Convolutional model

A basic model of seismic reflection. Often represented by the following cartoon, or a variant of it:



In a nutshell, we have geology on the left: some sort of hard (fast, dense) bed, surrounded by softer material. Instead of 'hardness', we use impedance, I, which is the product of density and velocity (of sound waves) in the material. This is transformed to the time domain, and represented by only the impedance contrasts. We call this a reflectivity series, R. Now we can convolve this with a wavelet, and this gives us a synthetic, S, which is a model seismic trace. It gives us an idea of what a seismic reflection might look like at this interface.

There are two traces to illustrate that American geophysicists generally display the seismic with opposite polarity, compared to their European cousins.

See also the [[Media:Convolutional_model.svg|SVG version]].