Anisotropic elastic full-waveform inversion of walkaway vertical seismic profiling data from the Arabian Gulf

Borehole seismic addresses the need for high-resolution images and elastic parameters of the subsurface. Full-waveform inversion of vertical seismic profile data is a promising technology with the potential to recover quantitative information about elastic properties of the medium. Full-waveform inversion has the capability to process the entire wavefield and to address the wave propagation effects contained in the borehole data—multi-component measurements; anisotropic effects; compressional and shear waves; and transmitted, converted, and reflected waves and multiples. Full-waveform inversion, therefore, has the potential to provide a more accurate result compared with conventional processing methods. We present a feasibility study with results of the application of high-frequency (up to 60 Hz) anisotropic elastic full-waveform inversion to a walkaway vertical seismic profile data from the Arabian Gulf. Full-waveform inversion has reproduced the majority of the wave events and recovered a geologically plausible layered model with physically meaningful values of the medium.