Apparatus and method for seismic data acquisition with simultaneous activation of clustered vibrators

1. A method for seismic exploration of a subsurface formation, the method comprising:

deploying seismic receivers along receiver lines over the explored subsurface formation;

grouping vibratory sources in clusters, so that at least one of the clusters includes several vibratory sources that are placed at less than a predetermined distance from one another while vibrating, the predetermined distance being less than an average distance between adjacent receiver lines; and

actuating the clusters cyclically, so that, in each cycle, the vibratory sources within one of the clusters vibrate during a substantially same sweep time, vibrations of the vibratory sources pertaining to the one of the clusters being encoded to enable separation of recorded seismic data into subsets corresponding to the seismic vibrations.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the vibratory sources is moved from a vibration point to a next vibration point during each cycle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vibrations of the vibratory sources of the one of the clusters are encoded by one of short time static differences, different constant phases and a combination of time and phase differences.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein vibrations of the vibratory sources in the one of the clusters have constant phases pre-determined according to geographical shot locations.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vibratory sources in the one of the clusters vibrate according to a same sweep pattern.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein no vibratory source of the one of the clusters is intercalated between vibratory sources of any other one of the clusters.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

acquiring the recorded seismic data using the seismic receivers; and

separating the recorded seismic data into the subsets such that each subset corresponds to one of the vibratory sources.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein in each cycle, the clusters are activated at one of a series of times defined relative to a beginning of the cycle.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the clusters are activated in same order in each cycle.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the clusters are activated in different order in successive cycles.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein time intervals between successive of the times in the series are substantially equal.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the clusters starts vibrating before a listening time corresponding to a previously actuated cluster has ended.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

extracting individual cluster seismic data from the recorded seismic data.

14. A method for seismic exploration of a subsurface formation, the method comprising:

deploying seismic receivers along receiver lines over the explored subsurface formation;

grouping vibratory sources in clusters, so that at least one of the clusters includes several vibratory sources that are placed less than a predetermined distance from one another while vibrating, the predetermined distance being less than an average distance between adjacent receiver lines; and

actuating the clusters cyclically to produce seismic vibrations propagating in the subsurface formation, so that, in each cycle, the several vibratory sources in the at least one of the clusters vibrate during a substantially same sweep time, to generate seismic vibrations encoded to enable, for vibration frequencies higher than a threshold frequency, separation of recorded seismic data into subsets corresponding to each of the vibratory sources.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein

the sweep time includes (A) a first period during which the several vibratory sources vibrate simultaneously with one or more low frequencies that are less than or equal to the threshold frequency, and (B) a second period during which the several vibratory sources are encoded and vibrate with vibration frequencies higher than the threshold frequency, and

the threshold frequency corresponds to a wavelength exceeding the predetermined distance.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein, during the second period, the several seismic vibrations are encoded by one of short time static differences, different constant phases and a combination of time and phase differences.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein, during the second period, the seismic vibrations have constant phases pre-determined according to the geographical shot locations.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein

the several vibratory sources vibrate according to a same sweep pattern, and

each of the several vibratory sources is moved from a vibration point to a next vibration point during each cycle.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein at least one of the clusters starts vibrating before a listening time during which the seismic receivers listen for seismic reflections due to a previously actuated cluster has ended.