Elastic impedance in weakly anisotropic media

Abstract

The original formulation for the P-wave elastic impedance (EI) equation ignores seismic anisotropy. Incorporation of anisotropy effects into the EI formula requires a suitable approximation for reflection coefficients. In order to derive an anisotropic EI equation, this paper uses an approximation for PP-wave reflection [Formula: see text] coefficients which holds for weak-contrast interfaces separating weakly anisotropic media of arbitrary symmetry. Inserting the chosen [Formula: see text] coefficient approximation into the original formalism provides an anisotropic EI formula, which is written as a product of two terms: a modified version for the isotropic EI equation and a correction because of weak anisotropy. The latter term shows dependence of the anisotropic EI formula on the so-called weak anisotropy (WA) parameters, on a reference isotropic medium, and on the azimuthal and incident phase angles. Numerical tests show the performance of the EI formula in calculating anisotropic [Formula: see text] coefficients and in constructing azimuthal far-offset EI logs. Since EI allows applying poststack algorithms without modification, an inversion methodology can be designed for investigating anisotropy in sedimentary formations.