Prestack Kirchhoff depth migration of shallow seismic data

Prestack Kirchhoff depth migration is applied successfully to shallow seismic data from a waste disposal site near Arnstadt in Thuringia, Germany. The motivation behind this study was to locate an underground building buried in a waste disposal. The processing sequence of the prestack migration is simplified significantly as compared to standard common (CMP) data processing. It includes only two parts: (1) velocity-depth-model estimation and (2) prestack depth migration. In contrast to conventional CMP stacking, prestack migration does not require a separation of reflections and refractions in the shot data. It still provides an appropriate image. Our data example shows that a superior image can be achieved that would contain not just subtle improvements but a qualitative step forward in resolution and signal-to-noise ratio.