Can AI Properly Interpret a Seismic Line? Not Yet, but Close, Says a Seismic-Interpreting Geologist: Better as a Digital Partner than as a Replacement

 

     The geophysicist, Max Leonardo Duerto Segali, who runs the Geoscientist Blog, recently posted about asking Chat GPT to interpret a seismic line. He is skilled in seismic interpretation. As for me, while I have looked at many seismic lines and used them in my work, I prefer to have them interpreted by geophysicists skilled in interpretation, which I am not. Knowing the structural style or having sufficient subsurface data in the area of interest really helps.

     The seismic line submitted to Chat GPT for interpretation was a salt dome structure, where the other beds pinch out against it as it intrudes. Below, he shows how ChatGPT was prompted to interpret the line.

     Version 1, shown below, he calls the Junior Interpreter – that would be me. He calls it a conservative attempt that got the drapes right but underestimated the number of depositional sequences.

     Version 2, shown below, he calls the Confident Geoscientist. This one is better and more detailed. He says it shows a more realistic salt structure shape and onlapping of beds against it, “demonstrating a more nuanced understanding of stratigraphic relationships.”

     Version 3, shown below, is the fullest interpretation. He calls this one the Workshop Lead and the most ambitious interpretation.

     Below, he describes how the AI interpretation works – by mimicry.

     He goes on to distinguish the AI interpretation from human interpretation, noting that true interpretation is hypothesis testing, not simply drawing.

“A horizon is not a line you draw because it “looks nice”. It is a geometric proposition about the Earth that must be able to produce the wavefield we observe. If it cannot, the interpretation is false; no matter how senior or confident the interpreter.”

     As noted below, he thinks that by giving AI “physics-based forward models,” the interpretations can be improved to match the waveform data.

     Finally, he reveals that AI would make a great digital assistant for seismic interpretation.

     This was a fascinating experiment and shows that AI will likely become an important part of seismic interpretation in the future.

 

 

 

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And then I asked GPT to interpret a seismic line! guess what it did! The Geoscientist Blog. November 27 2025. And then I asked GPT to intepret a seismic line! guess what it did!