Seismic velocity estimation from post-critical wide-angle reflections in layered structures

Abstract

The travel time inversion of wide-angle seismic data is a technique commonly used in the deep seismic sounding. We propose an application of this technique to a smaller scale of a sedimentary layer, where the characteristics of seismic observations changes significantly. Field observations confirmed by synthetic analysis recognize the dominant amplitudes of wide-angle post-critical reflections. A case study is presented in this paper, of a joint interpretation of conventional reflection seismic with reflection imaging, combined with the wide-angle travel time inversion of additional full-spread observations. A joint interpretation results in a precise recognition of the seismic velocity distribution, that is further used for the seismic depth conversion with the uncertainty analysis of the depth of the reflecting horizons. Despite the salt layer in the studied structure this method is able to precisely recognize the seismic velocities of the sub-salt structures.