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Depth Migration (depth + migration)
Selected AbstractsCrustal structure deduced from receiver functions via single-scattering migrationGEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2002E. Bertrand Summary An investigation of the teleseismic P -wave coda is performed using the single-scattering approximation. The method allows one to image short-wavelength scale (,2 km) velocity and density heterogeneities and structures that are barely detected by traveltime tomography. Source effects are removed by using receiver functions for data interpretation, but the amplitude (especially the sign of the signal) is synthesized. Both broad-band seismological stations in the southwestern Alps (France) and Campanian plain (Italy) are used for the illustration of the proposed method. Because of the large aperture of our arrays, laterally small-scale heterogeneities are difficult to image and we must assume lateral continuity of the detectable structure. If so, we show that this depth migration based on a single-scattering approach can recover both the depth and the geometry of the main discontinuities below the studied areas. In the southwestern Alps, we underline a complex crustal structure and Moho dipping topography. The Moho depth increases from 20 to 30 km between the coastline and the Mercantour range. In the Campanian plain (surrounding Mount Vesuvius) we also find a southeastwards-dipping Moho. Furthermore, the three main discontinuities are imaged, showing a relatively shallow mantle,crust discontinuity and a deeper one near the coastline. [source] Migration velocity analysis and waveform inversionGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 6 2008William W. Symes ABSTRACT Least-squares inversion of seismic reflection waveform data can reconstruct remarkably detailed models of subsurface structure and take into account essentially any physics of seismic wave propagation that can be modelled. However, the waveform inversion objective has many spurious local minima, hence convergence of descent methods (mandatory because of problem size) to useful Earth models requires accurate initial estimates of long-scale velocity structure. Migration velocity analysis, on the other hand, is capable of correcting substantially erroneous initial estimates of velocity at long scales. Migration velocity analysis is based on prestack depth migration, which is in turn based on linearized acoustic modelling (Born or single-scattering approximation). Two major variants of prestack depth migration, using binning of surface data and Claerbout's survey-sinking concept respectively, are in widespread use. Each type of prestack migration produces an image volume depending on redundant parameters and supplies a condition on the image volume, which expresses consistency between data and velocity model and is hence a basis for velocity analysis. The survey-sinking (depth-oriented) approach to prestack migration is less subject to kinematic artefacts than is the binning-based (surface-oriented) approach. Because kinematic artefacts strongly violate the consistency or semblance conditions, this observation suggests that velocity analysis based on depth-oriented prestack migration may be more appropriate in kinematically complex areas. Appropriate choice of objective (differential semblance) turns either form of migration velocity analysis into an optimization problem, for which Newton-like methods exhibit little tendency to stagnate at nonglobal minima. The extended modelling concept links migration velocity analysis to the apparently unrelated waveform inversion approach to estimation of Earth structure: from this point of view, migration velocity analysis is a solution method for the linearized waveform inversion problem. Extended modelling also provides a basis for a nonlinear generalization of migration velocity analysis. Preliminary numerical evidence suggests a new approach to nonlinear waveform inversion, which may combine the global convergence of velocity analysis with the physical fidelity of model-based data fitting. [source] Diffraction imaging in depthGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 5 2008T.J. Moser ABSTRACT High resolution imaging is of great value to an interpreter, for instance to enable identification of small scale faults, and to locate formation pinch-out positions. Standard approaches to obtain high-resolution information, such as coherency analysis and structure-oriented filters, derive attributes from stacked, migrated images. Since they are image-driven, these techniques are sensitive to artifacts due to an inadequate migration velocity; in fact the attribute derivation is not based on the physics of wave propagation. Diffracted waves on the other hand have been recognized as physically reliable carriers of high- or even super-resolution structural information. However, high-resolution information, encoded in diffractions, is generally lost during the conventional processing sequence, indeed migration kernels in current migration algorithms are biased against diffractions. We propose here methods for a diffraction-based, data-oriented approach to image resolution. We also demonstrate the different behaviour of diffractions compared to specular reflections and how this can be leveraged to assess characteristics of subsurface features. In this way a rough surface such as a fault plane or unconformity may be distinguishable on a diffraction image and not on a traditional reflection image. We outline some characteristic properties of diffractions and diffraction imaging, and present two novel approaches to diffraction imaging in the depth domain. The first technique is based on reflection focusing in the depth domain and subsequent filtering of reflections from prestack data. The second technique modifies the migration kernel and consists of a reverse application of stationary-phase migration to suppress contributions from specular reflections to the diffraction image. Both techniques are proposed as a complement to conventional full-wave pre-stack depth migration, and both assume the existence of an accurate migration velocity. [source] Yardsticks for industrial tomographyGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 4 2008A. Vesnaver ABSTRACT Seismic tomography has been developed and applied for decades in seismological applications and for basic research purposes. During the last decade, large-scale applications in the oil and gas industry became standard as tomostatics and velocity modelling for pre-stack depth migration. In this paper, I take a snapshot of some current industrial applications, quantifying practical aspects by yardsticks such as data and model size and I try to draw a road map for the current decade. [source] CRS-stack-based seismic imaging considering top-surface topographyGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 6 2006Z. Heilmann ABSTRACT In this case study we consider the seismic processing of a challenging land data set from the Arabian Peninsula. It suffers from rough top-surface topography, a strongly varying weathering layer, and complex near-surface geology. We aim at establishing a new seismic imaging workflow, well-suited to these specific problems of land data processing. This workflow is based on the common-reflection-surface stack for topography, a generalized high-density velocity analysis and stacking process. It is applied in a non-interactive manner and provides an entire set of physically interpretable stacking parameters that include and complement the conventional stacking velocity. The implementation introduced combines two different approaches to topography handling to minimize the computational effort: after initial values of the stacking parameters are determined for a smoothly curved floating datum using conventional elevation statics, the final stack and also the related residual static correction are applied to the original prestack data, considering the true source and receiver elevations without the assumption of nearly vertical rays. Finally, we extrapolate all results to a chosen planar reference level using the stacking parameters. This redatuming procedure removes the influence of the rough measurement surface and provides standardized input for interpretation, tomographic velocity model determination, and post-stack depth migration. The methodology of the residual static correction employed and the details of its application to this data example are discussed in a separate paper in this issue. In view of the complex near-surface conditions, the imaging workflow that is conducted, i.e. stack , residual static correction , redatuming , tomographic inversion , prestack and post-stack depth migration, leads to a significant improvement in resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and reflector continuity. [source] A pattern-based approach for multiple removal applied to a 3D Gulf of Mexico data setGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 2 2006Antoine Guitton ABSTRACT Surface-related multiples are attenuated for one sail line and one streamer of a 3D data set (courtesy of Compagnie Générale de Géophysique). The survey was carried out in the Gulf of Mexico in the Green Canyon area where salt intrusions close to the water-bottom are present. Because of the complexity of the subsurface, a wavefield method incorporating the full 3D volume of the data for multiple removal is necessary. This method comprises modelling of the multiples, where the data are used as a prediction operator, and a subtraction step, where the model of the multiples is adaptively removed from the data with matching filters. The accuracy of the multiple model depends on the source/receiver coverage at the surface. When this coverage is not dense enough, the multiple model contains errors that make successful subtraction more difficult. In these circumstances, one can either (1) improve the modelling step by interpolating the missing traces, (2) improve the subtraction step by designing methods that are less sensitive to modelling errors, or (3) both. For this data set, the second option is investigated by predicting the multiples in a 2D sense (as opposed to 3D) and performing the subtraction with a pattern-based approach. Because some traces and shots are missing for the 2D prediction, the data are interpolated in the in-line direction using a hyperbolic Radon transform with and without sparseness constraints. The interpolation with a sparseness constraint yields the best multiple model. For the subtraction, the pattern-based technique is compared with a more standard, adaptive-subtraction scheme. The pattern-based approach is based on the estimation of 3D prediction-error filters for the primaries and the multiples, followed by a least-squares estimation of the primaries. Both methods are compared before and after prestack depth migration. These results suggest that, when the multiple model is not accurate, the pattern-based method is more effective than adaptive subtraction at removing surface-related multiples while preserving the primaries. [source] Improving Kirchhoff migration with repeated local plane-wave imaging?GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 6 2005A SAR-inspired signal-processing approach in prestack depth imaging ABSTRACT A local plane-wave approach of generalized diffraction tomography in heterogeneous backgrounds, equivalent to Kirchhoff summation techniques when applied in seismic reflection, is re-programmed to act as repeated synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging for seismic prestack depth migration. Spotlight-mode SAR imaging quickly provides good images of the electromagnetic reflectivity of the ground via fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based signal processing. By calculating only the Green's functions connecting the aircraft to the centre of the illuminated patch, scattering structures around that centre are also recovered. SAR technology requires us to examine seismic imaging from the local point of view, where the quantity and quality of the available information at each image point are what are important, regardless of the survey geometry. When adapted to seismics, a local image of arbitrary size and sampling is obtained by FFT of seismic energy maps in the scattering wavenumber domain around each node of a pre-calculated grid of Green's functions. These local images can be used to generate a classic prestack depth-migrated section by collecting only their centres. However, the local images also provide valuable information around the centre, as in SAR. They can therefore help to pre-analyse prestack depth migration efficiently, and to perform velocity analysis at a very low cost. The FFT-based signal-processing approach allows local, efficient and automatic control of anti-aliasing, noise and resolution, including optimized Jacobian weights. Repeated local imaging could also be used to speed up migration, with interpolation between local images associated with a coarse grid of Green's functions, as an alternative to interpolation of Green's functions. The local images may, however, show distortions due to the local plane-wave approximation, and the velocity variations across their frame. Such effects, which are not necessarily a problem in SAR, should be controlled and corrected to further enhance seismic imaging. Applications to realistic models and to real data show that, despite the distortion effects, the local images can yield similar information to prestack depth migration, including common-image-point gathers for velocity analyses and AVO/AVA effects, at a much lower cost when a small target is considered. [source] 3D imaging of a reservoir analogue in point bar deposits in the Ferron Sandstone, Utah, using ground-penetrating radarGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 3 2004Xiaoxian Zeng ABSTRACT Most existing reservoir models are based on 2D outcrop studies; 3D aspects are inferred from correlation between wells, and so are inadequately constrained for reservoir simulations. To overcome these deficiencies, we have initiated a multidimensional characterization of reservoir analogues in the Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone in Utah. Detailed sedimentary facies maps of cliff faces define the geometry and distribution of reservoir flow units, barriers and baffles at the outcrop. High-resolution 2D and 3D ground-penetrating radar (GPR) images extend these reservoir characteristics into 3D to allow the development of realistic 3D reservoir models. Models use geometric information from mapping and the GPR data, combined with petrophysical data from surface and cliff-face outcrops, and laboratory analyses of outcrop and core samples. The site of the field work is Corbula Gulch, on the western flank of the San Rafael Swell, in east-central Utah. The outcrop consists of an 8,17 m thick sandstone body which contains various sedimentary structures, such as cross-bedding, inclined stratification and erosional surfaces, which range in scale from less than a metre to hundreds of metres. 3D depth migration of the common-offset GPR data produces data volumes within which the inclined surfaces and erosional surfaces are visible. Correlation between fluid permeability, clay content, instantaneous frequency and instantaneous amplitude of the GPR data provides estimates of the 3D distribution of fluid permeability and clay content. [source] Fault configuration produced by initial arc rifting in the Parece Vela Basin as deduced from seismic reflection dataISLAND ARC, Issue 3 2007Mikiya Yamashita Abstract The Parece Vela Basin (PVB), which is a currently inactive back-arc basin of the Philippine Sea Plate, was formed by separation between the Izu-Ogasawara Arc (IOA) and the Kyushu-Palau Ridge (KPR). Elucidating the marks of the past back-arc opening and rifting is important for investigation of its crustal structure. To image its fault configurations and crustal deformation, pre-stack depth migration to multichannel seismic reflection was applied and data obtained by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and Metal Mining Agency of Japan and Japan National Oil Corporation (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation). Salient results for the pre-stack depth-migrated sections are: (i) deep reflectors exist around the eastern margin of KPR and at the western margin of IOA down to 8 km depth; and (ii) normal fault zones distributed at the eastern margin of the KPR (Fault zone A) and the western margin of the IOA (Fault zone B) have a total displacement of greater than 500 m associated with synrift sediments. Additional normal faults (Fault zone C) exist 20 km east of the Fault zone B. They are covered with sediment, which indicates deposition of recent volcanic products in the IOA. According to those results: (i) the fault displacement of more than 500 m with respect to initial rifting was approximately asymmetric at 25 Ma based on PSDM profiles; and (ii) the faults had reactivated after 23 Ma, based on the age of deformed sediments obtained from past ocean drillings. The age of the base sediments corresponds to those of spreading and rotation after rifting in the PVB. Fault zone C is covered with thick and not deformed volcanogenic sediments from the IOA, which suggests that the fault is inactive. [source] | ||||||||||