Viscoelastic modeling with simultaneous microseismic sources

Abstract

Various seismic sources including pressure source, vertical source, radial source, transverse source and explosive source have been widely used in exploration seismology. Double couple (DC) source and sources defined by general moment tensor are commonly used for simulation of earthquake and microseismic waves. Processing of the recorded data helps reconstruct the subsurface image and locate the microseismic events for better understanding and interpreting the geologic structures and formations. Individual sources excited at different times will form simultaneous sources. Implementation of simultaneous sources provide flexibility in survey geometries and increase spatial sampling via increased source sampling and vector-offset sampling (Hampson, et al., 2008). In this abstract, we describe the physical mechanisms of several typical seismic and microseismic sources and their impact on the synthetic wavefield. Microseismic modeling in viscoelastic media is discussed by using simultaneous sources with different source characteristics. Through the back propagation of the recorded data, the location of microseismic events can be imaged without picking the events.