In this paper we study the linearized inverse problem associated with imaging of reflection seismic data. We introduce an inverse scattering transform derived from reverse time migration (RTM). In the process, the explicit evaluation of the so-called normal operator is avoided, while other differential and pseudodifferential operator factors are introduced. We prove that, under certain conditio...

This paper explores the relationship between velocity uncertainty and AVO-related seismic attributes in a dataset from the Blake Outer Ridge, offshore from Florida and Georgia. From an initial velocity model, several realizations were generated that are perturbations of the original velocity model. Prestack wave-equation migration was applied to the data for each velocity realization. In the mi...

Kirchhoff inversion theory tells us that reflection data provides information about the Fourier transform of the reflectivity function at each point in the illuminated subsurface. Thus, inversion formulas expressed as integrals in image point coordinates that closely characterize that Fourier domain are attractive for their relative simplicity. On the other hand, integrals over source/receiver ...

Time-lapse seismic data are widely used for monitoring subsurface changes. A quantitative assessment of how reservoir properties have changed allows for better interpretation of fluid substitution and migration during processes like oil and gas production, and carbon sequestration. Full waveform inversion has been proposed as a way to retrieve quantitative estimates of subsurface properties thr...

Multiply scattered waves, including internal multiples, are rarely considered as signal when imaging with seismic waves. Reverse-time-migration techniques accurately handle the propagation of such complex scattered waves, but most of these techniques paradoxically do not fully utilize the illumination and energy of multiply scattered waves because these methods rely on the single-scattering ass...

Subduction zones play critical roles in the recycling of oceanic lithosphere and the generation of continental crust. Seismic imaging can reveal structures associated with key dynamic processes occurring in the upper-mantle wedge above the sinking oceanic slab. Three-dimensional images of reflecting interfaces throughout the upper-mantle wedge above the subducting Tonga slab were obtained by mi...

In this paper we define the theory and basic principles to move (redatum) the surface shots from a walk away VSP to be as if they had been located in the borehole. We will refer to this theory using several of the terms used in the literature including Time Reverse Acoustics (TRA), Seismic Interferometry (SI) and Virtual Source (VS) technology. Regardless of the name, the theory is built upon r...

The Giant Gjallar Vent (GGV), located in the Vøring Basin off mid-Norway, is one of the largest (~5 × 3 km) vent systems in the North Atlantic. The vent represents a reactivated former hydrothermal system that formed at about 56 Ma. It is fed by two pipes of 440 m and 480 m diameter that extend from the Lower Eocene section up to the Base Pleistocene Unconformity (BPU). Previous studies based o...