Wave-equation Migration in Generalized Coordinate Systems a Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Geophysics and the Committee on Graduate Studies of Stanford University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Wave-equation migration using one-way wavefield extrapolation operators is commonly used in industry to generate images of complex geologic structure from 3D seismic data. By design, most conventional wave-equation approaches restrict propagation to downward continuation, where wavefields are recursively extrapolated to depth on Cartesian meshes. In practice, this approach is limited in high-angle accuracy and is restricted to down-going waves, which precludes the use of some steep dip and all turning wave components important for imaging targets in such areas as steep salt body flanks. This thesis discusses a strategy for improving wavefield extrapolation based on extending wavefield propagation to generalized coordinate system geometries that are more conformal to the wavefield propagation direction and permit imaging with turning waves. Wavefield propagation in non-Cartesian coordinates requires properly specifying the Laplacian operator in the governing Helmholtz equation. By employing differential geometry theory, I demonstrate how generalized a Riemannian wavefield extrapolation (RWE) procedure can be developed for any 3D non-orthogonal coordinate system, including those constructed by smoothing ray-based coordinate meshes formed from a suite of traced rays. I present 2D and 3D generalized RWE propagation examples illustrating the improved steep-dip propagation afforded by the coordinate transformation. One consequence of using non-Cartesian coordinates, though, is that the corresponding 3D extrapolation operators have up to 10 non-stationary coefficients, which can lead to imposing (and limiting) computer memory constraints for realistic 3D