Contraintes sismiques sur les structures crustales de l'Abitibi et le l'Opatica

Contraintes sismiques sur les structures de la croûte supérieure dans le nord de l'Abitibi -- Orientation des réflecteurs sismiques dans la sous-providence de l'Opatica -- Orientation des réflecteurs sismiques dans la sous-province de l'Abitibi

Editorial for Special Issue “Seismic Methods in Mineral Exploration”

In many parts of the world, exploration for mineral deposits is moving progressively but persistently to greater depths, relying on knowledge gained from previous exploration campaigns and on new exploration tools and techniques used to guide deep and costly boreholes to most suitable targets [...

Elucidating the Effects of Hydrothermal Alteration on Seismic Reflectivity in the Footwall of the Lalor Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Deposit, Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada

The integrated analysis of seismic rock properties, lithogeochemical data, and mineral compositional data, estimated via scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), provides insight into the effects of hydrothermal alteration on seismic reflectivity in the footwall of the Lalor volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit, Manitoba, Canada. The effects of hydrothermal alteration on variations in acoustic impedance are secondary in magnitude and superimposed on the dominant acoustic impedance contrast between felsic and mafic volcanic protoliths. This secondary effect is due to an increase in P-wave velocity with increasing intensity of hydrothermal alteration, as measured by the Ishikawa and Carbonate-Chlorite-Pyrite alteration indices. Mixture modeling of the seismic rock properties and mineral percentages suggests that the increase in seismic velocity is due to an increase in abundance of cordierite, which is one of the diagnostic aluminum silicates for hydrothermally-altered volcanic rocks metamorphosed in the upper almandine amphibolite facies. The synthetic seismic data of a simple VMS model consisting of mafic-felsic host rock contacts, a sulfide ore lens, and a discordant hydrothermal conduit, consisting of the amphibolite-facies mineral assemblage (600 °C, 6 kbar) encountered at Lalor, show enhanced seismic reflections at conduit-host rock contacts, in comparison to its greenschist facies equivalent (350 °C, 2.5 kbar). This zone of enhanced seismic reflectivity in the footwall of the massive sulfide ore zone is also recognized on the Lalor seismic data suggesting that high-grade terrains hosting VMS deposits possess enhanced potential for the seismic detection of their footwall hydrothermal alteration zones

Reprocessing legacy 3D seismic data from the Halfmile Lake and Brunswick No. 6 VMS deposits, New Brunswick, Canada.

We reprocessed legacy three-dimensional (3D) seismic data from the Halfmile Lake and Brunswick areas, both of which were acquired for mineral exploration in the Bathurst Mining Camp, New Brunswick. Each 3D seismic survey was acquired over known volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits and covered areas with strong mineral potential. Most improvements resulted from a reduction of coherent and random noise on prestack gathers and from an improved velocity model, combined with re-imaging with dip moveout corrections and poststack migration or prestack time migration. At Halfmile Lake, the new imaging results show the Deep zone and a possible extension of the sulphide mineralization at greater depth. True amplitude processing has shown that this anomaly has strong amplitudes and is offset from the Deep zone by a shallowly dipping fault (<15°). With the clearer geological context provided by our results, this anomaly, which appears as a stand-alone anomaly on an original image obtained by Noranda Exploration Ltd., becomes a defendable exploration target. Nonorthogonal acquisition geometry and receiver patches of the Brunswick No. 6 3D seismic survey generated artefacts after dip moveout processing that reduced the overall quality of the seismic volumes. By using a filtering approach based on the application of a weighted Laplacian-Gaussian filter in the Kx–Ky domain, we reduced the noise and improved the continuity of reflections. We also imaged the short and flat reflections observed previously only in the shallow part of prestack time migrated data. These short reflections appear as diffractions on the filtered stacked section with dip moveout corrections, indicating that they originate from small geological bodies or discontinuities in the subsurface.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

SEISMIC MODELING OF HETEROGENEITY SCALES OF GAS HYDRATE RESERVOIRS

The presence of gas hydrates in permafrost regions has been confirmed by core samples recovered from the Mallik gas hydrate research wells located within Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Strong vertical variations of compressional and shear velocities and weak surface seismic expressions of gas hydrates indicate that lithological heterogeneities control the lateral distribution of gas hydrates. Seismic scattering studies predict that typical horizontal scales and strong velocity contrasts due to gas hydrate concentration will generate strong forward scattering, leaving only weak energy to be captured by surface receivers. In order to understand the distribution of gas hydrates and the scattering effects on seismic waves, heterogeneous petrophysical reservoir models were constructed based on the P-wave and S-wave velocity logs. Random models with pre-determined heterogeneity scales can also be used to simulate permafrost interval as well as sediments without hydrates. Using the established relationship between hydrate concentration and P-wave velocity, we found that gas hydrate volume content can be determined by correlation length and Hurst number. Using the Hurst number obtained from Mallik 2L-38, and the correlation length estimated from acoustic impedance inversion, gas hydrate volume fraction in Mallik area was estimated to be 17%, approximately 7x108 m3 free gas stored in a hydrate bearing interval with 250,000 m2 lateral extension and 100 m depth. Simulations of seismic wave propagation in randomly heterogeneous models demonstrate energy loss due to scattering. With the available modeling algorithm, the impact of heterogeneity scales on seismic scattering and optimum acquisition geometries will be investigated in future studies.Non UBCUnreviewe

AN ACOUSTIC IMPEDANCE INVERSION APPROACH TO DETECT AND CHARACTERIZE GAS HYDRATE ACCUMULATIONS WITH SEISMIC METHODS: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE MALLIK GAS HYDRATE FIELD, NWT, CANADA

Two internationally-partnered research well programs, in 1998 and 2002, studied the Mallik gas hydrate accumulation in the Mackenzie Delta, Canada. Gas hydrate bearing intervals were cored, logged and production tested thus establishing Mallik as an excellent site for testing geophysical imaging techniques. Here, we apply a model-based acoustic impedance inversion technique to 3D seismic reflection data acquired over the Mallik area to characterize gas hydrate occurrences and to help define their spatial extent away from well control. Sonic logs in Mallik research wells show that P-wave velocity of sediments increases with hydrate saturation, enough to produce detectable reflections for the lower two of three known gas hydrate zones. The inversion method converts these reflections into acoustic impedances from which velocity and hydrate saturation can be estimated. Acoustic impedance inversion results indicate that the deepest gas hydrate zone covers an area of approximately 900,000 m2. With some assumptions on the lateral continuity of gas hydrate saturation, porosity and thickness measured at the wells, we estimate that this zone contains approximately 771x106 m3 of gas at standard atmospheric pressure. At a regional scale, results allowed the detection of a high-velocity area near the A-06 well, about 6 km south-east of 5L-38. We infer that the high velocity area corresponds to a gas hydrate accumulation. Logging data in A-06 indicate the presence of gas hydrates in this area and support our interpretation.Non UBCUnreviewe