SEGJ Technical Conference


Estimating attenuation in methane hydrate bearing sediments using QVO method


Abstract
Methane hydrates are considered important in terms of their effect on global warming and as potential energy resources. Now, mainly the presence of a BSR and seismic velocity are used for estimation of methane hydrate concentration in the seismic reflection survey. But recent studies on seismic attenuation show that it can be used also to estimate methane hydrates concentration. In this study, we tried to estimate attenuation from 2D seismic reflection data acquired at Nankai Trough in Japan and analyzed attenuation properties in methane hydrate bearing sediments. Seismic attenuation estimated by QVO method in an offset range 125~1,575m. We observed high attenuation in methane hydrate bearing sediments over BSR in a frequency range of 30-70Hz. Thus, this result demonstrates that seismic reflection wave within this frequency range are affected significantly by the existence of methane hydrate concentration zone.