PRESTACK PROCESSING OF LAND DATA WITH COMPLEX TOPOGRAPHY

A new wave-equation-based prestack seismic processing system is propos ed. This system has only two essential elements; velocity analysis and depth migration. This approach applies truly surface-consistent stati cs corrections, regardless of the amount of elevation, change or of ne ar-surface velocity variation. It uses tomography for estimating the d etails of shallow velocities and a finite-difference solution of the t wo-way wave-equation both for computation of image times and for data extrapolation in migration. A field data set that violates most of the assumptions in conventional common midpoint (CMP) processing, because of severe elevation changes and near-surface velocity variations, is successfully processed. The final depth section reveals a complicated fold-thrust geometry that was not visible after CMP processing.