A brief history of 3D seismic acquisition in BHP Coal and some predictions for the future

BHP Coal acquired their first 3D seismic survey in 1998 at the Goonyella mine site. The survey covered an area of 1.6 km and utilised a 360 channel cabled recording system and an explosive source to record 15 fold data. Since then BHP has acquired an additional 25 3D surveys across its various coal assets. In this paper we show how 3D seismic surveys have changed over the years, both at BHP coal and within the larger context of general developments in land seismic technology. Such developments include the move from arrays to point receivers, from explosive to Vibroseis sources, and from coarse geometries aimed at defining structure, to higher-density geometries giving far higher resolution results as well as being suitable for more advanced quantitative analysis. As well as discussing the changes in acquisition parameters over the years we also show data comparisons that show their impact. We finish by discussing the latest advances in seismic acquisition and how we see these improving Coal 3D seismic surveys in the future.