Effects of anisotropy on time-depth relation in transversely isotropic medium with a vertical axis of symmetry

It is known that rock anisotropy can significantly influence the phase and energy velocities of an elastic wave, as well as its re-flection/transmission (R/T) coefficients. As a result, it can distort the velocity analysis of seismic-reflection data. In this work we present a velocity analysis for seismic-reflection data based on the available anisotropic rock parameters. We analyzed the created errors on time-depth relation of the seismic-reflection data in neglecting rock anisotropy and/or neglecting the difference between energy velocity and phase velocity, including the case of wide-angle reflection. The calculated results show that the effect of rock anisotropy on time-depth relation of seismic-reflection data is dependent not only on the values of anisotropic parameters, but also on the space arrangement of both source and receiver-array. For all studied cases (weak, moderate or strong anisotropy), we found that the effect of rock anisotropy on time-depth relation could not be neglected. Nevertheless, for the case of weak anisotropy, the energy velocity may be replaceable by the phase velocity to obtain a very good approximation on time-depth relation. Consequently, the seismic-reflection data processing algorithm for numerical computations can be simplified.