Marine seismic surveys with vector acoustic sensors

Abstract

Vector acoustic data will allow accurate 3‐D imaging of a complex environment while corresponding pressure hydrophone data will fail. Newly developed sensors make vector acoustic based surveys practical. This concept is demonstrated with data from an acoustic water tank. Using a simple but novel imaging algorithm, all of the main structures in the water tank were correctly located. This imaging algorithm uses none of the existing imaging or inversion methods common in exploration seismology.