Global SEEBASE

Global SEEBASE is a licensed, high-resolution basement model of the globe from Geognostics. The character of basement provides first-order controls on the architecture of an evolving basin and influences its heat flow, but outcrop, wells and seismic observe it only at points and along lines, so explorers need a consistent regional interpretation between them.

The model is built with the SEEBASE workflow: a structural model is developed, gravity and magnetic (potential field) data are interpreted, and the result is calibrated with seismic, wells and published literature. The depth-to-basement surface is hand-contoured. Geognostics' 2020 product flyer states that the global gravity and DEM layers are from Sandwell and Smith (v28), whose marine gravity grid is derived from satellite radar altimetry, and that the interpretation is based on open-file datasets, literature and reports.

Deliverables include depth to basement, interpretation confidence, depth to Moho, basement terranes, basement composition (over 300,000 polygons attributed with 66 lithologies) and SEEBASE Geothermal predicted heat flow. They are supplied as GIS-compatible image, grid, layer and database files, for the whole globe or as a customised regional extract, under a non-exclusive licence.

The model draws on more than 20 years of technical work, including interpretation by Frogtech Geoscience, whose IP assets Geognostics has owned since 2019. Clients can nominate or fund upgrades of an area, on an open-file, client-supported or confidential basis: the open-file Central Europe SEEBASE study was funded by OMV, and OZ SEEBASE 2021 is a free regional example. Geognostics names hydrocarbon, mineral, geothermal, hydrogen and helium exploration as applications.