An Advanced Geophysical Software Tool for Seismic Modeling Based on the Finite Element Method

Abstract

We demonstrate an application of an advanced geophysical software tool to simulate seismic wave propagation and generate shot records. Simulation of seismic wave propagation was performed using eScript, a partial differential equation solver based on the finite element method. We solved the 2D acoustic wave equation for P-wave propagation by applying the partial differential equation to eScript. A traditional absorbing boundary condition was applied to reducing artificial wave reflections at the boundary. We tested several different models by employing meshes for layered media and other complex geological structures. Seismometers were placed equidistantly on the surface to record the wave field and generate shot records. Model tests prove that eScript is a user-friendly software platform which allows rapid development of numerical seismic modeling using python and XML.