Manganese nodule coverage is estimated based on multi-beam and deep-towed video nodule survey profiles of about 1,700 km in the China Pioneer Area of Eastern Pacific. Two statistical equations for estimating nodule coverage are derived separately from the multi-beam normal incidence amplitude data and angular amplitude data based on theoretical analysis of influence factors on multi-beam amplitude data. Predictions generated by the normal incidence amplitude model fall within 5% of real nodule coverage, and theoretically calculated angular amplitude data fits well with the original multi-beam amplitudes at incident angles larger than 20 according to nodule coverage estimated from the deep-towed video data.

Full waveform inversion (FWI) directly minimizes errors between synthetic and observed data. For the surface acquisition geometry, reflections generated from deep reflectors are sensitive to overburden structure, so it is reasonable to update the macro velocity model in a top-to-bottom manner. For models dominated by horizontally layered structures, combination of offset/time weighting and constant update depth control (CUDC) is sufficient for layer-stripping FWI. CUDC requires ray tracing to determine reflection traveltimes at a constant depth. As model complexity increases, the multi-path effects will have to be considered. We developed a new layer-stripping FWI method utilizing damped seismic reflection data, which does not need CUDC and ray tracing. Numerical examples show that effective update depth (EUD) can be controlled by damping constants even in complex regions and the inversion result is more accurate than conventional methods. KEY WORDS: full waveform inversion, velocity model building, layer-stripping strategy, damped wave equation, sensitivity analysis.

No abstract

No abstract