Shear‐wave vibrator signals in transversely isotropic shale

Geophysics ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 1285-1293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Peacock ◽  
Stuart Crampin

The experiments of Robertson and Corrigan (1983) on shale are among the first three‐component field observations of shear waves in transversely isotropic media to be published. Their data are reprocessed to highlight the effects of the shale’s anisotropy on shear waves. Two results emerge. First, shear‐wave splitting in a transversely isotropic substrate is most easily observed when the vibrator baseplate is oriented so that both SH‐ and SV‐waves reach the geophone. Second, the SV‐wave polarization deviates significantly from perpendicular to the raypath. Both results may significantly affect the interpretation. Both are found to agree with theoretical results and are modeled successfully by synthetic seismograms.

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Grechka ◽  
Linbin Zhang ◽  
James W. Rector

Geophysics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 1921-1924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young‐Fo Chang ◽  
Chih‐Hsiung Chang

Much of the earth’s crust appears to have some degree of elastic anisotropy (Crampin, 1981; Crampin and Lovell, 1991; Helbig, 1993). The phenomena of elastic wave propagation in anisotropic media are more complex than those in isotropic media. Shear‐wave propagation in an orthorhombic physical model is most complex when the direction of the wave is close to the neighborhood of the cusp on the group velocity surfaces (Brown et al., 1991). The first identification of singularities in wave propagation through sedimentary basins occurred in the examination of shear‐wave splitting in multioffset vertical seismic profiles (VSPs) at a borehole site in the Paris Basin (Bush and Crampin, 1991), where large variations in shear‐wave polarizations in propagation directions close to point singularities were observed. Computation of synthetic seismograms for layer sequences showed that the shear‐wave polarizations and amplitudes were irregular near point singularities (Crampin, 1991).


Geophysics ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 56 (10) ◽  
pp. 1596-1602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Berge

Conventional seismic experiments can record converted shear waves in anisotropic media, but the shear‐wave stacking velocities pose a problem when processing and interpreting the data. Methods used to find shear‐wave stacking velocities in isotropic media will not always provide good estimates in anisotropic media. Although isotropic methods often can be used to estimate shear‐wave stacking velocities in transversely isotropic media with vertical symmetry axes, the estimations fail for some transversely isotropic media even though the anisotropy is weak. For a given anisotropic medium, the shear‐wave stacking velocity can be estimated using isotropic methods if the isotropic Snell’s law approximates the anisotropic Snell’s law and if the shear wavefront is smooth enough near the vertical axis to be fit with an ellipse. Most of the 15 transversely isotropic media examined in this paper met these conditions for short reflection spreads and small ray angles. Any transversely isotropic medium will meet these conditions if the transverse isotropy is weak and caused by thin subhorizontal layering. For three of the media examined, the anisotropy was weak but the shear wave-fronts were not even approximately elliptical near the vertical axis. Thus, isotropic methods provided poor estimates of the shear‐wave stacking velocities. These results confirm that for any given transversely isotropic medium, it is possible to determine whether or not shear‐wave stacking velocities can be estimated using isotropic velocity analysis.


Geophysics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin MacBeth ◽  
Xinwu Zeng ◽  
Gareth S. Yardley ◽  
Stuart Crampin

Poor experimental control in shear‐wave VSPs may contribute to unreliable estimates of shear‐wave splitting and possible misinterpretation of the medium anisotropy. To avoid this, the acquisition and processing of multicomponent shear‐wave data needs special care and attention. Measurement of asymmetry in the recorded data matrix using singular‐value decomposition (SVD) provides a useful way of examining possible acquisition inaccuracies and may help guide data conditioning and interpretation to ensure more reliable estimates of shear‐wave polarization azimuth. Three examples demonstrate how variations in shear‐wave polarization and acquisition inaccuracies affect the SVD results in different ways. In the first example, analysis of synthetic seismograms with known depth changes in the polarization azimuth show how these may be detected. In the second example, a known source re‐orientation and polarity reversal is detected by applying SVD to near‐offset, shear‐wave VSP data, recorded in the Romashkino field, Tatar Republic. Additional information on a polarization change in the overburden is also obtained by comparing the SVD results with those for full‐wave synthetic seismograms. The polarization azimuth changes from N160°E in the overburden to N117°E within the VSP depth range. Most of the shear‐wave splitting is built up over the VSP depth range. The final example is a near‐offset, shear‐wave VSP data set from Lost Hills, California. Here, most of the shear‐wave splitting is in the shallow layers before the VSP depth range. SVD revealed a known correction for horizontal reorientation of the sources, but also exhibited results with a distinct oscillatory behavior. Stripping the overburden effects reduces but does not eliminate these oscillations. There appears to be a polarization change from N45°E in the overburden to N125°E in the VSP section. The details in these examples would be difficult to detect by visual inspection of the seismograms or polarization diagrams. Results from these preliminary analyses are encouraging and suggest that it may be possible to routinely use this, or a similar technique, to resolve changes in the subsurface anisotropy from multicomponent experiments where acquisition has not been carefully controlled.


1977 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 661-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Daley ◽  
F. Hron

abstract It has become necessary in seismology to consider more complicated models of the Earth's structure in order to obtain synthetic seismograms that are more consistent with actual field data. Gassmann (1964) and Postma (1955) have presented results dealing with travel-time methods in anisotropic media—in particular, transversely isotropic media. Kinematic properties alone, however, are not enough to conclusively interpret seismic records. Consequently, dynamic properties must be considered producing a need for synthetic seismograms. One of the most efficient methods for obtaining synthetic seismograms is through the use of asymptotic ray theory (Hron and Kanasewich, 1971; Hron, 1973; Hron, Kanasewich and Alpaslan, 1974). A necessary step in the implementation for layered media displaying transverse isotropy is the computation of reflection and transmission coefficients at the interface between two such layers. Reflection coefficients for a free interface and the corresponding surface conversion coefficients must be computed, as well. Theoretical formulas for reflection, transmission, and surface conversion coefficients corresponding to the zero-order approximation of asymptotic theory are presented for the above-mentioned media.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Razec Cezar Sampaio Pinto da Silva Torres ◽  
Leandro Di Bartolo

ABSTRACT. Reverse time migration (RTM) is one of the most powerful methods used to generate images of the subsurface. The RTM was proposed in the early 1980s, but only recently it has been routinely used in exploratory projects involving complex geology – Brazilian pre-salt, for example. Because the method uses the two-way wave equation, RTM is able to correctly image any kind of geological environment (simple or complex), including those with anisotropy. On the other hand, RTM is computationally expensive and requires the use of computer clusters. This paper proposes to investigate the influence of anisotropy on seismic imaging through the application of RTM for tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media in pre-stack synthetic data. This work presents in detail how to implement RTM for TTI media, addressing the main issues and specific details, e.g., the computational resources required. A couple of simple models results are presented, including the application to a BP TTI 2007 benchmark model.Keywords: finite differences, wave numerical modeling, seismic anisotropy. Migração reversa no tempo em meios transversalmente isotrópicos inclinadosRESUMO. A migração reversa no tempo (RTM) é um dos mais poderosos métodos utilizados para gerar imagens da subsuperfície. A RTM foi proposta no início da década de 80, mas apenas recentemente tem sido rotineiramente utilizada em projetos exploratórios envolvendo geologia complexa, em especial no pré-sal brasileiro. Por ser um método que utiliza a equação completa da onda, qualquer configuração do meio geológico pode ser corretamente tratada, em especial na presença de anisotropia. Por outro lado, a RTM é dispendiosa computacionalmente e requer o uso de clusters de computadores por parte da indústria. Este artigo apresenta em detalhes uma implementação da RTM para meios transversalmente isotrópicos inclinados (TTI), abordando as principais dificuldades na sua implementação, além dos recursos computacionais exigidos. O algoritmo desenvolvido é aplicado a casos simples e a um benchmark padrão, conhecido como BP TTI 2007.Palavras-chave: diferenças finitas, modelagem numérica de ondas, anisotropia sísmica.


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