Robust estimation of fracture directions from 3‐D converted‐waves

Abstract

We present a new method for estimating fracture directions from 3‐D converted wave data. The method is designed to alleviate some of the usual requirements placed upon the acquisition geometry — in particular regarding the distribution of azimuths within an analysis gather. We present a synthetic example, comparing the new method with a standard approach based on polarity changes, to illustrate the superior accuracy of the new method. We also present initial results on a 3‐C field dataset, which indicate the new method performs well compared to an existing technique.