Feasibility of Detection of Shallow-Water Flow Layers from Prestack Waveform Inversion

D-32 FEASIBILITY OF DETECTION OF SHALLOW- WATER FLOW LAYERS FROM PRESTACK WAVEFORM INVERSION Summary: Shallow-water flow (SWF) layers are isolated sand bodies in relatively shallow regions of a deep-sea environment. These layers are usually overpressured and pose a potential threat to drilling. This paper investigates the feasibility of detecting SWF layers from waveform inversion of prestack seismic data. Since SWF layers contain large volumes of water it is characterized by a high value of P-to-S-wave velocity ratio (VP/V S) in comparison to the V P/V S of the formations that surround the SWF layer. Although high VP/V S characterizes the