A fast identification method based on the typical geophysical differences between submarine shallow carbonates and hydrate bearing sediments in the northern South China Sea

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bottom simulating reflector (BSR) has been recognized as one of the indicators of gas hydrates. However, BSR and hydrate are not one-to-one correspondence. In the Xisha area of South China Sea (SCS), carbonate rocks wildly develop, which continuously distribute parallel to the seafloor with high amplitude on seismic sections, exhibiting reflections similar to BSRs in the Shenhu area nearby. This phenomenon causes some interference to hydrates identification. In this paper, the authors discussed the typical geophysical differences between carbonate rocks and hydrates, indicating that the main difference exists in relationship between porosity and velocity, causing different amplitude versus offset (AVO) characters. Then the authors proposed a new model assuming that the carbonates form the matrix and the hydrate fill the pore as a part of the matrix. The key modeling parameters have been optimized constrained by P-velocities and S-velocities simultaneously, and the model works well both for carbonate rock and gas hydrate bearing sediments. For quantitative identification, the authors calculated the velocities when carbonates and hydrates form the matrix together in different proportions. Then they proposed a carbonate and hydrate identification template (CHIT), in which the possible hydrate saturation (PHS) and possible carbonate content (PCC) can be both scaled out for a group of sample composed by P-velocity and S-velocity. If PHS is far larger than PCC, it is more likely to be a hydrate sample because carbonates and hydrates do not coexist normally. The real data application shows that the template can effectively distinguish between hydrates and carbonate rocks, consequently reducing the risk of hydrate exploration.