Near-surface correction on seismic and gravity data

Abstract

It is important and urgent to work out better statics correction methods to facilitate seismic prospecting. This paper presents a new method of statics correction calculation based on development of a seismic-gravity model of the near surface. Gravity interpretation includes determination of the local component caused by the near surface effects and calculation of the near-surface rock density by solving the linear inverse gravity problem. To obtain the near-surface velocities, priori seismic data such as time fields of the first waves recorded in the initial part of common depth point (CDP) seismograms are used. An optimal near-surface model is retrieved on the basis of the successive solution of the inverse and forward seismic problems, correlating with the observed seismic data. Matching of seismic and gravity model of the near surface yields the maximum coefficient of correlation between the values of velocities and densities. At the end of the interactive iterative process we get values of the near-surface seismic wave velocities, used for statics evaluation, and values of gravity anomalies, calculated with a variable density of the interbedded layer. The applications of the proposed method at geophysical exploration of oil and gas confirm the possibility of calculation of statics correction using the gravimetric data by constructing a coherent seismic-gravity model of the near surface.