Smooth velocity model from traveltime tomography of an offshore dense wide-angle profile in Nova Scotia: preliminary results

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio A. Perosi ◽  
Mladen R. Nedimovic ◽  
Keith E. Louden ◽  
K. W. Helen Lau
Geophysics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 1340-1348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juergen Fruehn ◽  
Moritz M. Fliedner ◽  
Robert S. White

Acquiring large‐aperture seismic data (38 km maximum offset) along a profile crossing the Faeroe—Shetland basin in the North Atlantic enables us to use wide‐angle reflections and refractions, in addition to conventional streamer data (0–6 km), for subbasalt imaging. The wide‐angle results are complemented and confirmed by images obtained from the conventional near‐vertical‐offset range. Traveltime tomography applied to the wide‐angle data shows a low‐velocity layer (3.5–4.5 km/s) underneath southeastward‐thinning lava flows, suggesting a 2.5–3.0‐km‐thick sedimentary layer. The velocity model obtained from traveltime tomography is used to migrate wide‐angle reflections from large offsets that arrive ahead of the water‐wave cone. The migrated image shows base‐basalt and sub—basalt reflections that are locally coincident with the tomographic boundaries. Application of a new multiple suppression technique and controlled stacking of the conventional streamer data produces seismic sections consistent with the wide‐angle results. Prestack depth migration of the near‐vertical offsets shows a continuous base‐basalt reflection and a clearly defined termination of the basalt flows.


Solid Earth ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 543-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Flecha ◽  
R. Carbonell ◽  
R. W. Hobbs

Abstract. The difficulties of seismic imaging beneath high velocity structures are widely recognised. In this setting, theoretical analysis of synthetic wide-angle seismic reflection data indicates that velocity models are not well constrained. A two-dimensional velocity model was built to simulate a simplified structural geometry given by a basaltic wedge placed within a sedimentary sequence. This model reproduces the geological setting in areas of special interest for the oil industry as the Faroe-Shetland Basin. A wide-angle synthetic dataset was calculated on this model using an elastic finite difference scheme. This dataset provided travel times for tomographic inversions. Results show that the original model can not be completely resolved without considering additional information. The resolution of nonlinear inversions lacks a functional mathematical relationship, therefore, statistical approaches are required. Stochastic tests based on Metropolis techniques support the need of additional information to properly resolve sub-basalt structures.


2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1277-1293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron M Clowes ◽  
Philip TC Hammer ◽  
Gabriela Fernández-Viejo ◽  
J Kim Welford

The SNORCLE refraction – wide-angle reflection (R/WAR) experiment, SNORE'97, included four individual lines along the three transect corridors. A combination of SNORE'97 results with those from earlier studies permits generation of a 2000 km long lithospheric velocity model that extends from the Archean Slave craton to the present Pacific basin. Using this model and coincident near-vertical incidence (NVI) reflection data and geological information, an interpreted cross section that exemplifies 4 Ga of lithospheric development is generated. The velocity structural models correlate well with the reflection sections and provide additional structural, compositional, and thermal constraints. Geological structures and some faults are defined in the upper crust. At a larger scale, the seismic data identify a variety of orogenic styles ranging from thin- to thick-skinned accretion in the Cordillera and crustal-scale tectonic wedging associated with both Paleoproterozoic and Mesozoic collisions. Models of Poisson's ratio support the NVI interpretation that a thick wedge of cratonic metasediments underlies the eastern accreted Cordilleran terranes. Despite the variety of ages, orogenic styles, and tectono-magmatic deformations that are spanned by the seismic corridors, the Moho remains remarkably flat and shallow (33–36 km) across the majority of the transect. Significant variations only occur at major tectonic boundaries. Laterally variable crustal velocities are consistently slower beneath the Cordillera than beneath the cratonic crust. This is consistent with the high temperatures (800–900 °C) required by the slow upper mantle velocities (7.8–7.9 km/s) observed beneath much of the Cordillera. Heterogeneity of the lithospheric mantle is indicated by wide-angle reflections below the Precambrian domains and the western Cordillera.


Geophysics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. B69-B82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Watremez ◽  
K. W. Helen Lau ◽  
Mladen R. Nedimović ◽  
Keith E. Louden

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1050-1063 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.L. Stephenson ◽  
G.D. Spence ◽  
K. Wang ◽  
J.A. Hole ◽  
K.C. Miller ◽  
...  

In the BATHOLITHSonland seismic project, a refraction – wide-angle reflection survey was shot in 2009 across the Coast Mountains and Interior Plateau of central British Columbia. Part of the seismic profile crossed the Nechako Basin, a Jurassic–Cretaceous basin with potential for hydrocarbons within sedimentary strata that underlies widespread volcanic rocks. Along this 205 km-long line segment, eight large explosive shots were fired into 980 seismometers. Forward and inverse modelling of the traveltime data were conducted with two independent methods: ray-tracing based modelling of first and secondary arrivals, and a higher resolution wavefront-based first-arrival seismic tomography. Material with velocities less than 5.0 km/s is interpreted as sedimentary rocks of the Nechako Basin, while velocities from 5.0–6.0 km/s may correspond to interlayered sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The greatest thickness of sedimentary rocks in the basin is found in the central 110 km of the profile. Two sub-basins were identified in this region, with widths of 20–50 km and maximum sedimentary depths of 2.5 and 3.3 km. Such features are well-defined in the velocity model, since resolution tests indicate that features with widths greater than ∼13 km are reliable. Beneath the sedimentary rocks, seismic velocities increase more slowly with depth — from 6.0 km/s just below the basin to 6.3 km/s at ∼17 km in depth, and then to 6.8–7.0 km/s at the base of the crust. The Moho is found at a depth of 33.5–35 km beneath the profile, and mantle velocities are high at 8.05–8.10 km/s.


2013 ◽  
Vol 582 ◽  
pp. 84-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun-Moo Cho ◽  
Chang-Eob Baag ◽  
Jung Mo Lee ◽  
Wooil M. Moon ◽  
Heeok Jung ◽  
...  

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