1. Institute of Wave and Information, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China;
2. School of Resources and Environment Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China;
3. National Engineering Laboratory for Offshore Oil Exploration, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China
Abstract:Seismic geomorphology was formed since underground geomorphological units can be imaged on high quality 3D seismic data since last twenty years. Based on sedimentology and geomorphology, seismic geomorphology studies characteristics of sedimentary systems and sedimentary evolution by analyzing underground geomorphology on 3D seismic images. Currently, a few successful cases of seismic geomorphology have been published, such as fluvial-deltaic sedimentation, deepwater turbidite sedimentation, and carbonate sedimentation in the main oil-gas-bearing basins of the world, which shows great potential in hydrocarbon seismic exploration. However, as a new branch of geoscience, there are some exigent issues to be solved, especially industrialized interpretation workflow and seismic attribute interpretation. In the future, seismic geomorphology will play an increasingly important role not only in oil and gas industry, but also in other geoscience domains including paleoceanography, paleoclimate, and paleoenvironment.