Deriving the Poisson Impedance in

Hampson-Russell Software
Kevin Gerlitz
Geophysicist, VHR Jakarta
April 2006

POISSON IMPEDANCE
The Poisson Impedance is an attribute that is derived from a
combination of the P- and S-impedance values and is a good
hydrocarbon indicator. This method was described in a paper
called Poisson Impedance by Quakenbush, Shang and Tuttle in
The Leading Edge, February 2006.
This document illustrates a method of deriving the Poisson
Impedance logs from either P- and S-Impedance well logs or
seismic attribute volumes created from Simultaneous Inversion.
The relationship between the Poisson Impedance and the Fluid
Factor attribute will also be illustrated.

POISSON IMPEDANCE
The idea of the Poisson Impedance is
illustrated in the figure on the left.
In the Acoustic Impedance / Shear
Impedance cross-plot, it is difficult
to discriminate the litho-fluid
distributions on the horizontal and
vertical axes. But rotating the axis
to be parallel with the trends would
ensure a distinct discrimination of
the litho-fluid distributions.
The method for defining the Poisson
Impedance can be written as:
PI = AI cSI
From Quakenbush et al. (2006)

Where c is the term that optimizes

the rotation.

POISSON IMPEDANCE
Recall that the Poissons Ratio can be written as:

VP 2VS
VP + 2VS
=
=
(Vp 2Vs )
2
2
2
2
2(VP VS ) 2(VP VS )
2

(1)

If we rewrite the PI=AI cSI in terms of velocities and density,

then we can define the so-called Poisson Velocity

PI = VP cVS = (VP cVS ) = V

(2)

Notice that we can now relate the Poissons Ratio (1) with the
Poisson Velocity (2) and if we define c=sqrt(2) and a scaling
factor, D, then

= DV

(3)

POISSON IMPEDANCE
The significance of the c term is that it is the inverse of the slope
of the litho-fluid trends. For example, the Greenberg-Castagna VpVs equation is Vs = 0.77 Vp 869 m/s. The inverse of the slope is
1/0.77 = 1.3 which is an approximation to the square root of 2 (i.e.,
1.41).
Implementing this relationship within Hampson-Russell Software
is quite easy to do and involves some simple Trace Maths scripts.

POISSON IMPEDANCE
In order to create the
Poisson Impedance logs,
you first need to be in eLog
with a well that has both
the P- and S-Impedance
logs.
Click on the Math button

POISSON IMPEDANCE

Select the Log Maths

option and select the Pand S-impedance logs for
the input. Make the
Output Log Type of type
Poisson Impedance

POISSON IMPEDANCE
Type in the equation for
the Poisson Impedance.
If we use c=sqrt(2), then
the equation is as shown

POISSON IMPEDANCE
Similarly, we can
derive the c term from
the cross-plot of the Pand S-Impedance logs
for the wet trend and
calculate a regression
line. The inverse of
the slope could be
used as the c value, in
this case, 1/.746561 =
1.339.

POISSON IMPEDANCE
The far right track shows
the computed Poisson
Impedance logs for the two
c values (red: c = 1.41, blue:
c=1.339). The Computed
Poisson Ratio curve is
shown beside it for
comparison.

POISSON IMPEDANCE
The same
process can be
applied to the Pand S-impedance
volumes derived
from the seismic
using
Simultaneous
Inversion. In this
case, use
Process > Utility
> Trace Maths
and follow the
same workflow

POISSON IMPEDANCE
Here is the output Poisson Impedance volume with the low blue values
indicating the gas zone. The PI log is spliced into the section.

POISSON IMPEDANCE
The Poisson Impedance has a very close relationship with the Fluid
Factor attribute. The Fluid Factor concept was first introduced in
a paper by Smith and Gidlow in a paper called Weighted stacking
for rock property estimation and detection of gas, 1987,
Geophysical Prospecting.
The basic idea of the Fluid Factor is that brine-saturated clastic
silicate rocks define a mudrock line trend on the Vp-Vs cross-plot
space (Castagna et al., 1985). The mudrock line equation is given
as :
Vp = 1.16 Vs + 1360 m/s
The simple idea of the Fluid
Factor is that points that lie
further away from the brine wet
trend are more likely to have
hydrocarbons.

From Smith and Gidlow (1987)

POISSON IMPEDANCE
We can derive the following relationship between Vp/Vs and
Poissons Ratio as follows:

VP 1
=

VS 1 / 2

1/ 2

(4)

This is a direct linear relationship with Vp/Vs increasing with

increasing . The pseudo-Poissons Ratio reflectivity can thus
be defined as:

(VP / VS ) VP VS
=

VP / VS
VP
VS

(5)

Note that reflectivity equation above would be the same as the

reflectivity of the previously derived Poisson Velocity.

PI = (VP cVS ) = V

POISSON IMPEDANCE
The Fluid Factor was defined as the difference between the actual
Vp reflectivity and the reflectivity calculated from the mudrock line,
i.e.,

VS VS
Vp
F =
c
Vp
VP VS

(6)

This was modified by Fatti et al. (1994) to include the density term
and write it in terms of acoustic and shear impedance reflectivities:

VS RS
Rp
F =
c
Rp
VP RS

(7)

Where c represents the slope of the wet clastic reservoir trend.

Using the mudrock line, c was defined as 1.16 in both the Smith
(1987) and Fatti (1994) papers. The Fluid Factor is thus the
reflectivity of the Poisson Impedance, where the Shear Impedance
has been additionally scaled so that amplitudes are close
to 0.

REFERENCES
Castagna, J.P., Batzle, M.L., and Eastwood, R. L., 1985.
Relationships between compressional and shear-wave velocities
in elastic silicate rocks: Geophysics, 50, p. 571 581.
Fatti, J.L., Smith, G.C., Vail, P.J., Strauss, P.J. and Levitt, P.R.,
1994. Detection of gas in sandstone reservoirs using AVO
analysis: a 3-D seismic case history using the Geostack
technique: Geophysics, 59, 1362 1376.
Quakenbush, M., Shang, B., and Tuttle, C, 2006. Poisson
Impedance: The Leading Edge, 25, 128 138.
Smith, G.C., and Gidlow, P.M., 1987. Weighted stacking for rock
property estimation and detection of gas: Geophysical
Prospecting, 35, 993 1014.