Seismic Diffraction Imaging to Characterize Mass?Transport Complexes: Examples From the Gulf of Cadiz, South West Iberian Margin

Mass-transport complexes (MTCs) are often characterized by small-scale discontinuous internal structure, such as slide blocks, rough interfaces, faults, and truncated strata. Seismic images may not properly resolve structure because seismic reflections fundamentally limited in lateral resolution the source bandwidth. The relatively weak diffractions, instead, encode information on subwavelength-scale with superior illumination. In this paper, we compare diffraction imaging to conventional, full-wavefield characterize MTCs. We apply a workflow based plane-wave destruction filters two 2D marine multichannel profiles from Gulf of Cadiz. observe that MTCs generate large amount diffracted energy relative unfailed confining sediments. show some is localized along existing discontinuities imaged images. demonstrate that, combination images, can be utilized better discriminate extent MTCs, particularly for thin bodies. suggest more physically correct alternative commonly used discontinuity attributes derived Finally, outline an approach utilize out-of-plane diffractions generated 3D normally considered nuisance processing. use controlled synthetic test real-data example under certain conditions these might constrain minimum width single profiles.