Application of full waveform inversion to gas hydrate research

The geophysical responses to the hydrate bearing formations, such as BSR, velocity reversion of P wave, elastic parameter anomalies, etc. are indicators of the existence of gas hydrates. Full waveform inversion used as a high-precision velocity modeling and imaging method, also played an important role in the identification of hydrate bearing formations. Relevant research results suggest that the waveform inversion of hydrate bearing formations involves a number of key techniques, such as forward simulation methods, source wavelets, initial models, objective functions, and optimization algorithms. Based on the investigations of literatures, this paper expounded the technical advantages of waveform inversion for characterizing hydrate bearing formations, summarized the waveform inversion process suitable for hydrate bearing formations, and provided some basic ideas for subsequent research. It is proposed that multi-parameter inversion has broad application prospects in the future.