Three-dimensional tomographic inversion of combined reflection and refraction seismic traveltime data

Abstract

SUMMARY A tomographic inversion method is presented for the determination of 3-D velocity and interface structure from a wide range of body-wave seismic traveltime data types. It is applicable to refraction, wide-angle reflection, normal-incidence and multichannel seismic data, and is best suited to a combination of these that provides good independent constraints on seismic velocities and interface depths. The inversion process seeks a layer‐interface minimum-structure model that is able to explain the given data satisfactorily by inverting to minimize data misfit and model roughness norms simultaneously. This regularized inversion, and the use of smooth functions to describe velocities and depths, allows the highly non-linear tomographic problem to be approximated as a series of linear steps. The inversion process begins by optimizing the fit to the data of a highly-smoothed initial model. In each subsequent step, structure is allowed to develop in the model with successively greater detail evolving until a satisfactory fit to the data is obtained. Parameter uncertainties for the final model are then estimated using an a posteriori covariance matrix analysis. Smooth layer‐interface models are parametrized using regular grids of velocity and depth nodes from which spline-interpolated interface surfaces and velocity fields are defined. Forward modelling is achieved using ray perturbation theory and a two-point ray tracing method that is optimized for a large number of closely-spaced shot or receiver points. The method may be used to generate 1- and 2-D models (from, for example vertical seismic profile data or 2-D surveys) in which the 3-D geometry of a survey is correctly accounted for. The ability of the method to resolve typical target structures is tested in a synthetic salt dome inversion. From a set of noisy traveltime data, the model converges quickly to a well-resolved final model from different starting models. The application of this method to real data is demonstrated with a combined 3-D inversion of refraction and reflection data which provide P-wave velocity constraints on the methane hydrate stability zone in the Cascadia Margin offshore Vancouver Island.