ANISOTROPY DUE TO BEDDING—A COMPUTER STUDY *

A bstract Bedding on a scale small in comparison to the wavelength results in transverse isotropy. On the other hand, anisotropy has been observed in the field, particularly with horizontally polarized shear waves. In this article velocity data from 23 wells are used to estimate the resulting transverse isotropy and to compare these data with anisotropy observations reported in the literature. Since the well data were compressional velocity (or rather transit time) only, the corresponding shear velocity data were estimated on the basis of a reasonable—though arbitrary—assumption of Poisson's ratio. Actual densities were used wherever they were available; for the remainder of the data, density was assumed to be constant throughout the averaging interval. The anisotropy data estimated on this basis were generally considerably smaller than the observational data that have been reported in the literature. Although both the above assumptions—functional dependence of Poisson's ratio on transit time and constant density—tend to underestimate anisotropy, and although 23 wells is but a small subset of all available data, it appears unlikely that bedding alone could cause anisotropy of the magnitude reported.