Automatic identification and isolation of events on seismic reflection data provides the basis for a new approach to seismic interpretation. The approach uses a syntactic pattern recognition method in which an objective function accommodates near-neighbor and non-neighbor trace cycle correlation and in which correlations between three traces (triplets), two traces (doublets), and single traces (singlets) are all included in configurations. The method yields a file that includes a listing of all identified events and their characteristics such as length (number of traces), dip, frequency, and amplitude. Thus, for the first time, these data can be statistically analyzed according to the relational attributes of seismic events.¿ 1997 American Geophysical Union