Frequency dependent elastic impedance inversion for interstratified dispersive elastic parameters

Abstract The elastic impedance equation is extended to frequency dependent elastic impedance equation by taking partial derivative to frequency. With this equation as the forward solver, a practical frequency dependent elastic impedance inversion approach is presented to implement the estimation of the interstratified dispersive elastic parameters which makes full use of the frequency information of elastic impedances. Three main steps are included in this approach. Firstly, the elastic Bayesian inversion is implemented for the estimation of elastic impedances from different incident angle. Secondly, with those estimated elastic impedances, their variations are used to estimate P-wave velocity and S-wave velocity. Finally, with the prior elastic impedance and P-wave and S-wave velocity information, the frequency dependent elastic variation with incident angle inversion is presented for the estimation of the interstratified elastic parameters. With this approach, the interstratified elastic parameters rather than the interface information can be estimated, making easier the interpretation of frequency dependent seismic attributes. The model examples illustrate the feasibility and stability of the proposed method in P-wave velocity dispersion and S-wave velocity dispersion estimation. The field data example validates the possibility and efficiency in hydrocarbon indication of the estimated P-wave velocity dispersion and S-wave velocity dispersion.