Development status and trend of high-density 3D seismic exploration technology for coal fields

Traditional 3D seismic exploration in coal mining areas is difficult to meet the requirements of transparent and accurate geological exploration for safe and efficient coal mining due to its low precision for complex structures, lower coal seams, and limestones. In this case, high-density 3D seismic exploration technology for coal fields emerged. This technology has undergone three developmental stages in China, namely the exploration and test stage during 2005‒2007, the test and demonstration stage during 2008‒2014, and the promotion and application stage since 2015. After nearly 20 years of development, its accuracy for the exploration of complex geological structures has been significantly improved, and great progress has been made in its ability to solve special geological problems. By combining the analysis of relevant study results and exploration examples, this study reviewed the current status of techniques used in major links, such as data acquisition, processing, and interpretation, in the high-density 3D seismic exploration technology for coal mines. Facing the urgent need of safe and efficient production of coal mines for small and micro-structure interpretation and accurate lithology identification, this study proposed that the development of high-density 3D seismic exploration technology for coal fields will focus on the technologies for the optimization of the seismic observation system, the merging of seismic data, pre-stack depth migration, data processing and interpretation of the Offset Vector Title (OVT) domain, depth-domain seismic data interpretation, and artificial intelligence processing and interpretations.