AVO analysis of seismic data

ABSTRACT The reflection amplitude of seismic waves from an interface between two elastic layers is a complicated function of the properties of the media (compressional velocity, shear velocity and density), and of the incident angle. There is then the possibility of using the amplitude versus offset (AVO) behavior to invert for the elastic properties of the layers. Many authors have shown that AVO anomalies (bright spots) are often associated to gas accumulation, and this technology has successfully being used to detect hydrocarbon reser-voirs for about two decades. This method has achieved remarkable advancement and it is been extensively implemented in oil industry. In this work we present the AVO fundamentals and processing, then we explore the relation between reflection amplitude and elastic parameters, and finally we produce AVO examples for high porosity gas sands layers.