The Stanford Exploration Project (SEP) is an industry-funded academic consortium within the

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 ...

Department at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. SEP research has contributed greatly to improving the theory and practice of constructing 3-D and 4-D images of the earth from

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 ...

echo soundings (see:

Reflection seismology Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismi ...

). The consortium was started in the 1970s by

Jon Claerbout Jon F. Claerbout (born February 14, 1938) is an American geophysicist and seismologist. He is the Cecil Green Professor Emeritus of Geophysics at Stanford University. Since the later half of the 20th century, he has been a leading researcher an ...

and is currently co-directed with

Biondo Biondi Biondo is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Cayetano Biondo (1902–1986), Argentine actor *Flavio Biondo (1392–1463), Italian historian * Francesco Biondo (1735–1805), Italian painter *George Biondo (born 1954), Am ...

. SEP pioneered innovations in migration imaging, velocity estimation, dip moveout and slant stack. SEP has recently been involved in 3-D seismic applications such as velocity estimation, wavefield-continuation prestack migration, multidimensional image estimation, and 4-D (time-lapse) reservoir monitoring.

History

SEP was founded by

as a partnership between the Stanford University School of Earth Sciences Department of Geophysics and various industry partners who fund for SEP activities. SEP pioneered developments in migration imaging, velocity estimation, dip moveout and slant stack analysis.

External links

SEP Home Page

References

Stanford University Geophysics organizations Seismological observatories, organisations and projects Petroleum in the United States {{Geophysics-stub