We have used seismic data from a sedimentary basin and taken examples from hard rock provinces to present an overview of seismic potential in delineating faults and fracture zones. Faults can act as fluid migration pathways, one of the most important components of petroleum and mineral system concepts. Migration pathway along with source, entrapment, and preservation form the critical geological elements required for the existence of resources. Our focus in this paper is on the utility of seismic for fault characterisation, however additional applications of seismic have been implemented by many workers for prospecting in petroleum and mineral systems which is not covered in our review. Features consistent with fault zones can be revealed in seismic volumes through the creation of specific attributes. Coherence, local structural dip, spectral decomposition, are some attributes that have been used to discriminate discontinuities and trends within seismic data. We interpreted several features related to structural and stratigraphic patterns, for example damage zones indicating NW-SE striking faults in onshore Taranaki Basin. Fault interpretations which are performed based on a range of seismic attributes, are a more realistic approach to narrow down the search space in prospecting phase.

Open-Access Online Publication: May 29, 2023