Simulation of Seismic Wave Propagation In Media With Complex Geometries
Abstract
Computational wave propagation turns more and more into the backbone of seismic data fitting, modelling, and inversion. As we seek to extract information partly from tiny details in the observed waveforms our forward modelling (1) has to be extremely accurate, (2) has to allow for the inclusion of complex geometries (topography, internal interfaces, curved faults, etc.), (3) must contain realistic rheologies (e.g., visco-elasticity, anisotropy, poro-elasticity), and (4) should run in an efficient way on parallel hardware as any realistic 3-D simulation is computationally expensive. Computational seismology has come a long way since regular- grid finite-difference type methods. In addition to briefly addressing the history of computational wave propagation we discuss recent results applying the discontinuous Galerkin method to the elastic wave equation (and several other rheologies). We highlight the special features of this approach in connection with adapting polynomial order in the elements and using local time steps. As the method is implemented for tetrahedral grids, the meshing of complex geometries - given appropriate surface representations - is straight forward. We show applications in reservoir problems, dynamic rupture simulations, regional and global seismology.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.S21B2173I
- Keywords:
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- 7209 SEISMOLOGY / Earthquake dynamics;
- 7290 SEISMOLOGY / Computational seismology