University of Leeds
The Virtual Seismic Atlas Project
The Virtual Seismic Atlas is a unique global community resource that openly shares seismic geophysical images of the Earths interior and the diversity of geological interpretations they inspire.
Story
The acquisition of seismic reflection data has been the single most important advance in establishing the structure of the outer parts of the solid Earth.
Although these methods were developed principally for the discovery and exploitation of oil and gas they are now critical for assessing a variety of environmental and engineering challenges, from evaluating the hazards associated with submarine landslides, revealing the structure of faults responsible for devastating earthquakes to assessing threats to the integrity of subsurface storage sites for societal waste (e.g. CO2, nuclear). The Virtual Seismic Atlas (VSA) is a web-application designed to share Earth Science expertise and understanding by promoting the interpretation of seismic images, providing images for training, public engagement and general curiosity. Users can access the VSA to find images of subsurface structures, submarine landscapes, the structure of oceanic waterbodies and much more.
Why not visit it now to see the stunning images of the Earths near-surface interior -acquired through seismic methods and interpreted by geologists.
Born in 2008 through partnership between industry and academia, facilitated by the UKs Natural Environment Research Council, the VSA is "free-at-the-point-of-access" and has global reach. Since its launch, the VSA has become widely used within the UK and internationally, chiefly accessed for examples of seismic reflection imagery to develop teaching and training materials. It has driven new research on uncertainty in seismic interpretation and promoted more effective interpretation of seismic imagery worldwide.
The VSA application remains robust and sustainable. However, the operating system on the host server is now becoming defunct. Its upgrade is incompatible with the VSA application and so the interface needs to be upgraded. Its a relatively simple fix and for this we need your support. Without this work, the VSA will cease to function and we will all lose this essential educational resource.
Meeting our fundraising target will allow the crucial software to be upgraded so that the VSA can remain a critical focal point for freely sharing the geological interpretation of seismic images. We believe that meeting environmental challenges in the coming years relies on increased collaboration between geologists, geophysicists, and society at large and that seismic know-how will play a pivotal role. The VSA will be at the heart of these collaborations and partnerships
Bill McCaffrey , Co-Director, University of Leeds : W.D.McCaffrey@leeds.ac.uk
