4D seismic

Abstract

The term 4D seismic reflects that calendar time represents the fourth dimension. A more precise term is repeated seismic, because that is actually what is done: a seismic survey over a given area (oil/gas field) is repeated in order to monitor production changes. Time-lapse seismic is another term used for this. For some reason, the term 4D seismic is most common, and we will therefore use it here. It is important to note that if we repeat 2D surveys, it is still denoted 4D seismic according to this definition. Recent examples of such surveys are repeated 2D lines acquired over the Troll gas province. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.