AAPG Day 2: industrial seismologists get all the cool toys.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the industrial sector is out in force at AAPG; most of the main exhibition hall is taken up by exploration companies and consultancies showing off their technical and intellectual wares. And some of the stuff on display is enough to cause anyone’s inner geek to explode in paroxysms of techno-joy.
The coolest thing that I’ve seen so far was an entire wall of linked monitors, which could be used to display 3D seismic data sets in stunning detail. Even better, it was interactive: lasers scanning in front of the display could locate a reflective pointer placed anywhere on the screen, movements of which could be used to rotate or zoom in or out of the dataset, or even to trace reflective horizons on-the-fly.
The guy giving the demonstration also showed me and Jeanette how you could use image processing routines to pick out fault planes, or even different packages of rock – such as channels – with specific acoustic characteristics, within a particular 3D volume. The level of discrimination they are now achieving with these processing tools is pretty incredible- it’s a long way from picking out horizons with a colouring pencil – or even a mouse.
Anyway I was pretty much drooling, and I don’t even do seismic interpretation. It makes me wonder – how many geologists went into industry not for the money, but for all the wonderful toys you get to play with?