Algebraic processing technique for extracting frequency-dependent shear-wave splitting parameters in an anisotropic medium

Based on the dual source cumulative rotation technique in the time-domain proposed by Zeng and MacBeth (1993), a new algebraic processing technique for extracting shear-wave splitting parameters from multi-component VSP data in frequency-dependent medium has been developed. By using this dual source cumulative rotation technique in the frequency-domain (DCTF), anisotropic parameters, including polarization direction of the shear-waves and timedelay between the fast and slow shear-waves, can be estimated for each frequency component in the frequency domain. It avoids the possible error which comes from using a narrow-band filter in the current commonly used method. By using synthetic seismograms, the feasibility and validity of the technique was tested and a comparison with the currently used method was also given. The results demonstrate that the shear-wave splitting parameters frequency dependence can be extracted directly from four-component seismic data using the DCTF. In the presence of larger scale fractures, substantial frequency dependence would be found in the seismic frequency range, which implies that dispersion would occur at seismic frequencies. Our study shows that shear-wave anisotropy decreases as frequency increases.