Interpretation of Hydrocarbon Microtremors as Nonlinear Oscillations Driven by Oceanic Background Waves

Summary Hydrocarbon Microtremor Analysis (HyMAS) identifies the presence of hydrocarbon containing geological structures by analyzing low frequency seismic background wave signals. A possible interpretation of this reproducibly observable phenomenon is the excitation of hydrocarbon related resonances. Synthetic spectra produced by basic linear and non-linear one-dimensional models of an oscillating liquid filled porous medium show characteristic features of measured HyMAS spectra when oceanic background waves around 0.1-0.2Hz are assumed to be the external driving force.