The ray parameter and the travel-time curves

Pflat and Pradial are the slopes of the travel time curves T-versus-X
and T-versus-, respectively.

While the units of the flat ray parameter is S/m, that of the radial
earth is S/rad.
 The T-X curves and the velocity structures

Steady increase in wave speed:

The rays sample progressively deeper regions in the Earth, and

arrive at progressively greater distances.
High velocity layer:

The rays are reflected at the layer, causing different paths to

cross. For some distance range there are three arrivals: the direct
phase, the refracted phase and the reflected phase. This
phenomena is referred to as the triplication point.
Low velocity layer:

The decrease in ray speed causes the ray to deflect towards the
vertical, resulting in a shadow zone.

Question: Were are the low velocity layers in the Earth?

The outer core is a low velocity layer
 Amplitude

Note the reinforcement

of the surface waves
near the antipodes.

In general, the wave

amplitude decreases with
distance from the source.
Also, a major aftershock (magnitude 7.1) can be seen at the
closest stations starting just after the 200 minutes mark. Note the
relative size of this aftershock, which would be considered as a
major earthquake under ordinary circumstances, compared to the
mainshock.
 Amplitude

Geometrical spreading.

Anelastic attenuation.

Energy partitioning at the interface.

 Geometrical Spreading

For surface waves we get :

Amplitude r1/ 2 .
For body waves, on the other hand, we
get: Amplitude r1.

 Anelastic attenuation

Rocks are not perfectly elastic; thus, some energy is lost to heat
due to frictional dissipation. This effect results in an amplitude
reduction with distance, r, according to:

Amplitude expr ,
with being the absorption coefficient.

The effect of anelastic attenuation and
geometrical spreading combined is:

Amplitude r1 expr .
 Energy partitioning at an interface
Energy:

The energy density, E, may be written as a sum of kinetic energy

density, Ek, and potential energy density, Ep.

The kinetic energy density is:

1
Ek U 2 .
2
Now consider a sine wave propagating in the x-direction, we have:
U A sin(wt ) ,

where w is the frequency, t is time, and k is the wave-number. The

particle velocity is: U Aw cos(wt ) ,

and the kinetic energy density is:

1
Ek [ Aw cos( wt )]2 .
2
Since the mean value of cos2 is 1/2, the mean kinetic energy is:
1
Ek [Aw]2 .
4
In a perfectly elastic medium, the average kinetic and potential
energies are equal, and the total energy is:
1
Etotal Ek E p [ Aw ]2 .
2
Thus, the total energy density flux is simply:
1
Etotal C[Aw]2 ,
2
were C is the wave speed.
If the density and the wave speed are position dependent, so is
the amplitude. In the absence of geometrical spreading and
attenuation, we get:
A1 2C2
.
A2 1C1
The product of and C is referred to as the material impedance.
 Energy partitioning at the interface

In conclusion, the amplitude is inversely proportional to the square

root of the impedance.

Reflection and transmission coefficients:

The reflection coefficient of a normal incidence is:

Areflected 2C2 1C1
.
Aincoming 2C2 1C1

The transmission coefficient of a normal incidence is:

Atransmitted 2 1C1
.
Aincoming 2C2 1C1
 Energy partitioning at the interface

The amplitudes as a function of incidence angle may be computed

numerically (see equations 4.81-84 in Fowlers book).

Figure from Fowler

Note the two critical angles at 300 and 600.

Phases reflected from the critical angles onwards are of larger
amplitude.
For normal incidence, the reflected energy is <1%.
 Energy partitioning at the interface

Pre-critical angle, i<ic: Reflection and transmission.

Critical incidence, i=ic: The critically refracted phase travels along

the interface, emitting head waves to the upper medium.

Post-critical incidence, i>ic: No transmission, only reflection. The

amplitude of the reflected phase is therefore close to the
amplitude of the incoming wave.
 Processing: zero-offset gathers

The simplest data collection imaginable is one in which data is

recorded by a receiver, whose location is the same as that of the
source. This form of data collection is referred to as zero-offset
gathers.

Advantage: Easy to interpret.

Disadvantage: Impractical. Why?

 Processing: common shot gathers

Data collection in the form of zero-offset gathers is impractical,

since very little energy is reflected by normal incidence. Thus, the
signal-to-noise ratio is small.

Seismic data is always collected in common shot gathers, i.e.

multiple receivers are recording the signal originating from a single
shot.
 Processing: common midpoint gathers

Common midpoint gathers: Regrouping the data from multiple

sources such that the mid-points between the sources and the
receivers are the same.
 Processing: common depth gather

For a horizontal flat layer on top of a half-space, the common mid-

point gather is actually a common depth gather.

In that case, the half offset between the shot and the receiver is
located right above the reflector. (Next you will see that this is a
very logical way of organizing the data.)
 Processing: normal moveout correction

Step 1: The data is organized into common mid-point gathers at

each mid-point location.

Step 2: Coherent arrivals are identified, and a search for best

fitting depth and velocity is carried out.
 Processing: normal moveout correction

Step 3: The arrivals are aligned in a process called normal

moveout correction (NMO), and the aligned records are stacked.

If the NMO is done correctly, i.e. the velocity and depth are
chosen correctly, the stacking operation results in a large increase
of the coherent signal-to-noise ratio.
 Processing: plotting the seismic profile

The next step is to plot all the common mid-point stacked traces at
the mid-point position. This results in a zero-offset stacked seismic
section.

At this stage, the vertical axis of the profile is in units of time (and
not depth).
 Processing

The above section may be viewed as an ensemble of experiments

performed using a moving zero-offset source-receiver pair at each
position along the section.

In summary, in reflection seismology, the incidence angle is close

to vertical. This results in a weak reflectivity and small signal-to-
noise ratio. To overcome this problem we perform normal moveout
corrections followed by trace stacking. This results in a zerro-
offset stack.
 Processing: additional steps

Additional steps are involved in the processing of reflection data.

The main steps are:

Editing and muting

Gain recovery

Static correction

Deconvolution of source

The order in which these steps are applied is variable.

 Processing

Editing and muting:

Remove dead traces.
Remove noisy traces.
Cut out pre-arrival nose and ground roll.

Gain recovery: turn up the volume to account for seismic

attenuation.
Accounting for geometric spreading by multiplying the amplitude
with the reciprocal of the geometric spreading factor.
Accounting for anelatic attenuation by multiplying the traces by
expt, where is the attenuation constant.
 Processing: static (or datum) correction

Time-shift of traces in order to correct for surface topography and

weathered layer.

E s E r 2E d
Corrections: t ,
V
where:
Es is the source elevation
Er is the
receiver elevation
Ed is the datum elevation
V is the velocity above the datum
 Processing: static (or datum) correction

An example of seismic profile before (top) and after (bottom) the

static correction.
 Processing: deconvolution of the source

Seismograms are the result of a convolution between the source

and the subsurface reflectivity series (and also the receiver).
source wavelet reflectivity series output series

Mathematically, this is written as:

seismogram = source reflectivity,
where the operator denotes convolution.
In order to remove the source effect, one needs to apply
deconvolution:
reflectivity = seismogram source,

where the operator denotes deconvolution.
 Processing: deconvolution of the source

Seismic profiles before (top) and after (bottom) the deconvolution.

Note that the deconvolved signal is spike-like.

 Processing: 3D reflection
The 3D reflection experiments came about with the advent of the
fast computers in the mid-1980s.

In these experiments, geophones and sources are distributed over

a 2D ground patch.

For example, a 3D
reflectivity cube of data
sliced horizontally to reveal
a meandering river channel
at a depth of more than
16,000 feet.
 Processing: inclined interface

The reflection point is right below

the receiver if the layer is
horizontal. For an inclined layer,
on the other hand, the reflection
bounced from a point up-dip.
Thus the travel-time curve will
show a reduced dip.
 Processing: curved interface

A syncline with a center of

curvature that is located
below the surface results in
three normal incidence
reflections.
 Processing: migration

Reflection seismic record must be corrected for non-horizontal

reflectors, such as dipping layers, synclines, and more. Migration
is the name given to the process which attempts do deal with this
problem, and to move the reflectors to their correct position. The
process of migration is complex, and requires prior knowledge of
the seismic velocity distribution.