Seismic Physical Modeling

For more than half a century, interpreters, researchers, and teachers have used physical-model data to better understand and communicate the behavior of seismic waves. Seismic interpreters faced with ambiguities in data analysis have long struggled with the dilemma of either puzzling through the real seismic data or looking at computer-generated synthetic data. Physical-model data lie at an intermediate position between those two extremes. The articles included in this book cover the entire chronology of physical modeling, from the first efforts in Japan in the late 1920s to the space-age laser-ultrasonic experiments of the 1990s. Of the 44 papers collected in this volume, more than half are from sources other than Geophysics. The applications covered in this book include interpretation of complicated subsurface structures, research into elastic and anisotropic wave phenomena, and teaching of fundamental seismic principles.