Comparing P-S conversion point location in isotropic and anisotropic media

Abstract

The determination of the exact position of the P-S conversion point (CP) is an important issue in converted-wave seismology. Frequently, this issue is approached considering that the rock formation is isotropic. This simple approach may lead to significant errors due to the anisotropic features of the subsurface. This paper presents a comparison between the position of the CP obtained from the isotropic solution and the position of the CP considering two types of anisotropy: the transversely isotropic medium with vertical axis of symmetry, the so-called VTI, and an orthorhombic medium. In order to determine the location of the CP, the modeling program ANRAY, based on ray tracing method, was used. It is shown that for the VTI case the discrepancy between the true position of the CP and the one found by assuming isotropy can be in the order of hundreds of meters, even for offset/depth ratio, (X/Z), less than 2. On the other hand, for some particular values of Thomsen's parameters Î and d, it can be demonstrated that, the position of the CP practically coincides with the isotropic case. For orthorhombic symmetry (azimuthal anisotropy), the CP, in general, is no longer located in the vertical plane defined by the source-receiver positions, i.e., the discrepancy between CP locations is expressed by an inline and an offline components. The offline component value depends on the anisotropic nature of the medium. This observation is not valid only for orthorhombic models since similar discrepancies can also be observed in cases where the anisotropy is induced by cross-dipping structures or in models with lower anisotropic symmetries.