An analytical migration method for crustal wide angle reflections

Summary An analytical migration method is developed for inverting wide angle seismic reflection travel time data with proper migration. In this method the concept of effective velocity (V_eff) in the vertically inhomogeneous earth has been used, which takes into account the refraction effect. It is shown that the migration process in this case becomes extremely rapid as curved ray paths are replaced by equivalent straight paths. A post migration sliding correction is found to be necessary, which arises due to the non-collinearity of the recording point, reflection point and the image point in the equivalent straight path geometry for dipping reflectors. Calculations for some representative dips show that, for the depths and recording ranges of interest in DSS, the vertical component of the sliding correction is negligible compared to the horizontal component. However, even the horizontal component is not significant for reflectors with gentle dips. The effect of certain simplifying assumptions in the estimation of V_eff is shown to be within the error limits of velocity determination. A computer programme package has been written for carrying out the migration. The method yields more accurate results in various theoretical and field cases than the conventional graphical wave front methods which are at present widely used for crustal reflection work.