Seismic diffraction: Where's the value?

Small scale subsurface objects such as faults, karsts, fractures etc. are capable of generating strong scattered waves, which are usually recognized as a main information carrying signals. However, detection and interpretation of those signals are heavily compromised by strong interfering between diffractions and reflections. Separation between diffracted/scaterred events and specular reflections becomes a bottle neck for using the diffracted energy to identify and characterize small scale subsurface features. Different methods for reflection-diffraction separation can be proposed based on differences in kinematic and dynamic properties in different domains. All the conclusions are supported by the results of modeling and field data.