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Geology & Geophysics signal that has a lower peak intensity. Beasley says WesternGeco has imple- geophysicists,” he says. “The commercial “According to a recent study made for mented a type of compressive sensing introduction has been some time coming, the joint industry research group, this on the source side, called SimSource, because it is totally contrary to all the would allow a smaller marine mammal a simultaneous source acquisition and principals of geophysical data acquisi- exclusion zone,” Taylor says. processing technique. This technology, tion. We don’t like to have more than one

Beasley says, allows for two or more source active because one air gun source Non-seismic technologies seismic sources to be active in the ? eld at looks like another, so when you record

Hobbs says there are a number of non- one time, both able to recover data. two that are active at the same time on seismic technologies that TGS is monitor- “This breaks all the rules for the same record, how can you tell which ing, and one of those is electromagnetic (EM) technology. “We’ve been active investors in the

Barents Sea off Norway, along with

EMGS—the EM specialist in the indus- try,” Hobbs says. “I think it is a valid tool, in certain types of geology. We’re focused on identifying the areas where it works and where it is synergistic with our seismic activities. “You can interpret seismic without

EM, but it is almost impossible interpret

EM without seismic.”

Hobbs says TGS will continue to invest in EM where the company has a very strong seismic database that can be used in conjunction with interpreting and processing EM data.

A compressed future

Beasley is excited about what the future holds for the geophysical industry.

Beasley said compressive technology caused a

Craig Beasley big stir in the medical imaging ? eld and could be revolutionary for seismic acquisitions. He says where it might be advanta- geous to put out more sensors for acquisi- tions, more may not be required. Beasley says with compressive technology you have to be smarter about the complexity of the thing you are trying to measure. He relates the technology to how compres- sion revolutionized the music industry by taking music compressed on compact discs (CDs) and compressing further into

MP3 ? les, which allow for more storage without noticeable loss in quality.

“A more fundamental question would be, did I need to make all those elaborate

JUST PLUG IT IN!

measurements to start with, if I could

Advantageous approach to the construction of living quarters. simply compress with a factor of ten,”

Beasley asked. “Couldn’t I have only

STX Finland Cabins is the world’s leading manufacturer of prefabricated modular sampled 1/10 of the data to start with? cabins. Over the past 30 years the company has delivered more than 130 000

That way you would save a lot in the cabins and bathrooms for marine and ofshore applications.

recording phase. It may not make that much sense for the digital media, but www.stxfnland.com/cabins for the seismic industry, this could be groundbreaking.” oedigital.com August 2014 | OE 45 042_OE0814_G&G1.indd 45 7/22/14 5:38 PM