Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Time: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Location: Brookhaven College Geotechnology Institute, 3939 Valley View Ln, Farmers Branch, TX 75244

Topic: Time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring: Recent advances and the road ahead

Speaker: Dr. David Lumley

Bio: Dr. David Lumley is Professor, Green Chair in Geophysics, and the new Director of the Center for Lithospheric Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. He was previously Professor, Chair in Geophysics, and founding Director of the Center for Energy Geoscience, jointly appointed to the Schools of Physics, and Earth & Environment, at the University of Western Australia.   He has also held academic positions at Stanford and USC, and served as an Adviser to the US National Academy of Sciences. Prof Lumley has been a Chief Investigator on over $135 Million in competitive research grants, and co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed journal papers and expanded conference abstracts, including JGR Solid Earth, Geophysical Research Letters, Geophysical Journal International, and Geophysics, resulting in 2,100+ citations, an h-index of 24, and eight (8) Best Paper awards to date.  He is the recipient of several awards and honors, including SEG's inaugural Karcher Award for his pioneering contributions to 4D Seismology, and has served as a Distinguished Lecturer and Instructor for several scientific societies.  David has a PhD in Geophysics from Stanford University, and BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees from Geophysics & Astronomy at the University of British Columbia.  His industry experience includes founder and leader of the 4D Seismic research team at Chevron, and founder and CEO of 4th Wave Imaging Corp (purchased by Fugro in 2007).  David’s expertise is wave-theoretic imaging and inversion, especially 3D seismic imaging, 4D time-lapse monitoring, and inverse theory estimation of physical properties in the earth and oceans, involving innovative physics, mathematics and high performance computing.  His research interests include wavefield data recorded with 'Large N' sensor arrays, using manmade sources, or natural sources such as earthquakes and ocean ambient noise.  Applications include earth science energy resources, subsurface fluid flow and reservoirs, CO2 injection and storage, natural and induced earthquake seismicity, and tectonics; at scales ranging from the near-surface, to ocean and shallow sediments, to reservoirs, and the Moho crust-mantle boundary. 

Abstract: 

Time-lapse seismic imaging of the earth's interior, and the estimation of time-varying changes in rock and fluid properties, has produced many spectacular results over the past 25 years; however we are still making many approximations, and extracting only a small percentage of the information available in the data. I will present new concepts in full wavefield imaging and inversion with application to active-source 4D seismic, in addition to passive seismic, ambient seismic noise, and the potential for near real-time seismic imaging.

Semi-permanent Large N sensor arrays capable of long-term continuous recording are bringing new ideas and science together from the exploration and earthquake seismology communities. I will discuss how advanced wave-equation imaging and inversion methods can be applied to continuous array data including natural and induced seismicity, and ambient noise wavefields. In some cases we are able to achieve ambient noise image convergence at reservoir depths in less than 60 minutes of recording time, which allows the possibility to make time-lapse movies of the subsurface with a frame rate of about 1 hour. Since these passive seismic arrays have a small environmental footprint and require no manmade source energy, we may be heading for a future of low-cost real-time monitoring of the subsurface using natural ambient seismic noise that is continuously generated and scattered within the earth.