Mit Geophysical Analysis Group

By the late 1940s it was becoming increasingly difficult to discover petroleum. The analog geophysical methods gave results so poor that success largely depended upon drilling well after well until one hit oil. In 1948, MIT researchers under the guidance of Professor Norbert Wiener decided to investigate the problem. In 1950 seismograms that were recorded as traces on photographic paper were digitized at MIT by ruler and pencil. Various digital methods were tried until it was discovered that deconvolution worked. By 1952 the method was programmed on the Whirlwind digital computer, and the MIT Geophysical Analysis Group (GAG) was formed as a consortium involving MIT and the oil industry. The collaboration spurred the "digital revolution" in oil prospecting which took place in the 1960s.