Modeling,ray tracing,and block nonlinear travel-time inversion in 3D

We describe an integrated forward and inverse three-dimensional modeling system that can deal with complex geological structures. The system has been designed to handle large-scale problems by using a distributed approach. It uses seismic ray tracing for forward simulation, time-to-depth mapping, and nonlinear travel-time inversion.A novel decomposition method is our tool to attack large-scale problems in a parallel approach. The system is fully implemented and we demonstrate its performance with synthetic examples.This research was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under SBIR Grant III-9300992.