diff --git a/src/SEG-Y/SEGYImport.cpp b/src/SEG-Y/SEGYImport.cpp
index 86e67b261c0b4dbe850ab47d97f501fc3862a99e..5d94a26aeab736e1ef4af961bb4073de755e977d 100644
--- a/src/SEG-Y/SEGYImport.cpp
+++ b/src/SEG-Y/SEGYImport.cpp
@@ -292,10 +292,8 @@ HeaderFieldFromJson(Json::Value const& jsonHeaderField)
 }
 
 bool
-ParseHeaderFormatFile(OpenVDS::File const& file, std::map<std::string, SEGY::HeaderField>& traceHeaderFields, SEGY::Endianness& headerEndianness)
+ParseHeaderFormatFile(OpenVDS::File const& file, std::map<std::string, SEGY::HeaderField>& traceHeaderFields, SEGY::Endianness& headerEndianness, OpenVDS::Error &error)
 {
-  OpenVDS::Error error;
-
   int64_t fileSize = file.Size(error);
 
   if (error.code != 0)
@@ -359,7 +357,8 @@ ParseHeaderFormatFile(OpenVDS::File const& file, std::map<std::string, SEGY::Hea
   }
   catch (Json::Exception e)
   {
-    std::cerr << "Failed to parse JSON header format file: " << e.what();
+    error.code = -1;
+    error.string = e.what();
     return false;
   }
 
@@ -947,6 +946,7 @@ main(int argc, char* argv[])
   std::string fileInfoFileName;
   int brickSize;
   bool force = false;
+  bool ignoreWarnings = false;
   std::string bucket;
   std::string sourceBucket;
   std::string region;
@@ -970,6 +970,7 @@ main(int argc, char* argv[])
   options.add_option("", "i", "file-info", "A JSON file (generated by the --scan option) containing information about the input SEG-Y file.", cxxopts::value<std::string>(fileInfoFileName), "<file>");
   options.add_option("", "b", "brick-size", "The brick size for the volume data store.", cxxopts::value<int>(brickSize)->default_value("64"), "<value>");
   options.add_option("", "f", "force", "Continue on upload error.", cxxopts::value<bool>(force), "");
+  options.add_option("", "", "ignore-warnings", "Ignore warnings about import parameters.", cxxopts::value<bool>(ignoreWarnings), "");
   options.add_option("", "", "bucket", "AWS S3 bucket to upload to.", cxxopts::value<std::string>(bucket), "<string>");
   options.add_option("", "", "source-bucket", "AWS S3 bucket to download from.", cxxopts::value<std::string>(sourceBucket), "<string>");
   options.add_option("", "", "region", "AWS region of bucket to upload to.", cxxopts::value<std::string>(region), "<string>");
@@ -1051,7 +1052,13 @@ main(int argc, char* argv[])
       return EXIT_FAILURE;
     }
 
-    ParseHeaderFormatFile(headerFormatFile, g_traceHeaderFields, headerEndianness);
+    ParseHeaderFormatFile(headerFormatFile, g_traceHeaderFields, headerEndianness, error);
+
+    if (error.code != 0)
+    {
+      fmt::print(stderr, "Could not read header format file {}: {}\n", headerFormatFileName, error.string);
+      return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    }
   }
 
   // get the canonical field name for the primary and secondary key
@@ -1194,18 +1201,6 @@ main(int argc, char* argv[])
     persistentID = fmt::format("{:X}", fileInfo.m_persistentID);
   }
 
-  // Determine value range
-  OpenVDS::FloatRange
-    valueRange;
-
-  analyzeSegment(dataProvider, fileInfo, findRepresentativeSegment(fileInfo), 99.9f, valueRange, error);
-
-  if (error.code != 0)
-  {
-    std::cerr << error.string;
-    return EXIT_FAILURE;
-  }
-
   // Create layout descriptor
 
   enum OpenVDS::VolumeDataLayoutDescriptor::BrickSize
@@ -1235,6 +1230,37 @@ main(int argc, char* argv[])
 
   std::vector<OpenVDS::VolumeDataAxisDescriptor> axisDescriptors = createAxisDescriptors(fileInfo);
 
+  // Check for excess of empty traces
+  int64_t
+    traceCountInVDS = 1;
+
+  for(int axis = 1; axis < (int)axisDescriptors.size(); axis++)
+  {
+    traceCountInVDS *= axisDescriptors[axis].GetNumSamples();
+  }
+
+  if(traceCountInVDS >= fileInfo.m_traceCount * 2)
+  {
+    fmt::print(stderr, "Warning: There is more than {:.1f}% empty traces in the VDS, this usually indicates using the wrong header format for the input dataset.\n", double(traceCountInVDS - fileInfo.m_traceCount) * 100.0 / double(traceCountInVDS));
+    if(!ignoreWarnings)
+    {
+      fmt::print(stderr, "Use --ignore-warnings to force the import to go ahead.\n");
+      return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Determine value range
+  OpenVDS::FloatRange
+    valueRange;
+
+  analyzeSegment(dataProvider, fileInfo, findRepresentativeSegment(fileInfo), 99.9f, valueRange, error);
+
+  if (error.code != 0)
+  {
+    std::cerr << error.string;
+    return EXIT_FAILURE;
+  }
+
   // Create channel descriptors
 
   std::vector<OpenVDS::VolumeDataChannelDescriptor> channelDescriptors = createChannelDescriptors(fileInfo, valueRange);