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Chapter 4
Velocity analysis
Introduction
Seismic velocities are used in many processing and interpretation stages such as:
Spherical divergence correction
NMO correction and stacking
Interval velocity determination
Migration
Time to depth conversion.
There are different types of seismic velocities such as: the NMO, stacking, RMS,
average, interval (Dix), phase, group, and migration velocities.
The velocities that can be derived reliably from T-X data are the NMO and stacking
velocities.
(4.1)
where T(X) is the 2-way traveltime at offset X, T(0) is the 2-way traveltime at zero
offset, and V is the layer velocity.
In a series of plane horizontal constant-velocity layers, the exact offset (XN) and twoway traveltime (TN) to the Nth layer are given by the following parametric equations:
X N = 2
i =1
pVi H i
1 ( pVi ) 2
and TN = 2
i =1
Hi
Vi 1 ( pVi ) 2
where Vi, and Hi are the interval velocity and thickness of the ith layer; and p = dT/dX
is the parameter of the ray received at X = XN with T = TN.
(4.2)
The series (4.2) is an exact representation of the exact T-X curve of the N-th reflector
under two conditions:
1. X = 0.
2. Infinite number of terms is used in the series.
Putting X > 0 in equation (4.2) will result in losing some accuracy in the
representation of series (4.2) of the exact T-X curve.
Therefore, we can only use this series as long as we keep close to X = 0. A practical
measure is X/Z 1.
N 2H i
N
=
t i = TN (0) 2 ,
C 0 =
i =1
i =1 Vi
(4.2a)
N
t i
= 1 / VRMS N 2 .
and C1 = Ni =1
V 2 t
i
i
i =1
(4.2b)
where ti is the interval zero-offset two-way traveltime of the i-th layer and VRMSN is
the RMS velocity of the N-th reflector.
In general, the less terms left in the series, the greater is the error.
Truncating equation (4.2) to two terms, we get the following hyperbolic relation
between T and X:
TN2(X) TN2(0) + X2/VRMSN2,
(4.3a)
Note the two conditions above when estimating VRMSN from equation (4.3a).
The RMS velocity can be defined in terms of the true T-X curve as the square root of
the reciprocal of the coefficient of the X2 term in the series approximation of the
exact T2-X2 curve of multiple layers:
VRMS =
1
C1
(4.3b)
It can also be shown that VRMS is equal to the square root of the reciprocal of the
slope of the tangent to the exact T2-X2 curve at X = 0. That is:
V RMS =
1
2
[dT / dX 2 ] X = 0
(4.3c)
The RMS velocity VRMSN to the N-th reflector can also be defined in terms of the
properties of subsurface layers as (see equation (4.2b)) :
VRMSN
N 2
Vi t i
= i =1N
t i
i =1
1/ 2
(4.4)
where Vi is the interval velocity and ti is the interval zero-offset two-way traveltime
of the i-th layer, and N is the number of layers.
The stacking velocity Vs is found from the T-X data by fitting a best-fit hyperbola to
the true (nonhyperbolic) T-X curve, which takes the form:
T2(X) = T2(0) + X2/Vs2,
(4.5)
where T(X) is the 2-way traveltime at offset X and T(0) is the 2-way traveltime at
zero offset.
Figure.
Figure.
Note that when fitting a hyperbola to the true T-X curve, we always choose the
constant term to be equal to T2(0) because it is a known condition and must be
satisfied. Therefore, this is a constrained fit.
The normal moveout (NMO) is the time difference between traveltime at a given
offset and zero offset. At small offsets, the NMO is approximated by:
TNMO(X) X2/[2VNMO2 T(0)].
(4.6)
The NMO velocity VNMO is found from the T-X data by searching for the velocity
that will best NMO-correct a certain reflection (i.e., makes it perfectly horizontal).
Figure.
The stacking and NMO velocities cannot be related directly to the properties of
subsurface layers.
However, at small offsets (offset depth), the NMO and stacking velocities are
approximately equal to the RMS velocity.
Since VRMS is related to layers properties (equation 4.4), the equivalence of the RMS,
NMO, and stacking velocities at small offsets can be used to relate VS and VNMO to
layer properties directly through Dix formula defined next.
The interval (Dix) velocity (VN) of the N-th layer can be calculated from the RMS (or
stacking and NMO at small offsets) velocities as follows:
VN
V RMSN 2 T ( 0 ) N V RMSN 1 2 T ( 0 ) N 1
=
T ( 0 ) N T ( 0 ) N 1
1/2
(4.7)
where VRMSN-1 and VRMSN are the RMS velocities to the top and bottom of the N-th
layer, and T(0)N-1 and T(0)N are the zero-offset traveltimes to the top and bottom of
the N-th layer.
The NMO and stacking velocities are generally not equal because they are calculated
using different unrelated methods. However, in practice, they are considered equal if
only small offsets are used.
See this Excel Sheet for the effects of truncation and offset on VRMS calculation.
If we approximate the true T-X curve by a hyperbola of the form given by equation
(4.5), then a plot of T2 versus X2 will give a line whose slope and intercept are 1/Vs2
and T2(0), respectively.
Hence, we can use this equation to find the stacking velocity Vs from the slope of the
best-fit line to the true T-X curve. This is called the T2-X2 method.
The T2-X2 method is not practical to use for common seismic exploration datasets
because it needs picking of T(X) at every offset, which has the following problems:
1. It is time consuming if done by humans because of the huge datasets commonly
encountered in seismic exploration.
2. It is prone to errors if done by machine especially in noisy datasets.
Therefore, it is mainly used with small datasets of relatively high S/N ratio (e. g.,
experimental or synthetic data).
The velocities found using variation (b) are often called stacking velocities (Vs)
because a stacked section is used.
Important parameters to consider when using the CVS method are the minimum,
maximum, and increment in the trial NMO velocities.
It maps the T-X data of a single CMP gather onto the velocity-spectrum plane.
In the velocity-spectrum plane, the vertical axis is T0 and the horizontal axis is Vs.
You should end up with a set of picks (T0, Vs) for every selected CMP.
To find the (T0, Vs) sets for the other, unprocessed CMPs, we linearly interpolate
them.
Es, Eu, and NE are measures of coherency (similarity) of the signal along a hyperbolic
curve. Other measures of signal coherency are often used such as:
The stacked amplitude.
The normalized stacked amplitude.
The un-normalized crosscorrelation.
The normalized crosscorrelation.
The energy-normalized crosscorrelation.
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Important parameters to consider when using the velocity spectrum method are the
minimum, maximum, and increment in the trial stacking velocities.
The velocities used in this method are called often the semblance velocities.
Velocity estimation from the velocity spectrum is limited in accuracy and resolution
for the following reasons:
Spread length:
Using only near offsets degrades the coherency peaks at later times due to the
low NMO associated with deep reflections.
Using only far offsets degrade the peaks at shallow times due to the high
NMO associated with shallow reflections.
Stacking fold: Using very low folds significantly shifts the coherency peaks in the
spectrum due to the loss of hyperbolic character of reflections.
S/N ratio: The accuracy of the velocity spectrum is limited when the S/N ratio is
poor due to the many erroneous peaks generated by aligning random noise.
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