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Investigating Narcondam offshore using high-resolution seismic reflection data

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Abstract

The Andaman Sea is a back-arc basin that hosts the active Barren and the dormant Narcondam volcanoes. Despite its geological and geophysical significance, there are limited studies conducted over offshore Andaman. Here, a geophysical study of Narcondam offshore is presented to investigate basinal deposits and associated fluids and their migration paths using a 30-km long high-resolution 2D seismic reflection. The migrated section reveals a subsurface image highlighting evidence of a bright seafloor-parallel reflector with negative polarity at a two-way time (TWT) of 2.78–2.82 s (~ 2.2–2.3 km) with an interval velocity of 1.56 km/s. Amplitude versus Angle (AVA) analysis using Aki Richard’s two-term equation is further conducted to characterize the reserved fluid. The AVA analysis yields an increase in amplitude with angle, providing compelling evidence of fluid presence. Additionally, the depth converted migrated seismic section exhibits indications of columnar faults of Neogene period influencing the migration of fluids within the basin.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited.

Code availability

We used academic license of the Echos paradigm and Hampson Russell software.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to ONGC for generously providing us with the datasets used in this research. The availability of these datasets significantly contributed to the success of our study. Additionally, they extend their sincere appreciation to Echos Paradigm, GeoSoftware, and the HRS—AVO module of Hampson Russell software for granting us the academic license, enabling us to utilize their powerful tools in our analysis. Their support played a vital role in achieving the outcomes presented in this paper.

Funding

Funding support and data for the study were facilitated under the “PAN IIT-ONGC” research initiative.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

    Harshad Kumar Srivastav & Dibakar Ghosal

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  1. Harshad Kumar Srivastav
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HKS: methodology, software, writing—original draft, writing and editing. DG: conceptualization, supervision, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Harshad Kumar Srivastav.

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Srivastav, H.K., Ghosal, D. Investigating Narcondam offshore using high-resolution seismic reflection data. Geo-Mar Lett 43, 18 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-023-00760-3

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