Seismic forward modelling of the Kvalhovden outcrop, Spitsbergen, Norway

With the advent of seismic forward modeling, it is now possible to investigate and bridge the resolution gap between outcrop, reservoir, and seismic-scale observations. Seismic processing is central to seismic technology and has grave consequences on the work of a seismic interpreter, reserve estimation, and economic decisions. To investigate the strength and inadequacies of contemporary processing algorithms used for seismic simulations, this work provides several modeled seismic sections from the Kvalhovden outcrop, Spitsbergen, Norway. We emphasize the differences in migrated and inverted seismic sections and their ability to accurately render the geological model. Our results show that Reverse Time Migration (RTM) significantly improves the geological model compared to the Kirchhoff migration and that the elastic RTM migration is excessive. In the RTM case, a smooth velocity model was sufficient to achieve realistic results. However, all migrated images have a false continuity, structures, apparent truncations, and false low-angle terminations. Introducing colors to the modeled sections create illusionary details, exaggerated the stratification, and reinforced the occurrence of seismic artifacts. In the inverted images, sandstone blocks and the underlying collapse structures are better imaged than on the migrated sections and are with a reduced number of artifacts. Importantly, our work shows the relevance of inverted sections for general structural and stratigraphic interpretation, albeit low resolution compared to the migrated data. Migrated and inverted sections should be used jointly to improve seismic interpretation quality.