Interpretation of ambiguous reflection data by imaging processes: An example profile crossing steep submarine valley at the sea bottom

The determination of the geometry of a vertical structure is one of the most important problems in the conventional stacking process used as an imaging process. The horizontal layers in depths of the earth are easily displayed in the seismic time section, but the dipping and folded layers are not correctly displayed in the reflection data. The present study addresses the same problem for the data collected from a profile of a steep marine valley and that of an offshore extension of the Ganos fault at the westernmost part of the Tekirdağ basin, Marmara Sea, NW Turkey. In the previous studies, the fault was interpreted as a low-angle reverse fault juxtaposing between the Plio-Quaternary and the Miocene strata in the time migration section. However, the results of the extensive analyses in this study show that the close position of a newly interpreted Miocene anticline to the synformal structure of the sea bottom makes the data ambiguous, whereas the subvertical fault and the other events coming away from the fault plane causes complexity. To eliminate misinterpretation due to ambiguity and complexity as in the previous analysis, the data are reinterpreted by pre-stack Kirchhoff depth migration in addition to the conventional stacking process. The new interpretation is checked through the synthetics data created from the model having appropriate parameters of the data used. The results have shown the existence of an anticline that is cored by the Miocene strata and overlain by the Plio-Quaternary strata 200 m below the sea bottom. The Ganos fault is imaged as disturbing all the layers down the way and as having a listric geometry and steeper dip angle (75° N) at shallow depths but decreasing downward. This study examples the importance of considering the problems of the complex geometry and choosing appropriate imaging technique for analyzing seismic reflection data collected over an area with known vertical fault and related tectonic complexity.