Scattered wave pre-stack time migration

Identification of small-scale non-uniform geological structures such as small faults, pinchouts, cracks and caves etc. is one of important goals of oil & gas exploration. However, such small-scale non-uniform geological structures cannot be imaged clearly based on traditional PSTM because of the limitations of resolution and/or signal-noise-ratio. It is a great signature to describe non-uniform geological structures with the advantage of scattered wave. When reflected wave was attenuated and scattered wave was preserved during seismic imaging, this kind of geological structures will be highlighted and can be easier to be identified. In this paper we present a scattered wave PSTM method, by which scattered wave is extracted and imaged via the travel time difference of reflected wave and scattered wave. Numerical experiments and real data processing show that this method can identify small-scale non-uniform geological structures and provide useful data for subsequent seismic data interpretation.