A timely and necessary antidote to indirect methods and so-called P-wave FWI

Abstract

A central purpose of this article is to bring an alternative voice, perspective, and understanding to the latest geophysical stampede, technical bubble, and self-proclaimed seismic cure-all, the so-called “full-waveform inversion” or FWI. If you think this is exaggerated, I refer to the advertisement/announcement of the 2013 SEG Workshop on FWI whose opening line is, “Full-waveform inversion has emerged as the final and ultimate solution to the Earth resolution and imaging objective.”