Seismic imaging of complex structures from the western Canadian Foothills can be achieved by applying the closely coupled processes of velocity analysis and depth migration. For the purposes of defining these structures in the Shaw Basing area of western Alberta, we performed a series of tests on both synthetic and real data to find optimum imaging procedures for handling large topographic relief, near‐surface velocity variations, and the complex structural geology of steeply dipping formations. To better understand the seismic processing problems, we constructed a typical foothills geological model that included thrust faults and duplex structures, computed the model responses, and then compared the performance of different migration algorithms, including the explicit finite difference (f-x) and Kirchhoff integral methods. When the correct velocity was used in the migration tests, the f-x method was the most effective in migration from topography. In cases where the velocity model was not assumed known, we determined a macrovelocity model by performing migration/velocity analysis by using smiles and frowns in common image gathers and by using depth‐focusing analysis. In applying depth imaging to the seismic survey from the Shaw Basing area, we found that imaging problems were caused partly by near‐surface velocity problems, which were not anticipated in the modeling study. Several comparisons of different migration approaches for these data indicated that prestack depth migration from topography provided the best imaging results when near‐surface velocity information was incorporated. Through iterative and interpretive migration/velocity analysis, we built a macrovelocity model for the final prestack depth migration.
Wave-equation migration velocity analysis using plane-wave common-image gathers