Incorporation of Sediment Inclusions in Detailed Salt Modeling Improves Subsalt Imaging in the Gulf of Mexico

It is well-understood that accurate salt interpretation is critical to subsalt imaging. As our ability to create more accurate velocity models for imaging progresses, we must pay attention to the details required to create better images. The standard work flow for subsalt imaging generates a model with a homogeneous constant velocity salt body. Incorporation of both the detailed external and internal geometries of allocthonous salt in velocity models is proving to be critical in achieving a superior subsalt image. Each contributes to a more accurate and valid velocity model which in turn creates better-defined base salt and subsalt reflectors. Incorporating sediment inclusions in the imaging velocity model on a 3D Gulf of Mexico dataset provides significant uplift in the quality of the seismic image.