| The most complete representation of an elastic medium consists of an elastic tensor with 21 independent moduli. All 21 can be estimated from compressional and shear wave polarization and slowness vectors corresponding to wide apertures of polar and azimuth angles. In isotropic media, when seismic source and receiver components have the same orientation (such as XX and YY), the reflection amplitude contours align approximately perpendicular to the particle motions. The mixed components (such as XY and YX) have amplitude patterns that are in symmetrical pairs of either the same, or of opposite, polarity on either side of the diagonal of the 9-C response matrix. In anisotropic media, amplitude variations with azimuth show the same basic patterns and symmetries as for isotropic, but with a superimposed tendency for alignment parallel to the strike of the vertical cracks.;Solutions for elastic tensor elements from synthetic slowness and polarization data calculated directly from the Christoffel equation are more sensitive to the polar angle aperture than to the azimuth aperture. Nine-component synthetic elastic vertical seismic profile data for a model with triclinic symmetry calculated by finite-differencing allows estimation of the elastic 21 tensor elements in the vicinity of a three-component borehole receiver. Wide polar angle and azimuth apertures are needed for accurately estimating the elastic tensor elements. The tensor elements become less independent as the data apertures decrease. Results obtained by extracting slowness and polarization data from the corresponding synthetic seismograms show similar results.;The inversion algorithm has produced good results from field vertical seismic profile data set from the Weyburn Field in Southern Saskatchewan in Canada. Synthetic nine-component seismograms calculated from the extracted tensor are able to explain most of the significant features in the field data. The inverted stiffness elastic tensor shows orthorhombic symmetry that is dominated by a strong transverse isotropy with a vertical symmetry axis, superimposed with minor, near-vertical fractures. |
