Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 25, 2021 Seismic characterization of carbonate platforms and reservoirs: an introduction and review James Hendry1,2*, Peter Burgess3, David Hunt4, Xavier Janson5 and Valentina Zampetti6 1Iapetus Geoscience Ltd, Unit 7, Watson & Johnson Centre, Mill Road, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, Ireland 2School of Earth Sciences, University College Dublin, Bellfield, Dublin 4, Ireland 3School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Street, Liverpool L69 3GP, UK 4Equinor, Sandsliveien 90, Sandsli, N-5234, Norway 5Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78713, USA 6Shell Global Solutions, Lange Kleiweg 40, 2288 ER Rijswijk, The Netherlands JH, 0000-0002-8448-6057; DH, 0000-0003-1911-9389 *Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Improved seismic data quality in the last 10–15 years, innovative use of seismic attribute combina- tions, extraction of geomorphological data and new quantitative techniques have significantly enhanced under- standing of ancient carbonate platforms and processes. 3D data have become a fundamental toolkit for mapping carbonate depositional and diagenetic facies, and associated flow units and barriers, giving a unique perspective on how their relationships changed through time in response to tectonic, oceanographic and climatic forcing. Sophisticated predictions of lithology and porosity are being made from seismic data in reservoirs with good borehole log and core calibration for detailed integration with structural, palaeoenvironmental and sequence stratigraphic interpretations. Geologists can now characterize entire carbonate platform systems and their large-scale evolution in time and space, including systems with few outcrop analogues such as the Lower Cre- taceous Central Atlantic ‘pre-salt’ carbonates.