Seismic wave Seismic wave Seismic waves are waves of energy that travel through the Earth's layers, and are a result of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, magma movement, large landslides and large man-made explosions that give out low-frequency acoustic energy. Many other natural and anthropogenic sources create low-amplitude waves commonly referred to as ambient vibrations. Seismic waves are studied by geophysicists called seismologists. Seismic wave fields are recorded by a seismometer, hydrophone (in water), or accelerometer. The propagation velocity of the waves depends on density and elasticity of the medium.Velocity tends to increase with depth and ranges from approximately 2 to 8 km/s in
Seismic attribute a defined window. The first attributes developed were related to the 1D complex seismic trace and included: envelope amplitude, instantaneous phase, instantaneous frequency, and apparent polarity. Acoustic impedance obtained from seismic inversion can also be considered an attribute and was among the first developed. Other attributes commonly used include: coherence, azimuth, dip, instantaneous amplitude, response amplitude, response phase, instantaneous bandwidth, AVO, and spectral decomposition. A seismic attribute that can indicate the presence or absence of hydrocarbons is known as a direct hydrocarbon indicator. Amplitude attributes use the seismic signal amplitude as the basis for their computation. A post-stack attribute that