Abstract
Abstract. Seismic oceanography is a new cross-discipline between geophysics and oceanography that uses seismic reflection data to image and study the oceanic water column. Previous work on seismic oceanography was largely limited to two-dimensional (2D) seismic data and methods. Here we explore and quantify temporal and spatial variations in three-dimensional (3D) seismic oceanography to address whether 3D seismic imaging is meaningful in all directions and how one can take advantage of the variations. From a 3D multichannel seismic survey acquired for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico over a 6-month period, a 3D oceanic seismic volume was derived. The 3D seismic images exhibit both temporal and spatial variations of the ocean, and theoretical and data analyses were used to quantify their contribution. Our results suggest that temporal variation is more prominent in the crossline direction than in the inline direction, causing discontinuities in crossline images. However, a series of 3D inline images can be seen as snapshots of the water column at different times, capturing temporal variation of thermohaline structures induced by ocean dynamics. Our findings suggest the potential uses of marine 3D seismic data in studying time-evolving mesoscale ocean dynamics.
Highlights
Despite being the Earth’s largest habitat by volume, the ocean water column remains one of the most poorly explored environments
We present multi-directional images from our 3D seismic volume to improve the understanding of watercolumn 3D seismic images and the fundamentals of 3D seismic oceanography and, hopefully, shed light on ocean dynamics that can be resolved from our seismic images
This study focuses on providing a fundamental understanding of spatial and temporal variations embedded in 3D seismic data collected for oil and gas exploration
Summary
Despite being the Earth’s largest habitat by volume, the ocean water column remains one of the most poorly explored environments. Mesoscale and small-scale thermohaline fine structures are very difficult to observe with conventional methods whose lateral resolutions are coarse (usually > 100 m). The ocean interior is 3D by nature and varies in both time and space on a wide range of scales. Ocean dynamics such as internal waves, solitons, tidal beams, eddies, and fronts (that affect thermohaline fine structures) are expected to vary both spatially and temporally. Seismic oceanography using marine seismic reflection data to image ocean structures is the only method by which we can collect high-resolution 3D information about the oceanic wave field. We aim to understand how temporal and spatial oceanic variability is distributed in 3D seismic images, a critical question in making the best use of 3D seismic oceanography
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