The End of Unblended Acquisition

We show that deblended shot records have a better S/N than shot records in unblended surveys. We also show that a further improvement in S/N is obtained in the migrated domain. Both improvements increase with increasing blending fold and decreasing survey time. An interesting consequence of this remarkable property is that blended surveys can be carried out under more severe noise conditions than unblended surveys. We conclude with the observation that unblended seismic acquisition may evolve into a technology of the past.