The present and promise of P-S seismic exploration

Robert R. Stewart

Use of converted waves (P-S) in exploration geophysics began in the early 1980's. In the last several years, P-S surveying has developed rapidly. Recent special processes for S-wave analysis include shear statics, asymmetric binning, shifted hyperbolic velocity analysis, P-S DMO, pre- and post-stack migration, and shear seislog inversion. Numerous applications for P-S sections have arisen including sand/shale differentiation, anisotropy analysis, imaging through gas zones, and AVO analysis. Converted waves hold enormous promise for marine surveys and land 3C-3D problems.