INTEGRATION OF SEISMIC CURVATURE AND ILLUMINATION ATTRIBUTES IN FRACTURE DETECTION ON A DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL: METHODOLOGY AND INTERPRETATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

The curvature is a common attribute that illustrates the geometry of seismic reflectors. It has been widely used to detect faults in the subsurface. This attribute is applied on a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to characterize fractures on a reservoir analog. The study of outcrop analogues can easier and accessible comparing to the subsurface study which need specific data like 3D seismic and borehole imagery. The surface study can be used to model fractures at different scales, from mega scale to microscale. The ending could be used to understand the fractures distribution, fracture network connectivity, fractures kinematics, and simulate the fluid flow. The aim of this paper is the proposition of the application of seismic curvature attributes and illumination to characterize and model the natural fractures using as case study the Cambro-Ordovician reservoir analog that appears in the south edge of Mouydir basin, Saharan platform, Algeria. This approach would be a way to enhance a fracture detection and understand the temporal and the spatial fractures distribution to predict them later in subsurface.