The power of elastic FWI with sparse ocean-bottom node acquisition for complex subsalt imaging

This study demonstrates the power of Elastic Dynamic Matching Full-Waveform Inversion (E-DMFWI) applied to data from sparse ocean-bottom node (OBN) acquisition to enhance subsalt imaging in the Gulf of America. By utilizing ultra-long offset, full-azimuth and low frequency data from the Amendment Phase 2 (PH2) and Phase 1 (PH1) surveys, E-DMFWI effectively delineates salt feeder, carbonate and deep Luanne salt. It refines salt geometry under complex shallow salt bodies which successfully images continuous events in the poor illumination zone that was impossible to achieve before. Our findings confirm that this integrated approach offers superior imaging capabilities in such geologically challenging settings and has the potential to significantly improve project efficiency as well.