Areal seismic reflection

Areal seismic-reflection-survey techniques lead to areally equally spaced density of seismic subsurface information, whereby the miniumum spacing may be as narrow as 10 m, compared to the relatively wide gridding based on conventional line-seismic surveys. The seismic data bank reulting from an areal survey - as a consequence of the narrowly and equally spaced density of the subsurface points - allows the extraction of: 1) arbitrarily selectable plane seismic sections presenting the true image of the subsurface structure after 3 D-migration processing; 2) large series in arbitrary direction of subsequent seismic cross-section, socalled echelon profiles. The immense informational density enables for interpretation without need of interpolations, leading to up-to-now unusual reliability. - The variety in types of building-block systems of the field survey methods grants optimum adaption to the respective exploration target. Application of multichannel recording instruments is the prerequisite of economy. The areas covered up-to-now with this kind of seismic field survey extended to about 10 - 20 km2 each time. (orig.)