Generating variable shapes of salt geobodies from seismic images and prior geological knowledge

We have developed an implicit method to automatically generate several possible models of salt top surfaces with varying geometries and topologies. This method can be conditioned to available data such as well markers and seismic picks. Because seismic imaging of salt is prone to velocity uncertainty and Fresnel zone effects, the input of the method is a seismic image that is segmented into three regions: salt, sediments, and uncertain. The uncertain region contains the salt boundary, and all further computations focus within this zone. A monotonic scalar field, ranging from zero on the edge of the certain salt body to one on the maximal possible salt boundary, defines the cumulated probability for a point to be outside the salt body. A random scalar field, also bounded between zero and one, is then used as a threshold for the first scalar field. The salt boundary is implicitly defined by the zero isovalue of the difference between the two fields, and it can be further extracted using marching cubes. The random field parameters have a geometric and topological impact on the simulated salt volumes. They can be adapted to reproduce specific geological features, but their inference remains difficult. The application of the method for the reconstruction of diapir boundaries from a set of partly interpreted sections indicates that it is well-suited to honor numerous constraining data while proposing different possible structural scenarios in the uninterpreted parts.