Geology & Geophysics

Jurassic Deep-Sea Fishing

You could be forgiven for thinking Mary was the first to discover ichthyosaur and plesiosaur fossils, but specimens of ichthyosaur vertebrae and propodial (limb) bones and pliosaur vertebral centra were…

A clearer vision with seismic inversion

It takes a lot of people to drill a well and many different disciplines working together, like the moving parts of a complex machine. It has been said that oil…

The Artemis Project: Geology’s Gateway to the Stars

NASA’s Artemis I patch. © NASA. In December 1972, the 17th and last Apollo mission put Harrison Schmitt, the only professional geologist ever to have ventured into space, on the…

Improving seismic quality

With many of the world’s basins now explored, the search for new hydrocarbons is becoming dependent on improvements in seismic data quality. One of the new acquisition techniques is WesternGeco’s…

The Many Ways Fossils Help Decode the Subsurface

From determining how rocks correlate to reconstructing palaeoenvironments and palaeotemperatures, which is relevant to the petroleum geologist, fossils are of great significance to science and industry While there are lots…

What Drives Continents Apart?

Rather than convection currents within the mantle – could the forces at play be related to the Earth’s velocity? During a visit to Bolivia in 2001, the sight of marine…

Seabed mineral exploration

Seabed mining is very much in the news today, following initiatives from the Norwegian authorities who are encouraging companies and organisations to develop technical solutions to help kick-start and service…

Mitigating Risk with Seismic Forward Modelling

Benefits of seismic forward modelling: mitigating risk is always a focus within the oil and gas industry but it becomes even more crucial in these times, with an ongoing pandemic…

Ray-Based Seismic Modeling

Ray-based seismic modeling has come a long way and the motivation for this is simple enough: performing a modeling study is significantly cheaper than failing in the field! Field managers…

Sustainable Geophysics

In what ways can geophysics be said to add value to society, economic systems and the environment? This was the question three Society of Exploration Geophysics (SEG) members asked themselves…

Renewed Interest in CSEM in Oil and Gas Exploration

Controlled Source ElectroMagnetic (CSEM) is a proven technique that has a strong future in helping solve certain oil and gas exploration and production challenges, especially when seismic data alone cannot…

Marine Site Investigation and Reducing Risk

The evolving role of seismic reflection data within offshore site investigation. Marine site investigation is, at heart, about reducing risk. Sometimes it involves minimizing the risk to operations posed by…