Vel-IO 3D: A tool for 3D velocity model construction, optimization and time-depth conversion in 3D geological modeling workflow

Abstract

We present Vel-IO 3D, a tool for 3D velocity model creation and time-depth conversion, as part of a workflow for 3D model building. The workflow addresses the management of large subsurface dataset, mainly seismic lines and well logs, and the construction of a 3D velocity model able to describe the variation of the velocity parameters related to strong facies and thickness variability and to high structural complexity. Although it is applicable in many geological contexts (e.g. foreland basins, large intermountain basins), it is particularly suitable in wide flat regions, where subsurface structures have no surface expression.

The Vel-IO 3D tool is composed by three scripts, written in Python 2.7.11, that automate i) the 3D instantaneous velocity model building, ii) the velocity model optimization, iii) the time-depth conversion. They determine a 3D geological model that is consistent with the primary geological constraints (e.g. depth of the markers on wells).

The proposed workflow and the Vel-IO 3D tool have been tested, during the EU funded Project GeoMol, by the construction of the 3D geological model of a flat region, 5700 km2 in area, located in the central part of the Po Plain. The final 3D model showed the efficiency of the workflow and Vel-IO 3D tool in the management of large amount of data both in time and depth domain. A 4 layer-cake velocity model has been applied to a several thousand (5000–13,000 m) thick succession, with 15 horizons from Triassic up to Pleistocene, complicated by a Mesozoic extensional tectonics and by buried thrusts related to Southern Alps and Northern Apennines.