Determining the properties and states of a geological volume from seismic waveforms: an integration of novel theory with laboratory and field methods

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My research group is engaged in the creation of a maximally complete picture of the wave physics of seismic inversion - that is, the problem of listening to sound waves echoing back to the surface and from them inferring the properties of the hidden geology below. Success in this enterprise requires new and innovative research to be carried out in both basic and applied domains. The focus of the research program in this Discovery Grant proposal is on the former type: it will occur independently but in parallel with strong efforts by my group in applied research as well. The proposed research can be subdivided into three related themes. The first major theme is one of unification: transitioning towards a framework in which our two big available theories for inversion, "direct nonlinear inverse scattering" (IS) methods and "full waveform inversion" (FWI) methods, which are complementary but entirely exclusively considered in our field, are parts of a unified whole. This is very much unexplored scientific territory, but my group is in a unique position to create this unified scheme, and in fact will publicly describe some candidate approaches for the first time in the Fall of 2015. The second theme is the creation of quantitative methods describing the processes by which seismic waves scatter from 3D geological inclusions parameterized by anelastic, anisotropic, and rock-physics properties. General analytic methods for this purpose either do not exist or incompletely exist. This will result in new tools for simulation, directly applicable to problems of reservoir monitoring for stress and pressure, caprock integrity, fluid viscosity, etc., and will facilitate innovation in the first theme area. The third theme is the development of new tools and procedures for validation of new methods, especially those developed as outcomes of themes one and two. My group is beginning the development of a 3-stage validation scheme, incorporating laboratory data analysis as a stepping stone between simulated and field data validation steps. I propose a basic research plan built around these three themes, that leverages the parallel but independent applied research being carried out by my research group and my stake in other nearby ongoing seismic research projects.**