Description:

Current standard practice for characterizing marine sediments in the foundation and top-hole drilling zones (i.e., top tens to 1500 m), in both academia and industry, relies on extensive coring/cone penetrometer testing and stratigraphic correlation to seismic facies, or by inference based on qualitative interpretation of seismic data alone. While the application of seismic inversion techniques (which have revolutionized hydrocarbon reservoir characterization) to the overburden have been broadly discussed for many years, there has been a significant recent upsurge in interest. The shift towards more geologically complex and deeper water sites, combined with the global economic climate, has driven a requirement for more cost-effective site characterization to reduce both over-design (i.e., cost) and risk. Coincidentally, this has occurred at the same time as major developments in the availability of high-performance computing, which make large-scale application of inversion techniques practically feasible.

This workshop aims at bringing together all parties involved in the development, interpretation, and application of seismic inversion results for marine site investigation. We want to stimulate an open debate that involves everyone associated with the site investigation process, including: geophysicists and other geoscientists, who develop and apply the inversion methods; geotechnical engineers, who incorporate the results into engineering ground models and subsequent infrastructure design; and end-clients, who finance and over-see the whole project cycle. In doing so, we aim to address three key questions surrounding the application of seismic inversion to this field:

1. What can we achieve using the seismic inversion methods available and how does this provide an improvement over current standard practice?
2. How does seismic inversion best fit into the site characterization work flow to maximize impact?
3. What advances are necessary, both in terms of data acquisition and inversion methods, to make seismic inversion more useful for engineering applications?
   

It is therefore hoped that this workshop will broaden the awareness of current state-of-the-art seismic inversion capabilities for the marine overburden, bring experts in the different disciplines (e.g., geophysicists, geotechnical engineers, ground modelers) together for an open and frank discussion on the potential outputs from seismic inversion, and identify critical gaps in our technical ability and/or knowledge-base that can form the focus of inversion research and development activities over the next 5 to 10 years.

Who should attend:

Anyone involved in or with an interest in the site investigation process.

Workshop Programme:

*Presenter