Salt Inclusion Velocity Determination by a Constrained Iterative Tomographic Approach

Subsalt imaging has been a challenge from many aspects, one of which is velocity determination of intra-salt inclusions, also referred to as dirty salt velocity model building. In recent years, the seismic imaging community realized the impact of dirty salt on subsalt imaging, but still lacks systematic study and an effective solution. In this study, we systematically analyze how the position, orientation, size, distribution, and shape of intra-salt inclusions impact the base of salt (BoS) and subsalt imaging. Acknowledging the shortcoming of conventional tomography for the special case of dirty salt velocity updating, we propose applying bounded dirty salt tomography with BoS and subsalt residual moveout (RMO) information in an iterative workflow.