Prestack considerations for the migration of oblique reflectors

John C. Bancroft, Charles P. Ursenbach

A zero-offset stacked section that contains an oblique reflector can be migrated successfully by raising the migration velocity. What prestack processing can be performed to improve the diffracted energy on the stacked section?

A special moveout correction can be applied to enhance the oblique reflection on the stacked section and modified prestack migration operators may also be used to enhance the oblique reflection. The benefit of these special processes will depend on the linear extent and angle of the oblique reflector. Satisfactory results can also be obtained when stacking with the RMS velocity and when stacking with an RMS velocity that is increased by the inverse of the cosine of the angle of obliquity.