Symposium on Geophysics 
FOREWORD 
At the present time there are more than fifty reflection seismo- 
graph parties operating throughout the United States. The vast ma- 
jority of this work is in Oklahoma and Texas. There is considerable 
gravimetric work being carried on, mainly in the Gulf Coast. While 
the magnetometer has lost ground compared with a few years ago, 
there are still a few parties in the field. 
The total monthly outlay on reflection seismic operations must be 
more than a half million dollars, with every expectation that this ex- 
penditure will increase as the known reserves of oil decrease, and as 
the oil business becomes more profitable. The increased confidence in 
reflection seismic methods, both dip and correlation, will also con- 
tribute to this expanding program. In spite of several failures, some 
due to carelessness and others to lack of understanding of the limita- 
tions of the method, there are still some notable recent successes. The 
manner in which well spacing and townsite drilling was discussed at 
Tomball prior to the first well being spudded shows how great was the 
confidence of the oil fraternity in the work in this new area. 
With the realization that this method was becoming successful and 
that the pioneer work was done, and with the desire to get their share 
of the juicy half million dollar plum, several consulting companies 
have been organized. Under competitive bidding, prices have been 
reduced to the point where there is barely an adequate return on the 
investment and certainly no money for research and development. 
In a further effort to keep the program costs as low as possible, 
inadequate data have been frequently obtained, so that, even in the 
hands of a skilled seismologist, there has been insufficient material 
for a proper analysis. Small wonder then that he has made mistakes. 
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