The Use of Structure Tensors in the Analysis of Seismic Data

Abstract

The first and second order structure tensors, simply estimated by differencing the image, can be used to quantify the local structure of seismic data and their departure from laminar structure. They can be used to distinguish chaotic regions as well as regions of interest, like mounds and horizon terminations from stratified regions. They have been well established in the processing of 2D images, but their application to 3D volume data is still a largely unexplored field of research. This chapter reviews the properties of these tensors and their application to image processing in general, and demonstrates their usefulness in the analysis of 2D and 3D seismic data.