Converted‐wave seismic exploration: Methods

Abstract

Multicomponent seismic recording (measurement with vertical‐ and horizontal‐component geophones and possibly a hydrophone or microphone) captures the seismic wavefield more completely than conventional single‐element techniques. In the last several years, multicomponent surveying has developed rapidly, allowing creation of converted‐wave or P‐S images. These make use of downgoing P‐waves that convert on reflection at their deepest point of penetration to upcoming S‐waves. Survey design for acquiring P‐S data is similar to that for P‐waves, but must take into account subsurface VP/VSvalues and the asymmetric P‐S ray path. P‐S surveys use conventional sources, but require several times more recording channels per receiving location. Some special processes for P‐S analysis include anisotropic rotations, S‐wave receiver statics, asymmetric and anisotropic binning, nonhyperbolic velocity analysis and NMO correction, P‐S to P‐P time transformation, P‐S dip moveout, prestack migration with two velocities and wavefields, and stacking velocity and reflectivity inversion for S‐wave velocities.Current P‐S sections are approaching (and in some cases exceeding) the quality of conventional P‐P seismic data. Interpretation of P‐S sections uses full elastic ray tracing, synthetic seismograms, correlation with P‐wave sections, and depth migration. Development of the P‐S method has taken about 20 years, but has now become commercially viable.