The influence of stacking velocity uncertainties on structural uncertainties

Abstract

PreviousNext No AccessSEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts 2004The influence of stacking velocity uncertainties on structural uncertaintiesAuthors: Kenneth P. BubeJonathan A. KaneTamas NemethDon MedwedeOleg MikhailovKenneth P. BubeUniversity of Washington, Seattle, WASearch for more papers by this author, Jonathan A. KaneMIT, Cambridge, MASearch for more papers by this author, Tamas NemethChevronTexaco, San Ramon, CASearch for more papers by this author, Don MedwedeChevronTexaco, San Ramon, CASearch for more papers by this author, and Oleg MikhailovChevronTexaco, San Ramon, CASearch for more papers by this authorhttps://doi.org/10.1190/1.1851209 SectionsAboutPDF/ePub ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Abstract Errors in the velocity field used to migrate seismic data are a leading cause of errors in the positionining of structural events in the processing of seismic data: uncertainty in the velocity field leads to structural uncertainty. In this paper, we investigate the broader question of how errors in stacking velocity, time to an event in a stacked section, and the slope of an event in a time section lead to errors in the positioning of structural events for an isotropic medium. We perform a sensitivity analysis, obtaining simple formulas for the errors in structure that are first‐order in the errors in stacking velocity, zero‐offset time, and slope. These formulas are geometrically explicit: if we make a small change in stacking velocity (or time or slope), we then know the direction and magnitude of the resulting change to each point on the selected event. Being the result of sensitivity analysis, these formulas are linear. Thus if we had a probability distribution for the errors in velocity (i.e., we knew the uncertainty in velocity), we could use these formulas to obtain a probability distribution for the errors in position for points on the selected event (i.e., the uncertainty in structure). Our analysis focuses on the neighborhood of a single point on an event and assumes a homogeneous velocity field. Although the analysis is based on a very simple model, numerical experiments show that the relationships are valid approximately for moderate heterogeneities in the velocity field. In a companion paper (Bube et al., 2004), we use these results to investigate errors in structural location due to uncertainty in weak anisotropy.Permalink: https://doi.org/10.1190/1.1851209FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byAppraising structural interpretations using seismic data — Theoretical elementsModeste Irakarama, Paul Cupillard, Guillaume Caumon, Paul Sava, and Jonathan Edwards28 February 2019 | GEOPHYSICS, Vol. 84, No. 2The effect of velocity uncertainty on migrated reflectors: Improvements from relative-depth imagingOleg V. Poliannikov and Alison E. Malcolm6 November 2015 | GEOPHYSICS, Vol. 81, No. 1Estimation of layer thickness and velocity changes using 4D prestack seismic dataThomas Røste, Alexey Stovas, and Martin Landrø21 September 2006 | GEOPHYSICS, Vol. 71, No. 6Structural uncertainty and Bayesian inversionJonathan A. Kane, William Rodi, Kenneth P. Bube, Tamas Nemeth, Don Medwede, and Oleg Mikhailov3 January 2005The influence of uncertainties in anisotropy on structural uncertaintiesKenneth P. Bube, Tamas Nemeth, Oleg Mikhailov, Don Medwede, and Jonathan A. Kane3 January 2005 SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts 2004ISSN (print):1052-3812 ISSN (online):1949-4645Copyright: 2004 Pages: 2586 publication data© 2004 Copyright © 2004 Society of Exploration GeophysicistsPublisher:Society of Exploration Geophysicists HistoryPublished Online: 03 Jan 2005 CITATION INFORMATION Kenneth P. Bube, Jonathan A. Kane, Tamas Nemeth, Don Medwede, and Oleg Mikhailov, (2004), "The influence of stacking velocity uncertainties on structural uncertainties," SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts : 2188-2191. https://doi.org/10.1190/1.1851209 Plain-Language Summary PDF DownloadLoading ...