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Predicting horizontal velocities from well data[Note 1. Received August 1995, revision accepted October 1996. ...]
Author(s) -
Andrea M.,
Sams M.S.,
Worthington M.H.,
King M.S.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
geophysical prospecting
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.735
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1365-2478
pISSN - 0016-8025
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2478.1997.410274.x
Subject(s) - geology , borehole , anisotropy , transverse isotropy , isotropy , oil shale , layering , mineralogy , gemology , hydrogeology , petrology , geophysics , geotechnical engineering , engineering geology , seismology , volcanism , optics , paleontology , botany , biology , physics , tectonics
The Imperial College borehole test site consists of four boreholes with depths lying between 260 and 280 m. The boreholes intersect several cyclical sequences of sandstones, mudstones and limestones. The formations are highly laminated and ultrasonic measurements on preserved core have shown that the mudstones are intrinsically anisotropic. Little or no anisotropy is associated with the sandstones and limestones. A scheme is proposed to predict synthetic vertical and horizontal P‐ and S‐wave logs. Combining (an)isotropic effective medium theories, the Gassmann equation and Backus averaging, the scheme extends previous sand‐shale models to transversely isotropic rock formations. The model assumes that the anisotropy is due to layering and due to the preferred horizontal orientation of the clay minerals, pores and cracks within the mudstones. The pores and cracks within the sandstones and limestones are randomly orientated. After fitting the model to the ultrasonic data to obtain the unknown parameters, the model successfully predicts the sonic log and the direct arrival times from a cross‐hole survey.