In 1987, two multicomponent seismic lines were acquired in the Carrot Creek area of west-central Alberta. Analyses of the final processed seismic sections (P-P and P-SV) showed that interpretation of P-SV (radial-component) data can assist greatly in delineating geologic units, particularly the Cardium conglomerates of the Carrot Creek area.

The difference in Cardium responses of the P-P and P-SV stacks was found to be a result of their respective amplitude-versus-offset (AVO) responses. Forward modeling showed that, for the Cardium event, a polarity reversal occurs with offset with the P-P, but not the P-SV, data. This arises from the destructive interference of the near- and far-offsets of the P-P data upon stacking, whereas the radial-component offsets add constructively, producing a higher amplitude P-SV Cardium event. The P-P and P-SV data were most sensitive to variation in conglomerate thickness over the 0-1000 m and 500-2000 m offset ranges respectively. These results indicate that better imaging of the Cardium conglomerate could therefore be achieved by either limiting the offset range during acquisition or by generating offset-range stacks.

It was also found that Poisson's ratio for specific seismic intervals could be derived from the P-P and P-SV traveltimes. Since the Cardium conglomerate possesses a low Poisson's ratio (0.18-0.22) relative to surrounding shales (0.31), this interval analysis was capable of identifying variations in conglomerate thickness by presence of lows in the calculated Poisson's ratio. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)