Michael Schoenberg (1939–2008) was an American theoretical

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

noted for his fundamental contributions to the understanding of

anisotropy Anisotropy () is the property of a material which allows it to change or assume different properties in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physic ...

in the real earth and its application to the determination of

texture Texture may refer to: Science and technology * Surface texture, the texture means smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object * Texture (roads), road surface characteristics with waves shorter than road roughness * Texture (c ...

fracture Fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displa ...

porosity Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure ...

, and flow properties of

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

s.Christie, P.A.F., 2008, ''First Break'', 26, 15
/ref>

Career

Schoenberg received a Ph.D. in

applied mechanics Applied mechanics is the branch of science concerned with the motion of any substance that can be experienced or perceived by humans without the help of instruments. In short, when mechanics concepts surpass being theoretical and are applied and e ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1965, and later taught and performed research in theoretical

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Tel-Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

, and

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

.The Ridgefield Press, Saturday, September 18, 2008 He joined

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

Doll Research in

Ridgefield, Connecticut Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York ...

in 1978, where he worked on applications of elastic waves in

borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petro ...

acoustic

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

, vertical seismic profiling, and surface

seismic Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

. In 1990, he transferred to the

research department of

Cambridge Research in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

where he worked on the application of surface

to characterization of the subsurface. His 1980 paper on "Elastic wave behavior across linear slip interfaces" in the

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America The ''Journal of the Acoustical Society of America'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of acoustics. It is published by the Acoustical Society of America and the editor-in-chief is James F. Lynch (Woods Hole Oceanog ...

has found wide application in

, the

characterization of

fractures Fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displa ...

and fractured

reservoirs A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...

, materials science and

ultrasonic Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies fr ...

non-destructive testing Nondestructive testing (NDT) is any of a wide group of analysis techniques used in science and technology industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage. The terms nondestructive examination (NDE), n ...

. He received the 1997 Conrad Schlumberger Award of the EAGE (European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers) "In recognition of his important contribution to seismic anisotropy, including the investigation of transversely isotropic media. His work leads to a precise determination of faults and fractures, and to a better discrimination of

lithology The lithology of a rock unit is a description of its physical characteristics visible at outcrop, in hand or core samples, or with low magnification microscopy. Physical characteristics include colour, texture, grain size, and composition. Lit ...

." The Conrad Schlumberger Award is presented to a member of the Association who has made an outstanding contribution over a period of time to the scientific and technical advancement of the

geosciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

, particularly

. He was the keynote speaker at the 1998 SEGJ International Meeting in Tokyo. He retired from

in 1999, but remained active in research through an international network of collaborators. In 2000–2003 he visited

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

Division of Petroleum Resources and

Curtin University of Technology Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

as an advisor to Abnormal Geopressure Prediction Research Program of the Australian Petroleum Cooperative Research Centre (APCRC). During this time he presented a lecture series on "Wave propagation in stratified geomaterials with fractures and anisotropy."Lecture series in Perth
/ref> Michael Schoenberg died August 29, 2008 after a short illness.

Selected publications

* Schoenberg, M.; 1980, Elastic wave behavior across linear slip interfaces, ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'', 68, 1516-1521. * Schoenberg, M., 1983, Reflection of elastic waves from periodically stratified media with interfacial slip: ''Geophysical Prospecting'', 31, 265–292. * Schoenberg, M.; and Douma, J.; 1988, Elastic wave propagation in media with parallel fractures and aligned cracks, ''Geophysical Prospecting'', 36, 571-590. * Schoenberg, M.; and Muir, F.; 1989, A calculus for finely layered anisotropic media, ''Geophysics'', 54, 581–589. * Hood and Schoenberg, 1989; Estimation of vertical fracturing from measured elastic moduli: ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 94, 15,611–15,618. * Nichols, D.; Muir, F.; and Schoenberg, M.; 1989, Elastic Properties of rocks with multiple sets of fractures: ''63rd Ann. Internat. Mtg., Soc. Expl. Geophys.'', Expanded Abstracts, 471–474. * Schoenberg, M.; and J. Protazio; 1992, "Zoeppritz" rationalized and generalized to anisotropy: ''Journal of Seismic Exploration'', 1, 125–144. * Folstad, P. G. and M. Schoenberg, 1992, Low-frequency propagation through fine layering: ''SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts'', 11, 1279–1281. * Hsu, C.-J., and Schoenberg, M., 1993, Elastic waves through a simulated fractured medium: ''Geophysics'', 58, 964–977. * Schoenberg, M.; and Sayers, C.M.; 1995, Seismic anisotropy of fractured rock, ''Geophysics'', 60, 204-211. * Coates, R.T.; and Schoenberg, M.; 1995, "Finite-difference modeling of faults and fractures", ''Geophysics'', 60, 1514-1526. * Schoenberg, M.; Muir, F.; and Sayers, C.; 1996, "Introducing ANNIE: A simple three-parameter anisotropic velocity model for shales", ''J. Seis. Expl.'' vol. 5, 35–49. * Schoenberg, M.; and Helbig, K.; 1997, Orthorhombic media: Modeling elastic wave behavior in a vertically fractured earth, ''Geophysics'', 62, 1954-1974. * Haugen, G. U.; and M. A. Schoenberg; 2000, The echo of a fault or fracture: ''Geophysics'', 65, 176–189. * Liu, E., Vlastos, S., Li, X.-Y., Main, I.G. and Schoenberg, M., 2004, Modelling seismic wave propagation during fluid injection in a fractured network: Effects of changes in pore pressure on seismic waves, ''The Leading Edge'', 23, No. 8, 778-783. * Vlastos, S., Liu, E., Main, I.G., Schoenberg, M., Maillot, B. and X.Y. Li, 2006, Dual simulation of fluid flow and seismic wave propagation in a fractured network: Effects of changes in pore pressure on seismic signature, ''

Geophysical Journal International ''Geophysical Journal International'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (German Geophysical Society). The j ...

'', 166, 825-838. * Daley, T. M., M. A. Schoenberg, J. Rutqvist, and K. T. Nihei, 2006, Fractured reservoirs: An analysis of coupled elastodynamic and permeability changes from pore pressure variation: ''Geophysics'', 71, O33–O41. * Nakagawa, S. and Schoenberg, M., 2007, Poroelastic modeling of seismic boundary conditions across a fracture: ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'', 122, 831-847.

References

External links

Michael Schoenberg (1939-2008)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoenberg, Michael 1939 births 2008 deaths American people of German descent American geophysicists Theorists