Modeling Elastic and Poroelastic Wave Propagation in Complex Geological Structures

The description of wave propagation in complex geological structures is of fundamental importance for earth sciences, in particular solid earth geophysics. Both, modern seismology and exploration geophysics increasingly make use of numerical procedures to simulate waves within the earth crust, the mantle and hydrocarbon reservoirs. It is the main goal of rock physics research to establish relationships between seismic waves and the properties of the subsurface. For this purpose, elastic and coupled poroelastic wave equations are solved using an explicit, high-order, finitedifference (FD) algorithm. The results are used for the verification of theoretical scattering attenuation estimates in heterogeneous, effectively anisotropic media and for the simulation of waves in fluid-saturated porous rocks. It is shown that by using modified FD operators, the stability of the scheme can be significantly increased when high material contrast are present within the medium. An improved understanding of wave dispersion and attenuation in heterogeneous rocks with partial saturation provides a basis for further rock physics applications.