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Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America; June 1986; v. 76; no. 3; p. 837-846
© 1986 Seismological Society of America
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A method for the inversion of refraction and reflection travel times for laterally varying velocity structures

HUAIYONG HUANG*, CARL SPENCER and ALAN GREEN

EARTH PHYSICS BRANCH DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, MINES AND RESOURCES DIVISION OF SEISMOLOGY AND GEOMAGNETISM, 1 OBSERVATORY CRESCENT, OTTAWA, ONTARIO K1A OY3, Canada

Abstract

In an attempt to speed up the lengthy process of modeling seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection data, a two-dimensional ray tracing routine is used as the basis for an automated travel-time inversion scheme. Laterally varying P-wave velocity structures are represented by arbitrary-shaped blocks of constant velocity gradient. Velocities, gradients, and boundary points of the blocks are parameters in the inversion scheme, and the input data are refraction and reflection travel-time arrivals from both directions of a reversed seismic line. Damped least-squares techniques are used to solve the equations of condition, and inversions are allowed to proceed automatically for several iterations. A synthetic example is presented, and the data from two reversed seismic refraction profiles recorded recently in eastern Canada are inverted to demonstrate the utility of the method under less than ideal conditions. The synthetic test demonstrates that several iterations of the procedure are necessary for accurate recovery of input models and provides a resolving power analysis of the problem, while the real data example produces models comparable to those obtained by experienced interpreters using trial and error methods.

Footnotes

* On leave from: Changsha Institute of Geotectonics, Academia Sinica, Changsha, Hunan, Peoples Republic of China.




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