Efficient Fault Surface Grouping in 3-D Seismic Fault Data

High-precision seismic fault detection and fault surface extraction (or grouping) are critical steps in reservoir characterization. In this article, basing on the gradually changing characteristics of the target faults in the adjacent 2-D seismic fault profiles, we propose an efficient and high-precision automatic fault surface grouping (EHFG) method for complex 3-D seismic fault data; and it is realized using pairs of adjacent 2-D seismic fault profiles without human intervention. EHFG comprises of high-precision fault separation (HFS) and high-precision fault labeling (or naming) (HFL), in which HFS aims to separate the positive-slope and negative-slope faults in the seismic fault detection result and ultimately obtain the high-precision positive-slope and negative-slope faults; HFL aims to label the separated positive-slope and negative-slope faults and ultimately obtain the corresponding high-precision fault surface grouping results. An actual 3-D seismic fault data example demonstrates that EHFG is a good potential technique for fault surface grouping.