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45015-AC8
Multi-Channel Seismic Analysis of Gas Hydrate and Related Geological Structure in Northwestern Gulf of Mexico
During FY2007 the research project had two main phases. Initially, this project was proposed as the PhD project for a student, Donald S. Maddox. During 2006, Maddox decided to postpone his PhD studies and accept a job in the energy industry. I invited another student, Melissa Beaman, to take over the project. She did for two months, but then she too accepted a job in the energy industry. A third student was offered the project. She worked on it for a month, but decided that she would rather do another project for her PhD research. Finally, in 2007, another student was recruited to work on the project. Leslie Nemazi arrived at Texas A&M to work on the MS degree in the fall of 2007. Because the project is large and originally envisioned as a PhD project, I have now split it into three parts. Idris Murad, an MS student in Geology & Geophysics is working on one part of the data set under the guidance of Dr. John Hopper and myself. Murad is supported by a fellowship from his home country. Nemazi is working on another part of the study area and is funded by this grant. I am currently recruiting another MS student for the third part of the data and am trying to obtain funding for a research assistantship from another source.
The second phase of project accomplishments was data loading. The multichannel seismc data arrived on about two dozen tapes. Murad read the data onto our computers and set up his own area for analysis using Kingdom Suite software. Nemazi has worked on the other half of the data and has her own project area ready to analyze. The data reading and loading was more difficult than anticipated because of quirks in the way the data were recorded. SEG-Y is the standard for seismic data, but often there are differences in the way that different companies write the data files that can delay loading.
Murad has completed a preliminary analysis of the top of salt and faults in his area. Nemazi is working on the same. The analysis is progressing and ongoing.
