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Seismic exploration: Technique and processing
Geoexploration, 19 (1982) 297-300 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
297
Book Reviews Seismic Exploration: Technique and Processing. Hamid N. Al-Sadi. Birkhluser Verlag, Basel, Boston, Stuttgart, 1980, ‘215 pp., SFr 49.00, DM 54.00, US $ 29.50. This is an introductory-level book on seismic exploration, essentially reflection-seismic theory, methods and data processing. There has been a need in the last few years for a textbook about this length and coverage and Dr. Al-Sadi’s book has gone a long way towards satisfying that need. It is strong in its layout and organization and the presentation is generally suitable for the elementary-level reader without estranging the more advanced reader using the book as a reference. This is all generally in line with the author’s stated purpose, namely: to write an introductory manual of theory, field and processing techniques, emphasizing the signal-analysis aspects and aimed at both industry and university readers. However, the book suffers from a number of weaknesses which detract from its basically sound framework. There is a certain lack of rigour throughout the book, with regard both to the language and the geophysics. There is also some non-uniformity of the treatment and the book contains more than its fair share of errors and/or misprints. Probably very few of these flaws present the more experienced reader with any real difficulty but the uninitiated reader, for whom the book was principally written, sometimes will run the risk of being confused (e.g., by a subscript error or by clouded syntax) while already struggling with new concepts. By content, the book can be thought of as three pairs of chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 are entitled: Theory of Wave Motion, and Seismic Waves, respectively, and present the basic theory from simple harmonic oscillations through elastic theory to seismic wave propagation. As with all the chapters, these begin with a list of definitions of all symbols used in the chapter. Chapter 3, Time Series Analysis, and Chapter 4, Spectral Analysis, are perhaps the best part of the book. Basically they present the analytic concepts and operations whose seismic applications are later treated more thoroughly, mainly in Chapter 6. Chapter 3 covers digital concepts, including the z transform, operations like correlation and convolution as well as linear filtering. Chapter 4 is probably the best one, covering the development of Fourier series, integrals and transform theorems in a clear, comprehensive manner. Some of the results of Chapter 4 are needed in Chapter 3 but it would be difficult to improve significantly on the ordering of topics. The last two chapters form the applications portion of the book. Chapter 5, Seismic Prospecting, covers the theory and techniques of data acquisition, almost entirely for the reflection-seismic method. Refraction is briefly introduced in the ray-theory discussion but then dropped. Standard reflection concepts, such as e.g. CDP stacking and geophone-group theory are covered
298
here. Chapter 6, Digital-Processing of Reflection Data, is the longest in the book (44 pp.). Many of the topics presented earlier, especially in chapters 3 and 4, are here set into the perspective of the reflection-seismic processing chain. The presentation is orderly and a processing example is illustrated with about 15 section figures. In all, the book has around 100 figures. I have used this book as a reference in a couple of advanced undergraduate courses and have had favourable comments on it from students. It certainly would have benefited, however, from closer proofreading of the text and the figures, both from a scientific as well as a linguistic point of view. Fortunately, the negative aspects of this book are not fundamental in nature and could be largely weeded out in a revised second edition. R. JAMES BROWN (Calgary, Alta)
Three-Layer Model Curves for Geoelectrical Resistivity Measurements Schlumberger Array. Erich Mundry and Joachim Homilius. Bundesanstalt fiir Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe. In commission: E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, 1979, DM 185.00. This is a collection of about 7500 three-layer model curves for resistivity sounding measurements, divided over about 600 curve sets, for regularly distributed values of the layer resistivities and layer thicknesses. The collection contains more than three times as many curves as the older collection of Rijks Waterstaat. The publication is intended as an aid for the interpretation in the field of resistivity soundings, in conjunction with auxiliary graphs. Up to now, this method of interpretation was seriously hampered by the need to interpolate between the published model curves. The present collection, although in my opinion it does not completely solve the interpretation problem, certainly is a great step forward in reducing it. The price of the publication is certainly not excessive for such an extensive and valuable collection of model curves. 0. KOEFOED (Delft)
Physical Applications of Stationary Time-Series. Enders A. Robinson. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1981, xi + 302 pp., US$42.00. Enders Robinson has produced an excellent text book on digital statistical time-series. This is a topic that has received a great deal of attention from
297
Book Reviews Seismic Exploration: Technique and Processing. Hamid N. Al-Sadi. Birkhluser Verlag, Basel, Boston, Stuttgart, 1980, ‘215 pp., SFr 49.00, DM 54.00, US $ 29.50. This is an introductory-level book on seismic exploration, essentially reflection-seismic theory, methods and data processing. There has been a need in the last few years for a textbook about this length and coverage and Dr. Al-Sadi’s book has gone a long way towards satisfying that need. It is strong in its layout and organization and the presentation is generally suitable for the elementary-level reader without estranging the more advanced reader using the book as a reference. This is all generally in line with the author’s stated purpose, namely: to write an introductory manual of theory, field and processing techniques, emphasizing the signal-analysis aspects and aimed at both industry and university readers. However, the book suffers from a number of weaknesses which detract from its basically sound framework. There is a certain lack of rigour throughout the book, with regard both to the language and the geophysics. There is also some non-uniformity of the treatment and the book contains more than its fair share of errors and/or misprints. Probably very few of these flaws present the more experienced reader with any real difficulty but the uninitiated reader, for whom the book was principally written, sometimes will run the risk of being confused (e.g., by a subscript error or by clouded syntax) while already struggling with new concepts. By content, the book can be thought of as three pairs of chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 are entitled: Theory of Wave Motion, and Seismic Waves, respectively, and present the basic theory from simple harmonic oscillations through elastic theory to seismic wave propagation. As with all the chapters, these begin with a list of definitions of all symbols used in the chapter. Chapter 3, Time Series Analysis, and Chapter 4, Spectral Analysis, are perhaps the best part of the book. Basically they present the analytic concepts and operations whose seismic applications are later treated more thoroughly, mainly in Chapter 6. Chapter 3 covers digital concepts, including the z transform, operations like correlation and convolution as well as linear filtering. Chapter 4 is probably the best one, covering the development of Fourier series, integrals and transform theorems in a clear, comprehensive manner. Some of the results of Chapter 4 are needed in Chapter 3 but it would be difficult to improve significantly on the ordering of topics. The last two chapters form the applications portion of the book. Chapter 5, Seismic Prospecting, covers the theory and techniques of data acquisition, almost entirely for the reflection-seismic method. Refraction is briefly introduced in the ray-theory discussion but then dropped. Standard reflection concepts, such as e.g. CDP stacking and geophone-group theory are covered
298
here. Chapter 6, Digital-Processing of Reflection Data, is the longest in the book (44 pp.). Many of the topics presented earlier, especially in chapters 3 and 4, are here set into the perspective of the reflection-seismic processing chain. The presentation is orderly and a processing example is illustrated with about 15 section figures. In all, the book has around 100 figures. I have used this book as a reference in a couple of advanced undergraduate courses and have had favourable comments on it from students. It certainly would have benefited, however, from closer proofreading of the text and the figures, both from a scientific as well as a linguistic point of view. Fortunately, the negative aspects of this book are not fundamental in nature and could be largely weeded out in a revised second edition. R. JAMES BROWN (Calgary, Alta)
Three-Layer Model Curves for Geoelectrical Resistivity Measurements Schlumberger Array. Erich Mundry and Joachim Homilius. Bundesanstalt fiir Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe. In commission: E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, 1979, DM 185.00. This is a collection of about 7500 three-layer model curves for resistivity sounding measurements, divided over about 600 curve sets, for regularly distributed values of the layer resistivities and layer thicknesses. The collection contains more than three times as many curves as the older collection of Rijks Waterstaat. The publication is intended as an aid for the interpretation in the field of resistivity soundings, in conjunction with auxiliary graphs. Up to now, this method of interpretation was seriously hampered by the need to interpolate between the published model curves. The present collection, although in my opinion it does not completely solve the interpretation problem, certainly is a great step forward in reducing it. The price of the publication is certainly not excessive for such an extensive and valuable collection of model curves. 0. KOEFOED (Delft)
Physical Applications of Stationary Time-Series. Enders A. Robinson. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1981, xi + 302 pp., US$42.00. Enders Robinson has produced an excellent text book on digital statistical time-series. This is a topic that has received a great deal of attention from