Prediction of tectonically deformed coal based on lithologic seismic information

Abstract

Owing to the differences in physical properties between tectonically deformed coal (TDC) and primary coal, lithologic seismic inversion methods were adopted to identify the coal structure type, including probabilistic neural network (PNN) inversion, elastic impedance (EI) inversion and simultaneous inversion methods. Based on poststack and prestack gathers, the inversion methods were applied to calculate lithologic seismic information, which included porosity, acoustic impedance, elastic impedance, λ×ρ and μ×ρ data. The inversion results were then analysed to evaluate the development potential of TDC. The research showed that the lithology inversion results, which indicated the potential zone of development areas of the coal, were all basically identical and a comprehensive prediction factor (the linear lithologic information combination) was proposed to effectively predict the development potential. Therefore, the prediction of TDC by lithologic seismic information could provide a scientific basis for both coal mining safety and the development potential of large-scale coalbed methane resources.