High-Precision Depth Domain Migration Method in Imaging of 3D Seismic Data in Coalfield

Abstract

Fault structures developed in coal seams, which are often associated with roof collapse, water inrush, gas outburst, and other accidents, are common geological hazards in coal exploration and development. The accurate detection of micro-structures such as small faults has always been a research focus to ensure safety in coalfields. Three-dimensional (3D) seismic research is one of the most efficient methods for obtaining the structural characteristics of coal areas and identify small faults in coal seams, but it is difficult for traditional seismic data imaging technologies to meet the high-precision demand of current coal exploration. Aiming at the characteristics of 3D seismic data in coalfields, we calculated the difference coefficients based on the optimized inversion algorithm and proposed a variable-density acoustic equation optimized with a temporal–spatial staggered-grid finite difference forward algorithm. On this basis, by combining normalized cross-correlation imaging conditions and GPU/CPU collaborative parallel processing technology, we developed an efficient and high-precision 3D reverse time migration method suitable for 3D seismic data in coalfields. Numerical tests verified the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed migration method for the imaging of coal-measure strata with small fault structures and could effectively identify 5 m small faults in the coal seam. The migration test of 3D seismic data in real coalfields showed that our 3D reverse time migration method has good practicability for high-precision imaging of 3D seismic data in coalfields and is an effective method for the precise imaging of small faults in coal measures.