Seismic Soundoff

Mark Zoback discusses his Honorary Lecture, "Geomechanical Issues Affecting Long-Term Storage of CO2." In this episode, Mark highlights how oil and gas companies are best positioned to address the needs for large-scale carbon storage. He discusses the role of depleted oil and gas reservoirs for CO2 storage, as well as the geomechanical issues that have to be considered. Mark also shares what is mo...

Vemund Thorkildsen discusses his paper, "Revisiting holistic migration," published in October's The Leading Edge. In this episode, Vemund discusses questioning the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, mining gaps in past research, and examining the applicability of holistic migration to seismic field data. He also shares how he connected with Enders Robinson to serve as co-author on the paper. Vemund...

Michael Burianyk discusses his new book, Understanding Amplitudes: Basic seismic analysis for rock properties. In the book, methods and techniques used to estimate rock properties from seismic data, based on an understanding of the elastic properties of materials and rocks and how seismic reflection amplitudes change, are described. Using AVO and other techniques, we can characterize rocks and the...

Henning Hoeber discusses a new tool for rock physics in his recent paper published in September's The Leading Edge. In this episode, Henning explains the theory of omitted variable bias (OVB) and its connection to rock physics, why OVB hasn't appeared before in the geoscience literature, how OVB helps geophysicists understand biases in models, the real-world implications for improving a bias model...

Bill Harbert highlights his SEG course, "Petrophysics and Geophysics Relevant to CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery." In this forward-looking conversation, Bill shares why it's the right time to discuss enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the geophysical method that will have the greatest impact on EOR, one of the biggest pitfalls when geophysical methods are applied to CO2 monitoring and EOR, and what will happe...

Myrto Papadopoulou and Farbod Khosro Anjom spotlight the recent advances in surface-wave tomography for near-surface applications from August's The Leading Edge. In this episode, Myrto and Farbod discuss why surface-wave tomography has not been applied regularly to near-surface applications, highlight more efficient models they developed, explain how automatic data screening allowed for their brea...

Jack Dvorkin highlights his upcoming Honorary Lecture, "Modern Rock Physics – Challenges and Solutions." Jack explains why some scientists have embraced unnecessary complexity, the best way to generate new scientific questions, the first step to embrace simplicity, and possible consequences if rock physics continues to trend towards complexity. Visit https://seg.org/podcast to find links to all th...

The microphone gets turned on the host and the co-founder of Seismic Soundoff in this special episode celebrating 5 years of the show. SEG Associate Executive Director Ted Bakamjian speaks with Andrew Geary and co-founder Isaac Farley on the inspiration behind the podcast, their most memorable episodes, and their favorite takeaways from working on the show. This special episode honors each podcast...

In this episode, host Andrew Geary speaks with Jim White, Executive Director of SEG, to discuss IMAGE '21, his first few months on the job, and the future of applied geophysics. Topics include the relocation of SEG's headquarters to Houston, the possible merger of AAPG and SPE, and what to expect in Denver, Colorado for IMAGE '21. Visit https://imageevent.org/2021 to learn more and register today....

Oz Yilmaz discusses his latest book, "Land Seismic Case Studies for Near-Surface Modeling and Subsurface Imaging." Written for practicing geophysicists, this book is the culmination of land seismic data acquisition and processing projects conducted by Oz over the last two decades. Containing nearly 800 figures from worldwide 2D and 3D case studies, it is a comprehensive guide to understanding the...

Jean-Paul van Gestel highlights the latest for seismic interpretation, the special section in July's The Leading Edge. Seismic interpretation is the end game of the seismic data experiment. This is where all the hard work from seismic theory, modeling, acquisition, processing, and analysis comes together at the desks of the interpreters. In this episode, Jean-Paul discusses the interpreter's role...

Nimisha Vedanti highlights her Honorary Lecture on understanding seismic wave attenuation mechanisms. Nimisha explains how she discovered the problem of seismic attenuation, why seismic attenuation is one of the least understood physical mechanisms, practical takeaways from her lecture, and highlights from two real-world case studies. Visit https://seg.org/podcast for the complete show notes. BIOG...

Josef Paffenholz discusses the next trillion-dollar business and how SEG's SEAM project could play an essential role in its creation. The SEG Advanced Modeling (SEAM) Corporation initiative is a collaborative industrial research effort that has created and continues to create large-scale, leading-edge geophysical numerical simulations. The initiative has advanced “the science of geophysics through...

Historian Brian Frehner discusses the energy transition from coal to oil and the historical importance of J. Clarence Karcher. June 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of field tests confirming that J. Clarence Karcher's seismic reflection technique could detect and map structures capable of trapping oil. In this future-focused conversation, Brian discusses why Karcher left the oil business after his...

Dr. Dhananjay (DJ) Kumar discusses his course, the value of membership at SEG, and the activities essential for the professional development of geophysicists. This conversation covers a wide range of topics from synthetic seismograms construction to how to get the most of your membership at SEG. DJ has taken advantage of his activities throughout his career and is excited to share his lessons lear...

Dr. Ali Tura discusses his upcoming Distinguished Lecture, "Recent advances in seismic reservoir characterization and monitoring." Ali provides an overview of the three advances he highlights in his lecture and shares a few that didn't make the list. In addition, he explains why carbon sequestration is the most important issue facing the industry and why geophysics is well-positioned to support se...

David Lumley highlights two of SEG's Strategic Pillars and the geophysicists' role in supporting space exploration and the medical field. In this illuminating conversation, David outlines how geophysics supports the grand challenges of our world, how geophysics could quantitatively contribute to the medical field, how universities and companies could encourage greater collaboration, and a valuable...

Denes Vigh discusses the current developments and future growth areas for full-waveform inversion. In this informative conversation, Denes shares why it's necessary for full-waveform inversion (FWI) to utilize the full acquired wavefield, how ocean-bottom node surveys have impacted FWI, the next frontier for FWI, and his favorite feature of utilizing FWI in his work. Denes Vigh is the manager of t...

Dr. Michal Ruder discusses continuing education and her new course, Gravity and Magnetics for Explorationists. In this forward-thinking conversation, Michal shares the most important thing for explorationists to focus on right now, what she would say to the CEO of an oil and gas company, the future of GIS data for exploration, and the importance of nonseismic work in geophysics. As the world trans...

In this episode, host Andrew Geary speaks with Margariete Malenda and Tiziana Vanorio on utilizing rock physics and geophysics to decarbonize the future. In this conversation, Margariete and Tiziana highlight the role of rock physics within geophysics, short- and long-term solutions to decarbonization, common misperceptions about decarbonization among the public and scientific community, how to in...

In this special episode, Seismic Soundoff features SEG’s humanitarian program, Geoscientists Without Borders (GWB). We highlight Silvio De Angelis’s project to create an international partnership to develop volcano monitoring capacities in Guatemala. In Guatemala, volcanic hazard is high with over 1.3 million people living within six miles of an erupting volcano, and over 7 million people living w...

In this episode, host Andrew Geary speaks with John Bradford on SEG's recent statement on climate change. John led the Climate Change Task Force charged with creating a statement for SEG. The SEG Board adopted the position statement in a unanimous vote during its January 2021 meeting. In this conversation, John provides an overview of SEG's position on climate change, the role geophysics plays in...

In this episode, host Andrew Geary speaks with Mohamed Ahmed on geophysical test sites. In this conversation, Mohamed highlights the importance of field exercises, why geophysical test sites can act as a competitive advantage, and the many ways test sites can be used by students and companies (for free). This conversation showcases the importance of experiential learning in novel ways. Visit https...

In this episode, host Andrew Geary speaks with Ray Abma on his new book, Simultaneous Source Seismic Acquisition. This book introduces simultaneous source technology and helps those who practice it succeed. This work is written through the lens of decades of experience and allows readers to understand the development of independent simultaneous sourcing. In this widely relevant and persuasive inte...

In this episode, host Andrew Geary speaks with Stephen J. Hill on his new book, Illustrated Seismic Processing, Volume 2: Preimaging. Along with Steve's co-author Andreas Rüger, this second volume of Illustrated Seismic Processing provides a foundation for understanding the vigorous, relevant, and fascinating field of seismic processing, addressing that portion that precedes migration. Written for...