Kramer and Shedd agreed that it was time to seek permissions for the data and develop a publicly available map to benefit further research. "We'd have to deny these many times because the original data owners would not grant permission to release the data," Kramer said. "Many people have expressed interest over the years in having seafloor imagery sets," Kramer said. The result was a mosaic of 117 of the highest quality surveys.īOEM's bathymetry project now offers a high-resolution view of the Gulf of Mexico's seafloor to academic and industry professionals alike. The Gulf of Mexico is mostly covered by overlapping surveys of a variety of vintages, Kramer said, "We compared horizons to each other in areas where surveys overlap." For all overlapped horizons, the mapping team selected the best resolution interpretations and eliminated any overlapping horizons within its boundaries. Grid construction began by importing the 200 individual seafloor surveys into Schlumberger's Petrel 3D software.
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In addition to aligning a wide array of different surveys shot between 1987-2014, computer hardware and software were crucial to handling large files of different types while producing the bathymetry grid. BOEM holds about 2,000 surveys for the Gulf and selected 200 of the highest quality, large coverage examples for consideration in the bathymetry map. According to Kramer, the process was challenging because many of the surveys in the Gulf of Mexico were shot with different resolutions. It took BOEM geologist Kody Kramer a year to combine all the bureau's data into the new bathymetry grid. The process yielded features that have never been recognized before. "We achieved such a beautiful result in this area that we thought it was only natural to continue processing the bathymetry across the Gulf," Shedd said. The Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asked BOEM for a map of the area surrounding the Deepwater Horizon to survey its recovery. The need to assess the environmental impact of the 2010 Macondo blowout, an unprecedented event in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, prompted researchers to take a closer look at the Gulf's seafloor. BOEM had already mapped every 3D time seismic survey in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico for amplitude responses and had accumulated the X-Y-Z data for the bathymetry map.
The new bathymetry map project began in 2014. Speaking on the earliest phase of mapping the Gulf's seafloor, senior geophysicist at BOEM Bill Shedd told OGJ, "I tried to begin the bathymetry project in 2004-05 using Schlumberger's GeoFrame, but the program could not handle the volume of data we were inputting and our computers crashed repeatedly." It wasn't until the company launched its Petrel software that BOEM researchers had the capacity to begin the mapping project in earnest. The combined results cover more than 230,000 sq km of seismic data interpretation. Seep areas show anomalously high or low acoustic amplitude response relative to typical background, with most having overlapping seismic coverage from two or more surveys. The purpose of this mapping program is to understand the distribution of natural hydrocarbon seeps and related benthic fauna (chemosynthetic and coral communities) in the Gulf, and to characterize other seafloor features related to the geological framework of the seafloor. A diverse and multifaceted landscape exists, now mapped in vivid detail for the next generation to interpret.īOEM scientists have identified and mapped nearly 35,000 water bottom (seafloor) acoustic amplitude anomalies in the deepwater northern Gulf of Mexico using 3D time-migrated seismic surveys. Other seafloor features which can cause anomalous amplitude responses include submarine fans and channels, exposures of salt, slope failure deposits or slumps, flows of sediment out of hydrocarbon vent sites, and Cretaceous carbonate outcrops along the Florida Escarpment. Geological seafloor anomalies include carbonate hardgrounds, mud volcanoes, exceptionally gassy seafloor, and pockmarks. BOEM began mapping the Gulf of Mexico seafloor in 1998 to understand the distribution of natural hydrocarbon seeps using the acoustic amplitude response from 3D seismic data.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has combined 117 of its highest quality seafloor horizons to develop a 1.4-billion-pixel bathymetry map of the US Gulf of Mexico seafloor.
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