Patent Document ID: 8670288
Application ID: 12684242
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method, comprising: receiving data from a single well in a subsurface volume for creating a velocity model for time-depth conversion in seismology; applying a time-depth relationship (TDR) to the data for estimating unknown coefficients in a linear-velocity-in-depth function to fit the data wherein the linear-velocity-in-depth function comprises an instantaneous velocity (v 0 ), a compaction factor (k) and a depth boundary condition z c ; introducing weights of a robust iteratively re-weighted least squares algorithm to weight data points of the data based on proximity to the linear-velocity-in-depth function; and based at least in part on setting partial derivatives of a summed squares of weighted error-in-depth residuals with respect to each of the instantaneous velocity (v 0 ) the compaction factor (k) and the depth boundary condition (z c ) equal to zero, optimizing the time-depth relationship using a computer to estimate the unknown coefficients and thereby provide values for the instantaneous velocity(v 0 ) the compaction factor (k) and the depth boundary condition (z c ).