Cycle 4: Seismic Clatter• Locating Petroleum

• Wonder Why.....• Have you ever wondered about the

technology that scientists use to locate oil and natural gas? How can you map something you cannot see?

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Vocabulary Words

Seismic Clatter

• Every person in the world has a unique set of fingerprints. Even though everyone’s fingerprints are different, there are basic patterns that are always found.

• How are these fingerprints different?NextSlideNextSlide

Activity One – Patterns

Seismic Clatter

• 1. Make a carbon pad by scratching on a sheet• of paper with a pencil.

• 2. Rub your right thumb across the carbon pad.

• 3. Lift two prints of your right thumb using• transparent tape.

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Discovery Procedure

Seismic Clatter

name

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Discovery Procedure4. Place lifted thumb prints on opposite

ends of an index card. Write your name below the thumb print on the right half of the card.

5. Give your completed card to your teacher.

Seismic Clatter• Discovery Procedure:

• Identify the matching thumb prints.

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• Discuss the similarities and differences in the students’ prints.

• Identify student thumb prints which have whorls, arches or loops. Next

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Patterns from Underground• Scientists use sound waves to “see” inside

the earth and to produce seismic maps. Thumper trucks or explosions are used to send powerful vibrations, or seismic waves, through the ground.

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Seismic Mapping

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• • Seismic mapping (seismic survey) is used to locate subsurface

structures and possible sites for • petroleum location. Next

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Different rock types reflect seismic waves differently.

Geological Features• Geologic features of particular interest to petroleum geologists are:

1. Anticline

2. Fault

3. Salt Dome

4. Stratigraphic traps (Pinchout and Unconformity)

Click on the underlined words to learn more about the geological

feature. NextSlideNextSlide

Anticline

•Upwarping of rocks (anticlinal folds) are particularly good at trapping crude oil and natural gas.

Anticline

Oil formed in the source rock migrates upward through the reservoir rock until it is stopped by the cap rock.

OIL

Fault

•Movements in the Earth trapped the oil and natural gas in the reservoir rocks between layers of impermeable rock.

Salt Dome

•Salt beds formed by the evaporation of sea water. High pressure exerted on salt beds deep in the Earth’s crust caused the salt to flow, often forming a dome.

Stratigraphic Trap

Geologic features formed by a change in the reservoir rock.

The sand bars are covered by the mud from the floodplain. The mud eventually turned to shale and trapped the oil.