Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Time: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Location: Royal Oaks Country Club, 7915 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX 75231

Topic: Real-Time* Reservoir Monitoring with Ambient Seismic Noise

Speaker: Dr. David Lumley

Abstract: Time-lapse seismic imaging and monitoring of the earth's subsurface, and the quantitative estimation of time-varying physical changes in rock and fluid properties, have broad applications including earthquake seismology, tectonics, geo-hazards, and natural resources (hydrocarbons, CO2 sequestration, groundwater, geothermal etc.). Semi-permanent “Large N” sensor arrays capable of long-term continuous seismic recording are bringing new ideas and science together from the earthquake and exploration seismology communities. I will present field trial results of our advanced imaging and inversion methods applied to continuous passive seismic array data including natural and induced seismicity, and especially 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 light 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.

Bio: 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 has 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.