recorded by sensors. The strength (amplitude) of the returning wavefield and the time it has taken to travel through the various layers in the subsurface is used in specialised seismic data processing to make images of the rock layers in the survey area. In the 1980s Geco opened several high technology processing services around the world.
