Identifying orientation clusters from microseismic data

摘要

Systems, methods and software can be used for analyzing microseismic data from a subterranean zone. In some aspects, a plurality of basic planes are each defined from a subset of the microseismic data and each have an orientation relative to a common axis. Clusters of orientations of the basic planes are identified adaptively based on the extent of variation in the orientations. The number of orientations associated with each of the clusters is then identified.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing microseismic data from a subterranean zone, the method comprising:
receiving microseismic event data associated with a fracture treatment of a subterranean zone; identifying coplanar subsets of microseismic events in the received microseismic event data, each of the coplanar subsets comprising a non-collinear triplet of microseismic events in the received microseismic event data; determining a basic plane orientation for each of a plurality of basic planes defined by the coplanar subsets, each basic plane orientation being defined by the non-collinear triplet of microseismic events in a respective one of the coplanar subsets, each basic plane having an orientation relative to a common axis; identifying, by data processing apparatus, clusters of orientations of the basic planes adaptively based on an extent of variation in the orientations; identifying the number of orientations associated with each of the clusters; displaying a histogram of the basic plane orientations, wherein the histogram indicates the number of orientations associated with each of the clusters; generating a fracture plane for the each of the clusters based on microseismic events associated with the each of the clusters; and displaying the fracture plane to show time evolution of the fracture plane that represents a physical fracture within the subterranean zone.