A physical modeling study of seismic features of karst cave reservoirs in the Tarim Basin, China

On seismic migration sections, anomalous bright spots, called the string of beads response (SBR), are common features of carbonate karst reservoirs at the seismic scale in the Tarim Basin, China. To understand the SBR features of different karst caves, which is an important issue for local exploration, we conducted a physical modeling experiment. Within the physical model, we included various single caves with different scales, velocities, shapes, and fluids, as well as multiple caves in different spatial distributions. SBRs of all caves were extracted and summarized from the migration sections. First, we investigated effects of the cave scale, velocity, spatial distribution, shape, and fluids on SBRs. The relative amplitude of SBRs increased with the cave width ranging from 25 to 400 m and decreased with the cave velocity. The SBR split into two new SBRs when the cave height was larger than 100 m. Spatially distributed multiple caves resulted in some special SBRs, such as long SBRs, inclined SBRs, waved SBRs, and chaotic SBRs. The cave shape contribution to SBRs could be neglected in deep strata practically. The relative amplitude of SBRs of caves filled with gas and oil was stronger than those filled with water. Then, we established an interpretation chart of the corresponding relationship between six types of SBRs and their potential caves. Short SBRs were the responses of caves with a height of less than 60 m. Long SBRs corresponded to two kinds of cave units: (1) a single cave with a height between 70 and 100 m and (2) two caves (height less than 60 m) vertically distributed with a small distance (less than 60 m). Chop-shaped SBRs indicated caves with a width of more than 100 m. Inclined SBRs, waved SBRs, and chaotic SBRs corresponded to multiple caves spatially distributed in triangles, rhombuses, and clusters, respectively.