Cooperative Inversion of Geophysical Data

Larry Lines, Alton K. Schultz, Sven Treitel

Geophysical inversion by iterative modeling involves a fitting of observations by the adjustment of model parameters. Both seismic and potential field model responses can be influenced by the adjustment of the rock property parameters and the adjustment of rock-layer boundaries. The objective of this "cooperative inversion" is to obtain a model consistent with all available surface and borehole geophysical data sets. Although the inversion of real geophysical data is always nonunique and ambiguous, we can lessen the degree of ambiguity by inverting all available surface and borehole data. In general, the cooperative inversion of these various types of data provided model responses that satisfied all data sets. This concept is illustrated by a case history in which surface seismic data, sonic logs, vertical seismic profiles (VSP), surface gravity data, and borehole gravity meter (BHGM) data were adequately modeled by using least squares inversion in conjunction with a series of forward modeling steps.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91035©1988 AAPG-SEPM-SEG Pacific Sections and SPWLA Annual Convention, Santa Barbara, California, 17-19 April 1988.