Method for geophysical and geological interpretation of seismic volumes in the domains of depth, time, and age

A computer program product having computer executable logic recorded on a tangible, non-transitory machine readable medium, the computer program product comprising:

• code for obtaining a set of topologically consistent surfaces that correspond to seismic data relating to a subsurface region, said seismic data showing current state of the surfaces in geophysical depth domain;
• code for enumerating the surfaces in a depth domain;
• code for assigning an age to each of the surfaces in the depth domain, the age corresponding to an estimated time of deposition of the respective surface;
• code for generating an age mapping volume that maps said surfaces to approximally flat geometries and preserves the relative vertical order between samples, voxels, and points on the surfaces;
• code for choosing an extent of the age domain;
• code for generating a depth mapping volume that maps points of approximally equal age of deposition to their current vertical location while preserving their relative order;
• code for using both the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to transform geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or interpretations between the depth domain and the age domain, and between the age domain and the depth domain, each said transform being directly receded b one or more operations or interpretations performed on said each geophysical, geologic, or engineering data, interpretations, or the age mapping volume or the depth mapping volume;
• and
• code for outputting the geologic, geophysical, or engineering data or interpretations transformed by at least one of the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume.

A method for managing hydrocarbon resources, comprising:

• obtaining a set of topologically consistent surfaces that correspond to seismic data relating to a subsurface region, said seismic data showing current state of the surfaces in geophysical depth domain;
• enumerating the surfaces in a depth domain;
• assigning an age to each of the surfaces in the depth domain, the age corresponding to an estimated time of deposition of the respective surface;
• using a computer to generate an age mapping volume that maps said surfaces to approximally flat geometries and preserves the relative vertical order between samples, voxels, and points on the surfaces;
• choosing an extent of the age domain;
• using a computer to generate a depth mapping volume that maps points of approximally equal age of deposition to their current vertical location while preserving their relative order;
• using both the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to transform geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or interpretations between the depth domain and the age domain, and between the age domain and the depth domain, each said transform being directly preceded by one or more operations or interpretations performed on said geophysical, geologic, or engineering data, interpretations, or the age mapping volume or the depth mapping volume;
• using the geophysical, geologic, or engineering data or interpretations transformed by at least one of the age mapping volume and the depth mapping volume to predict a presence of hydrocarbons in the subsurface region;
• and
• managing hydrocarbon resources based on the predicted presence.