Multi-scale imaging and modelling of seismic reflectors

地震波在地球内部物理性质的突然变化时反射和散射。由于波传播到地表，可以从记录的地震信号中包含的信息创建这些变化的图像。地震成像致力于识别这些信息，并将其与其起源--内部的突然变化--联系起来。不仅可以找到这些突变的位置，还可以找到有关地质、地球物理和矿物学过程的重要信息。地震观测到的不连续的例子包括上地幔410和660公里的不连续、壳-地幔边界和来自上沉积地壳的反射。只有使用理论信号处理和应用数学的先进技术，才能从不完整和有噪声的地震数据中获得关于不连续面精确性质的详细信息。利用这些信息，可以利用指数对突发性进行新的分类。这些指数补充了通常从地震图像中恢复的信息，并提供了有关造成地震不连续的沉积和矿物学过程的关键新信息。标志着互联互通开始的关键现象会产生指数。通过这一提议开发的新的基于小波的估计技术所获得的信息将提供必要的信息，以便更好地约束这些现象的模型。对不连续面临界现象的研究开辟了利用最新成像技术恢复地球次表面成分信息的新途径。

Seismic waves reflect and scatter at abrupt changes in the physical properties of the Earth's interior. Because waves travel to the surface, an image of these changes can be created from information contained in recorded seismic signals. Seismic imaging commits itself to identifying this information and relating it back to its origin, the abrupt changes in the interior. Not only can the location of these abrupt changes be found but also important information about the geological, geophysical and mineralogical processes. Examples of seismically observed discontinuities include the 410- and 660-km discontinuities in the upper mantle, the crust-mantle boundary and reflections from the upper sedimentary crust. Only by using advanced techniques from theoretical signal processing and applied mathematics can detailed information be obtained about the precise nature of discontinuities from incomplete and noisy seismic data. With this information a new classification according to abruptness can be made by means of exponents. These exponents complement the information normally being recovered from seismic images and they provide crucial new information on the sedimentary and mineralogical processes that are responsible for the creation of seismic discontinuities. Critical phenomena that mark the onset of connectivity give rise to exponents. Information obtained by new wavelet-based estimation techniques to be developed through this proposal will provide the necessary information to better constrain models of these phenomena. The study of critical phenomena at discontinuities opens new ways of recovering information on the composition of the Earth's subsurface by using the latest imaging techniques.