a mainframe etc examples of possible workstations include a silicon graphics indigo 2 workstation and a sun sparc workstation the computer system 30 stores and executes a plurality of instructions that are used to detect fractures in an earth formation in response to a plurality of seismic data 33 the seismic data 33 being provided as u2018 input data u2019 to the computer system 30 the computer system 30 of fig1 includes a processor 30 a a recorder to display device 30 b a memory 30 c which is adapted to store the u2018 fracture detection software u2019 30 c 1 in accordance with the present invention and a system bus 30 d to which the processor 30 a and the recorder or display device 30 b and the memory 30 c are connected a cd rom 32 stores the u2018 fracture detection software u2019 30 c 1 of the present invention and when the cd rom 32 is inserted into the computer system 30 the fracture detection software 30 c 1 is loaded from the cd rom 32 into the memory 30 c of the computer system 30 the processor 30 a can now execute the u2018 fracture detection software u2019 30 c 1 instructions and perform its fracture detection for detecting fractures in an earth formation the process steps being practiced by the u2018 fracture detection software u2019 30 c 1 of the present invention when the instructions of the fracture.