Abstract: A method and apparatus for seismic analysis include obtaining an initial geophysical model and seismic data for a subsurface region; producing a subsurface image of the subsurface region with the seismic data and the geophysical model; generating a map of one or more geologic features of the subsurface region by automatically interpreting the subsurface image; and iteratively updating the geophysical model, subsurface image, and map of geologic features by: building an updated geophysical model based on the geophysical model of a prior iteration constrained by one or more geologic features from the prior iteration; imaging the seismic data with the updated geophysical model to produce an updated subsurface image; and automatically interpreting the updated subsurface image to generate an updated map of geologic features.

Abstract: A two-stage method for iteratively inverting geophysical data for the purpose of subsurface imaging, including: obtaining at least one geophysical dataset and an initial subsurface model; representing subsurface such that a geometry of a geobody is defined using a set of basis functions, and a number of such basis functions is significantly smaller than the number of cells used in cell-based geobody representations, wherein an order of magnitude reduction is two or more for 2-D domains and 3 or more for 3-D domains; in a first stage, successively updating the initial subsurface model, only for the geobody, by performing iterative low-dimensional geophysical inversion based on minimizing a misfit between simulated geophysical data and the geophysical dataset, wherein the simulated geophysical data is generated from a current subsurface model at each iteration; generating a subsurface image from a final updated subsurface model obtained via the low-dimensional geophysical inversion, wherein the subsurface image

Abstract: A method and apparatus for seismic analysis include obtaining an initial geophysical model and seismic data for a subsurface region; producing a subsurface image of the subsurface region with the seismic data and the geophysical model; generating a map of one or more geologic features of the subsurface region by automatically interpreting the subsurface image; and iteratively updating the geophysical model, subsurface image, and map of geologic features by: building an updated geophysical model based on the geophysical model of a prior iteration constrained by one or more geologic features from the prior iteration; imaging the seismic data with the updated geophysical model to produce an updated subsurface image; and automatically interpreting the updated subsurface image to generate an updated map of geologic features.

Abstract: A two-stage method for iteratively inverting geophysical data for the purpose of subsurface imaging, including: obtaining at least one geophysical dataset and an initial subsurface model; representing subsurface such that a geometry of a geobody is defined using a set of basis functions, and a number of such basis functions is significantly smaller than the number of cells used in cell-based geobody representations, wherein an order of magnitude reduction is two or more for 2-D domains and 3 or more for 3-D domains; in a first stage, successively updating the initial subsurface model, only for the geobody, by performing iterative low-dimensional geophysical inversion based on minimizing a misfit between simulated geophysical data and the geophysical dataset, wherein the simulated geophysical data is generated from a current subsurface model at each iteration; generating a subsurface image from a final updated subsurface model obtained via the low-dimensional geophysical inversion, wherein the subsurface image