Analysis of fault scaling relations using fault seismic attributes

Abstract

We have studied three‐dimensional fault geometries through a geologically integrated analysis of fault seismic attribute volumes. We used a series of coherence (semblance) and filtered coherence attribute volumes with parameters optimised for imaging faults in the studied seismic volumes. Fault geometric attributes such as along strike segment length and displacement were measured on fault seismic attributes. The scaling relationships of fault geometric attributes were studied using statistical methods such as the Bayesian information criterion, the likelihood ratio test, and the bootstrap method. Univariate distributions of fault segment length and maximum displacement show a truncated power law for most of the fault data. The statistical results indicate a piecewise‐linear relation with two slopes between depth and fault segments lengths: depth and mean displacement. For these relations, we observe consistent increases in fault segment lengths and mean displacements from the lower tip of the fault at depth toward a point of inflection at shallower depth at the vertical section. From that point, a reduction in fault segment lengths and mean displacements toward the upper tip of the fault at the shallower depth occurs. Fault segmentation along strike increases toward the lower and upper tips of the fault, but the maximum number of segments are located near the lower tip of the fault in two of the studied faults. The fault segment length is maximum, where the number of segments (along strike) is least close to the middle of the fault in the vertical section.

Seismic damage zone and width–throw scaling along the strike-slip faults in the Ordovician carbonates in the Tarim Basin

“…Although the exact locations of the boundaries of a fault damage zone were not possible to identify because of seismic resolution limitation, the fault envelope, which includes fault core and damage zone ( Fig. 4a), has low velocity characteristics that reflect the attenuation structure of faults (Koch 1992;Wu et al 2016;Botter et al 2016;Wan et al 2016;Torabi et al 2017). For this reason, fault damage zones are seismically characterized by discontinuous and low-amplitude reflections (Fig.…”

“…These differences could be related to a variety of factors that can influence the width of damage zones such as, the nature of the protolith, depth of faulting, effect of diagenesis and deformation mechanisms (e.g., Faulkner et al 2011;Laubach et al 2014;Choi et al 2016). Recent advances in acquisition and processing of seismic reflection data and the availability of extensive, high quality 3D seismic surveys have allowed the study of the geometry of large faults in the subsurface, which is usually not possible from the investigation of outcrops only (e.g., Liu et al 2011;Hale 2013;Wu et al 2016;Iacopini et al 2016;Botter et al 2016;Torabi et al 2017). Nonetheless, research on fault damage zones in Edited by Jie Hao * Guang-Hui Wu wugh@swpu.edu.cn 1 carbonate rocks based on seismic reflection data is scarce (Iacopini et al 2016;Wu et al 2019).…”

Statistical Analysis of Displacement and Length Relation for Normal Faults in the Barents Sea

“…Using seismic attributes, we provide details of fault length and displacement in 3D [10]. This kind of data has not been previously studied in the datasets acquired mainly from outcrops.…”

“…In addition, a fault is usually segmented, which means that the length of each single segment and the variation in displacement along the segment should be honored and contribute to the total length of the fault and its accumulated displacement. However, these details can be studied for seismic-scale faults using fault obtained from high-quality seismic cubes [9,10].…”

“…In the current study, we are able to extract the length of each fault segment of a single fault along its strike at different depths and measure fault displacements at several locations on each segment. Fault imaging using seismic attributes with the workflow we have used [9,10] provides us with explicit images of faults. Extracting fault geometric data directly from such explicit images has less uncertainty compared to methods that incorporate interpretation of horizons and mapping horizon cutoffs since faults are directly extracted from seismic attributes with almost no interpretation [9].…”