Imaging the northeast lobe of the Sudbury Structure through 2D and 2.5D
visco-acoustic full-waveform inversion
Abstract
We conduct two-dimensional (2D) and two-and-one-half dimensional (2.5D)
visco-acoustic full-waveform inversion in the frequency domain using new
long-offset data from the northeast lobe of the Sudbury structure
acquired in 2017. We implement a multiscale inversion strategy based on
frequency continuation, and the progressive inclusion of later arrivals,
in an effort to mitigate the nonlinearity of the inverse problem. This
strategy is equally implemented in both 2D and 2.5D schemes, enabling
proper comparisons between their respective results. We start by
minimizing logarithmic phase-only residuals, and continue with the
minimization of conventional phase-amplitude residuals at later stages,
addressing large dynamic variations within our dataset. We demonstrate
that the 2.5D modeling technique, which requires more computational
resources than its 2D counterpart, is not necessary at this location
because the acquisition geometry is only mildly crooked. We illustrate
this by analyzing inverted source signatures, time-domain synthetic
waveforms, and by performing visual comparisons of the inverted 2D and
2.5D velocity models. We successfully retrieve the velocity structure in
the first 1.5 km of the subsurface, and the internal stratigraphic
character of the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) is identified within this
velocity model. Different velocity domains within our model closely
correlate with known geology. This allows us to proceed with a joint
analysis of the inverted velocity model and the migrated seismic section
of the reflection survey that reveals important structural
characteristics of prominent SIC layers, such as their inclination
degree and thicknesses, as well as their continuation at depth.