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Velocity Anomalies (velocity + anomaly)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	100%

Selected Abstracts

Application of a three-dimensional ray-tracing technique to global P, PP and Pdiff traveltime tomography

GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2001
A. Gorbatov
Summary A 3-D ray-path tracing algorithm was successfully applied to global P -wave traveltime tomography. The inversion was conducted iteratively using the resultant P -wave velocity model as the initial model for the subsequent iteration. The LSQR method was adopted to solve a large and sparse system of equations. This iteratively linearized inversion with 3-D ray tracing increased wave-speed anomalies, located heterogeneities better and reduced smearing as compared to those derived from a conventional one-step inversion using 1-D ray tracing, although the general pattern of velocity anomalies was similar. A major difference was found in the lowermost mantle, where the departure of a ray path from the great circle path tends to be in general greatest. In particular, a pronounced high-velocity anomaly develops beneath the Indian Ocean, a feature not obvious in the result of 1-D inversion. The final P -wave velocity model was obtained by including reported PP and Pdiff traveltime data. The addition of the PP data sharpened the images and enhanced velocity anomalies in the upper mantle, especially at latitudes above 45° of the Northern Hemisphere. The addition of the Pdiff data sharpened and amplified velocity anomalies in the lowermost mantle in general. [source]

Sequential integrated inversion of refraction and wide-angle reflection traveltimes and gravity data for two-dimensional velocity structures

GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2000
Rosaria Tondi
A new algorithm is presented for the integrated 2-D inversion of seismic traveltime and gravity data. The algorithm adopts the ,maximum likelihood' regularization scheme. We construct a ,probability density function' which includes three kinds of information: information derived from gravity measurements; information derived from the seismic traveltime inversion procedure applied to the model; and information on the physical correlation among the density and the velocity parameters. We assume a linear relation between density and velocity, which can be node-dependent; that is, we can choose different relationships for different parts of the velocity,density grid. In addition, our procedure allows us to consider a covariance matrix related to the error propagation in linking density to velocity. We use seismic data to estimate starting velocity values and the position of boundary nodes. Subsequently, the sequential integrated inversion (SII) optimizes the layer velocities and densities for our models. The procedure is applicable, as an additional step, to any type of seismic tomographic inversion. We illustrate the method by comparing the velocity models recovered from a standard seismic traveltime inversion with those retrieved using our algorithm. The inversion of synthetic data calculated for a 2-D isotropic, laterally inhomogeneous model shows the stability and accuracy of this procedure, demonstrates the improvements to the recovery of true velocity anomalies, and proves that this technique can efficiently overcome some of the limitations of both gravity and seismic traveltime inversions, when they are used independently. An interpretation of field data from the 1994 Vesuvius test experiment is also presented. At depths down to 4.5 km, the model retrieved after a SII shows a more detailed structure than the model obtained from an interpretation of seismic traveltime only, and yields additional information for a further study of the area. [source]

Stacking velocities in the presence of overburden velocity anomalies

GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 3 2009
Emil Blias
ABSTRACT Lateral velocity changes (velocity anomalies) in the overburden may cause significant oscillations in normal moveout velocities. Explicit analytical moveout formulas are presented and provide a direct explanation of these lateral fluctuations and other phenomena for a subsurface with gentle deep structures and shallow overburden anomalies. The analytical conditions for this have been derived for a depth-velocity model with gentle structures with dips not exceeding 12°. The influence of lateral interval velocity changes and curvilinear overburden velocity boundaries can be estimated and analysed using these formulas. An analytical approach to normal moveout velocity analysis in a laterally inhomogeneous medium provides an understanding of the connection between lateral interval velocity changes and normal moveout velocities. In the presence of uncorrected shallow velocity anomalies, the difference between root-mean-square and stacking velocity can be arbitrarily large to the extent of reversing the normal moveout function around normal incidence traveltimes. The main reason for anomalous stacking velocity behaviour is non-linear lateral variations in the shallow overburden interval velocities or the velocity boundaries. A special technique has been developed to determine and remove shallow velocity anomaly effects. This technique includes automatic continuous velocity picking, an inversion method for the determination of shallow velocity anomalies, improving the depth-velocity model by an optimization approach to traveltime inversion (layered reflection tomography) and shallow velocity anomaly replacement. Model and field data examples are used to illustrate this technique. [source]

Anomalous seaward dip of the lithosphere,asthenosphere boundary beneath northeastern USA detected using differential-array measurements of Rayleigh waves

GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2002
William Menke
Summary Rayleigh wave phase velocities and azimuth anomalies in the period range of 30,100 s are measured for a set of four triangular arrays of broad-band seismometers in coastal northeastern USA. This is a region in which a strong upper mantle slow shear velocity anomaly (a ,New England Anomaly'), crosses the continental margin. Earthquakes from a wide range of directions are used to detect the variation of parameters with azimuth, ,, of propagation. No lateral heterogeneity in phase velocity is detected at these periods between stations at the centre and the edge of the Anomaly. However, large (10,20; per cent) azimuthal variations occur, and have a cos(1,) dependence, which is indicative of a dipping structure in the upper mantle. Corresponding azimuth variations, with a magnitude of ±5°, are also detected. This behaviour is consistent with a southeasterly (N150°E) dip of the lithosphere,asthenosphere boundary beneath New England. This dip is associated with the shoaling of the New England Anomaly beneath the Adirondack mountains, west of the array. It is opposite to the dip associated with lithospheric thickening toward the interior of the craton. [source]

The 3D shear experiment over the Natih field in Oman: the effect of fracture-filling fluids on shear propagation

GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 2 2001
C.M. Van Der Kolk
This is the final paper in a series on the 3D multicomponent seismic experiment in Oman. In this experiment a 3D data set was acquired using three-component geophones and with three source orientations. The data set will subsequently be referred to as the Natih 9C3D data set. We present, for the first time, evidence demonstrating that shear waves are sensitive to fluid type in fractured media. Two observations are examined from the Natih 9C3D data where regions of gas are characterized by slow shear-wave velocities. One is that the shear-wave splitting map of the Natih reservoir exhibits much larger splitting values over the gas cap on the reservoir. This increase in splitting results from a decrease in the slow shear-wave velocity which senses both the fractures and the fracture-filling fluid. Using a new effective-medium model, it was possible to generate a splitting map for the reservoir that is corrected for this fluid effect. Secondly, an anomaly was encountered on the shear-wave data directly above the reservoir. The thick Fiqa shale overburden exhibits a low shear-wave velocity anomaly that is accompanied by higher shear reflectivity and lower frequency content. No such effects are evident in the conventional P-wave data. This feature is interpreted as a gas chimney above the reservoir, a conclusion supported by both effective-medium modelling and the geology. With this new effective-medium model, we show that introduction of gas into vertically fractured rock appears to decrease the velocity of shear waves (S2), polarized perpendicular to the fracture orientation, whilst leaving the vertical compressional-wave velocity largely unaffected. This conclusion has direct implications for seismic methods in exploration, appraisal and development of fractured reservoirs and suggests that here we should be utilizing S-wave data, as well as the conventional P-wave data, as a direct hydrocarbon indicator. [source]