Land Seismic Case Studies for Near-Surface Modeling and Subsurface Imaging

Written for practicing geophysicists, Land Seismic Case Studies for Near-Surface Modeling and Subsurface Imaging is a comprehensive guide to understanding and analyzing seismic data. The culmination of land seismic data acquisition and processing projects conducted by the author over the last two decades, this book contains nearly 800 figures from worldwide case studies—conducted in both 2D and 3D. Beginning with Chapter 1 on seismic characterization of the near-surface, Chapter 2 presents near-surface modeling by traveltime and full-wave inversion, Chapter 3 presents near-surface modeling by imaging, and then Chapter 4 includes detailed case studies for near-surface modeling. Chapter 5 reviews single- and multichannel signal processing of land seismic data with the key objective of removing surface waves and guided waves that are characterized as coherent linear noise. Uncommon seismic data acquisition methods, including large-offset acquisition in thrust belts to capture the large-amplitude supercritical reflections, swath-line acquisition, and joint PP and SH-SH seismic imaging are highlighted in Chapter 6, and Chapter 7 presents image-based rms velocity estimation and discusses the problem of velocity uncertainty. The final two chapters focus exclusively on case studies: 2D in Chapter 8 and 3D in Chapter 9. An outstanding teaching tool, this book includes analysis workflows containing processing steps designed to solve specific problems. Essential for anyone involved in acquisition, processing, and inversion of seismic data, this volume will become the definitive reference for understanding how the variables in seismic acquisition are directly reflected in the data.