Anisotropic seismic-waveform inversion: Application to a seismic velocity model from Eleven-Mile Canyon in Nevada

Conference · Thu Mar 31 04:00:00 EDT 2016

OSTI ID:1245559

Chen, Yu ^[1]; Gao, Kai ^[1]; Huang, Lianjie ^[1]; Sabin, Andrew ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Geothermal Program Office, China Lake, CA (United States)

Accurate imaging and characterization of fracture zones is crucial for geothermal energy exploration. Aligned fractures within fracture zones behave as anisotropic media for seismic-wave propagation. The anisotropic properties in fracture zones introduce extra difficulties for seismic imaging and waveform inversion. We have recently developed a new anisotropic elastic-waveform inversion method using a modified total-variation regularization scheme and a wave-energy-base preconditioning technique. Our new inversion method uses the parameterization of elasticity constants to describe anisotropic media, and hence it can properly handle arbitrary anisotropy. We apply our new inversion method to a seismic velocity model along a 2D-line seismic data acquired at Eleven-Mile Canyon located at the Southern Dixie Valley in Nevada for geothermal energy exploration. Our inversion results show that anisotropic elastic-waveform inversion has potential to reconstruct subsurface anisotropic elastic parameters for imaging and characterization of fracture zones.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Office of Geothermal Energy (originally DOE/LANL)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1245559
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15--28388
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Earth Sciences
Fracture zone
anisotropic waveform inversion
modified total-variation regularization
geothermal energy exploration