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Frequency-domain full-waveform inversion (FWI) is potentially amenable to efficient processing of full-azimuth long-offset stationary-recording seabed acquisition carried out with a sparse layout of ocean-bottom nodes (OBNs) and broadband sources because the inversion can be performed with a few discrete frequencies. However, computing the solution of the forward (boundary-value) problem efficiently in the frequency domain with linear algebra solvers remains a challenge for large computational domains involving tens to hundreds of millions of parameters. We illustrate the feasibility of 3D frequency-domain FWI with a subset of the 2015/2016 Gorgon OBN data set in the North West Shelf, Australia. We solve the forward problem with the massively parallel multifrontal direct solver MUMPS, which includes four key features to reach high computational efficiency: an efficient parallelism combining message-passing interface and multithreading, block low-rank compression, mixed-precision arithmetic, and efficient processing of sparse sources. The Gorgon subdata set involves 650 OBNs that are processed as reciprocal sources and 400,000 sources. Monoparameter FWI for vertical wavespeed is performed in the viscoacoustic vertically transverse isotropic approximation with a classical frequency continuation approach proceeding from a starting frequency of 1.7 Hz to a final frequency of 13 Hz. The target covers an area ranging from 260 km2 (frequency ≥ 8.5 Hz) to 705 km2 (frequency ≤ 8.5 Hz) for a maximum depth of 8 km. Compared to the starting model, FWI dramatically improves the reconstruction of the bounding faults of the Gorgon horst at reservoir depths as well as several intrahorst faults and several horizons of the Mungaroo Formation down to a depth of 7 km. Seismic modeling reveals a good kinematic agreement between recorded and simulated data, but amplitude mismatches between the recorded and simulated reflection from the reservoir suggest elastic effects. Therefore, future works involve multiparameter reconstruction for density and attenuation before considering elastic FWI from hydrophone and geophone data.

International audience; Identifying the circulation of fluids in subduction zone system and understanding their role on the megathrust fault slip modes remains one of the outstanding challenges in Earth Sciences. As these faults have the capacity to generate mega-earthquakes, the associated hazard to the society is significant.In recent years, studies in Japan, Costa Rica and New Zealand try to find the processes that control slip behaviours through marine campaigns and IODP drillings. The Ecuadorian margin is an exceptional laboratory to continue this international effort by adding a subduction zone to the list of those with contrasted slips at shallow depth. In April 2016, a Mw 7.8 earthquake broke the southern part of the 1906 earthquake rupture zone, causing hundreds of deaths and millions of dollars in damages along an increasingly populated coastline. The seismological and geodetic network in place since several years and a dense post-seismic deployment, contributed to observe and define the rupture zone and areas affected by aseismic slip on the shallowest portion of the megathrust fault.Thanks to two marine campaigns (HIPER and SUPER) and other existing onshore/offshore data acquisition, our project Fluid2Slip will participate to determine the exact role of fluids on slip behaviour around the updip part of the seismogenic megathrust fault by localizing fluids and seismicity, imaging fault properties and deformation. Our large experiment allowed a high density onshore/offshore deployment to perform shots and earthquakes FWI (Full Waveform Inversion) and obtain sufficient resolution to tackle the role of fluids with respect to interplate roughness, the nature of sediments, upper plate and lower plate’s structural heterogeneity in seismic/aseismic slip behavior. In addition, subsurface observation and fluid geochemistry will help detect fluid flow and discuss the path they take through the upper plate.

SUMMARY We revisit the hypocentre–velocity problem, which is of interest in different fields as for example microseismics and seismology. We develop a formulation based on kinematic migration of two picked kinematic attributes in the 2-D case, the traveltime and the slope (horizontal component of the slowness vector), from which we are able to retrieve the location and subsequently the origin time correction and the subsurface parameters mainly velocity. We show how, through a variable projection, the optimization problem boils down to a physically consistent and parsimonious form where the location estimation is projected into the subsurface parameter problem. We present in this study a proof of concept validated by a toy test in two dimensions and a synthetic case study on the Marmousi model. The method presented in this study is extendible to three dimensions by incorporating the crossline slope or the backazimuth as a supplementary attribute.

International audience; Identifying the circulation of fluids in subduction zone system and understanding their role on the megathrust fault slip modes remains one of the outstanding challenges in Earth Sciences. As these faults have the capacity to generate mega-earthquakes, the associated hazard to the society is significant.In recent years, studies in Japan, Costa Rica and New Zealand try to find the processes that control slip behaviours through marine campaigns and IODP drillings. The Ecuadorian margin is an exceptional laboratory to continue this international effort by adding a subduction zone to the list of those with contrasted slips at shallow depth. In April 2016, a Mw 7.8 earthquake broke the southern part of the 1906 earthquake rupture zone, causing hundreds of deaths and millions of dollars in damages along an increasingly populated coastline. The seismological and geodetic network in place since several years and a dense post-seismic deployment, contributed to observe and define the rupture zone and areas affected by aseismic slip on the shallowest portion of the megathrust fault.Thanks to two marine campaigns (HIPER and SUPER) and other existing onshore/offshore data acquisition, our project Fluid2Slip will participate to determine the exact role of fluids on slip behaviour around the updip part of the seismogenic megathrust fault by localizing fluids and seismicity, imaging fault properties and deformation. Our large experiment allowed a high density onshore/offshore deployment to perform shots and earthquakes FWI (Full Waveform Inversion) and obtain sufficient resolution to tackle the role of fluids with respect to interplate roughness, the nature of sediments, upper plate and lower plate’s structural heterogeneity in seismic/aseismic slip behavior. In addition, subsurface observation and fluid geochemistry will help detect fluid flow and discuss the path they take through the upper plate.

SUMMARYFirst-arrival traveltime tomography is one of the most used velocity model building techniques especially in sparse wide-angle acquisitions for deep crustal seismic imaging cases. Relying on the inversion of a picked attribute, the absolute traveltimes, the approach is ill-posed in terms of non-uniqueness of the solution. The latter is remedied by proper regularization or the introduction of prior information. Indeed, since traveltime kernels are vulnerable to the velocity–depth ambiguity, the inversion is stabilized by the introduction of complementary data like reflections and explicit reflectors in the velocity models. Here, we propose to supplement first-arrival traveltimes by their slopes, in other words the horizontal component of the slowness vectors at the sources and/or receivers. Slopes are a crucial attribute in state of the art scattering-based or reflection-based tomographic methods like slope tomography or wavefront tomography where the differential information is needed in order to locate the scattering events position or to parametrize the wavefront. The optional but valuable injection of slopes as an objective measure in first-arrival traveltime tomography stabilizes the problem by constraining the emergence angle or in turn implicitly the turning point depth of the rays. We explain why slopes have a tremendous added value in such a tomographic problem and highlight its remedial effect in cases where the medium is unevenly illuminated. We also show that the contribution of slopes become even more significant when the acquisition is sparse as it is generally the case with ocean-bottom seismometer surveys. The inferred models from such an extended time-attributes tomography will be used as initial guesses in a full-waveform inversion workflow context. The proposed strategy is benchmarked in 2-D media against a dip section of the SEG/EAGE overthrust model and then followed by a revisit of ocean bottom seismometers data from the eastern-Nankai subduction margin as a real deep crustal case study.

The north Ligurian margin is a stretched continental margin located at the junction of the Western Mediterranean Sea and the Alpine belt. This region underwent several phases of contrasting deformation styles. The Ligurian basin opened from late Oligocene to early Miocene times, as a result of a back-arc extension induced by the rollback of the subducted Apulian plate. Since then, it has been evolving in the immediate vicinity of the active Alpine orogen, in a regional compressional setting between the Corsica-Sardinia continental block and mainland Europe.Nowadays, continuous seismic activity, with mainly reverse focal mechanisms, is recorded in the northeastern part of the Ligurian Basin. It is attributed to the compressional phase at work in the Gulf of Genoa since about 5 Myrs, which led to a significant uplift of the north margin documented by a vertical offset of the Messinian stratigraphic markers by more than 1000 m offshore Imperia. Although active seismogenic faults are still poorly known, a fault system outcropping at the foot of the continental slope, offshore Liguria and the French Riviera, is suspected from previous joint high-resolution seismic reflection data interpretation and sismotectonic studies.The SEFASILS project (Seismic Exploration of Faults And Structures In the Ligurian Sea) aims to better understand the mechanisms of the ongoing tectonic inversion of the margin and the crustal-scale tectonic structures –active or not– marking its evolution. We also aim to better characterize the sharp transition from the South Alpine belt to the Ligurian basin. Acquiring quality deep seismic data in the Ligurian Sea is challenging due to the complexity of structures beneath the margin and to the screening effect of the thick Messinian evaporitic series interlayered in the sedimentary cover farther seaward. To this end, joint acquisitions of deep, long-streamer multichannel seismic (MSC) reflection data and dense sea-bottom wide angle refraction data (WAS) have been carried out along a 150 km long profile offshore Nice, perpendicularly to the basin’s axis.The MCS data, thanks to pre- and post-stack migration, highlight faults at the foot of the continental slope rooting deeper than the salt decollement level. A first arrival travel time tomographic inversion of the wide angle data allowed us to build a velocity model of the study area reaching down to the uppermost mantle. Here, we present the results obtained from the joint analysis of MCS and WAS data. On the southern part of our profile some deep reflectivity, closely mirrored by the 7 km/s tomographic isovelocity, likely corresponds to the Moho. It is lost to the north, where shallower reflectivity, which could be interpreted as the base the thick sedimentary cover, coincides with the 5 km/s isovelocity. These two features are separately observed on both sides of what appears to be a major structural discontinuity between two contrasting basement domains, coinciding with an anomalously large salt diapiric complex in the sedimentary cover, also observed farther east in the basin. Such observations and their potential consequences will be discussed, in the light of previous regional studies.

Offshore 2D-Multichannel seismic (MCS)-reflection profiles were acquired in northern Ecuador during the HIPER survey (March/April 2020, R/V L’Atalante) together with one 2D-OBS-seismic-refraction profile (presented in a joint abstract by A. Skrubej). This project (presented in a joint abstract by A. Galve) aims at deciphering the role of lower plate structural heterogeneities and fluids on subduction zone seismogenesis processes within the 2016 Pedernales rupture segment, which is characterized by contrasting slip behaviors. We put a particular emphasis on the segment located at the northern termination of the subducting Carnegie Ridge which was devoid of previous seismic investigations. Three lines of 315-km-long in total, one North of the 2016 Pedernales rupture zone sampling an area experiencing aseismic slip and two lines parallel to the trench, were recorded using an airgun source of 4990 in3 and a 6-km-long streamer. In this study, we present in detail the seismic processing workflow used to produce an enhanced imaging of the Ecuadorian margin, a prerequisite for tackling the project’s objectives.We performed routine MCS data processing onboard to produce post-stack time migrated sections using Geovation® CGG’s software. The dip-line collected across the northern Atacames seamounts area provides a detailed image through the whole Nazca oceanic crust down to the Moho, showing a normal crust thickness, at least on the oceanward portion, up to 15 km to the west of the trench. At the trench, we image a horst-like basement topographic high, which outcrops at sea-bottom, offsets the deformation front arcwards, with the outcropping frontal decollement reflector topping this oceanic basement high. Its nature, fluid content potential and lateral extent need to be determined, but its observation at the shallow portion of the interplate megathrust contribute to expand the inventory of subducting rough structures possibly impacting the megathrust frictional slip behavior.Further advanced processing include noise attenuation, 2D-SRME multiple attenuation, Kirchhoff pre-stack time migration and preserved amplitude pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) performed in the angle domain. The megathrust fault located at the top of the subducting oceanic crust is imaged down to 7 km depth at a distance of 28 km from the trench which will contribute to complement the high-resolution version of the slab’s top topography close to the trench. A joint analyze of this MCS line and the coincident 2D-OBS-refraction Vp model, reveal that variations in moho acoustic features at 15 km distance to the west of the trench correlates with a 30 km wide and >10-km-thick low Vp anomaly. Nearby previous experiment SISTEUR seismic lines are being reprocessed using the same workflow, in order to further investigate the deep crustal seismic structures over the Pedernales 2016 rupture zone.

Slope tomography uses traveltimes, source, and receiver slopes of locally coherent events to build subsurface velocity models. Locally coherent events by opposition to continuous reflections are suitable for semiautomatic and dense picking, which is conducive to better resolved tomographic models. These models can be further used as background/initial models for depth migration or full-waveform inversion. Slope tomography conventionally relies on ray tracing for traveltimes and slopes computation, where rays are traced from scatterers in depth to sources and receivers. The inverse problem relies on the explicit building of the sensitivity matrix to update the velocity model by local optimization. Alternatively, slope tomography can be implemented with eikonal solvers, which compute efficiently finely sampled traveltime maps from the sources and receivers, whereas slopes are estimated by finite differences of the traveltime maps. Moreover, a matrix-free inverse problem can be implemented with the adjoint-state method for the estimation of the data-misfit gradient. This new formulation of slope tomography is extended to tilted transverse isotropic (TTI) acoustic media, in which the model space is parameterized by four anisotropic parameters (e.g., vertical wavespeed, Thomson’s parameter [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and tilt angle) and the coordinates of the scatterers. A toy synthetic example allows for a first assessment of the crosstalk between anisotropic parameters and scatterer coordinates. A more realistic synthetic example indicates the feasibility of the joint update of the vertical wavespeed and [Formula: see text]. The slope tomography is finally applied to real broadband towed-streamer data to build the vertical velocity and the scatterers, while anisotropic parameters [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are used as background parameters. The velocity model quality is assessed through common-image gathers computed by TTI Kirchhoff prestack-depth migration.

Summary The Kribi basin is one of a series of geotectonic elements formed as a result of Early Mesozoic crustal separation of Africa and South America continents. This study is focused on detailed analysis of selected lines of a regional 2D multichannel seismic program, CameroonSpan seismic survey designed to provide insights regarding total sediment thickness and basement structure of the North Equatorial Atlantic margin. The program consists of 5-km grid seismic profiles covering the offshore areas of CampoKribi and Douala. The interpreted seismic unconformities and their correlative conformities are defined according to well log formation top, ages dating of magmatic episodes of the central Africa corridor and published lthostractigraphic scheme South Atlantic margin basins. The results show thatthe sedimentary succession of the study area may include deep-seated evaporitic section associated with local compressional salt domes of up to 5000m high piercing the Mid-Jurassic to Late Albian karstified and shelf margin wedge sequence. Seismic patterns indicated that the mother salt layer extend over the basin and is located at the base of depict sedimentary succession. The salt structures of the Kribi offshore basin are allochthonous. This observation supports the idea of the existence of early rift salt section the Kribi Basin.

The Hellenic subduction system exhibits a fairly atypical structure, resulting from the intense radial extension undergone by the Aegean domain from Eocene to Miocene. It features a very wide fore-arc, that itself includes an external non-volcanic arc between southeastern Peloponnesus and southwestern Anatolia, with Crete occupying a frontal position midway along it. South of it, separated from the Aegean domain by a large escarpment, the Hellenic trenches marking the most advanced position of the forearc Alpine nappes and the wide abutting accretionary wedge are found. The Hellenic subduction is widely regarded as poorly coupled from historical seismicity. Yet, a large tsunamigenic destructive event is reported in 365 CE just west of Crete, for which various rupture processes are proposed. In order to gain better insight into the structures of this major event, some deep penetrating seismic acquisition was performed in 2015 during the SISMED project, using the leading-edge equipment of R/V Marcus Langseth along a 210 km profile crossing through the fore-arc; an 8 km-long streamer and a voluminous source were used. Pre-stack depth imaging was applied to the recorded data set, with a strong effort to build a reliable velocity model using common image focusing analysis, both in the time and depth domains. Good imaging conditions thus were reached down to a maximum depth of 25 km. From south to north, our results reveal that: (1) a 6-7 km-thick oceanic crust with hints of compressive deformation enters the subduction, carrying no sediment past the backstop; (2) it crosses the continental Moho as shallow as 13 km depth; (3) above, a set of reactivated antithetic reverse faults controlling the Matapan forearc basin is clearly imaged; (4) no evidence is found supporting a speculated inverse splay fault outcropping at the toe of the Hellenic scarp and tentatively related to the 365 CE event; (5) some steep faulting is observed at mid-escarpment, whose downward continuation coincides with a jump in the forearc Moho’s depth, and that likely accommodates some of the required dextral strike slip partitioning motion; (6) possible clues are found for some compressive reactivation of the Maleas basin, north of the external arc.

International audience; Ultra-long offset seabed acquisitions implemented with sparse array of ocean bottom nodes (OBN) are emerging as the goto strategy for velocity model building. These stationaryrecording geometries provide the flexibility to record a plethora of wave arrivals and in particular diving waves that undershoot the deepest targeted structures. These seabottom acquisitions are also amenable to the recording of frequencies as low as 1.5Hz. Full-Waveform Inversion (FWI) can be fed with this wide variety of low-frequency wave types to build broadband velocity models. Ultra-long offset surveys provide also a suitable framework to revive well proven tomography methods such as first-arrival slope+traveltime tomography to build kinematically-accurate initial velocity model for FWI. Here, we revisit the challenging 2004 BP salt benchmark by assessing a workflow combining first-arrival slope tomography and FWI against an ultra-long OBN survey involving a maximum offset of 97 km. Starting from a crude starting velocity gradient model, we manage to capture accurately the geometry of the salt and the subsalt structure down to 7km depth using 1.5-Hz starting frequency. Below 7km, the deficit of wide-angle coverage near the ends of the targeted structure combined with the inaccuracy of the tomography model in these areas prevents accurate reconstruction of subsalt structures by FWI when frequencies smaller than 1.5Hz are not used. The remedies to reconstruct subsalt structures in area suffering from deficit of wide-angle illumination should come from sophisticated sparsifying regularization in FWI and/or by the combination of first-arrival and short-spread + post-critical reflection slope tomography. The velocity model built by firstarrival slope tomography should be also beneficial for any variant of FWI involving more convex distances than the leastsquares norm of the differences.

International audience; We revisit the hypocenter-velocity problem which is of interest in different fields as for example microseismics and seismology. We show how, through a formulation based on kinematic migration focusing using two picked kinematic attributes in the two-dimensions case, the travel time and the slope (horizontal component of the slowness vector), we are able to invert jointly for the location, the origin time correction and the subsurface parameters mainly velocity. We present in this study a proof of concept validated by a toy test in two-dimensions. The method presented in this study is extendable to three-dimensions by incorporating the back-azimuth as a supplementary attribute.

The first leg of the SEFASILS cruise took place in November 2018 onboard the RV Pourquoi-Pas ? Up-to-date multichannel and wide-angle seismic data were acquired offshore Monaco, from margin to basin, aiming at providing a renewed vision of the complex North Ligurian backarc system. The compressive and extensive tectonic phases that have closely alternated in time and space over the last 45 My have yielded fairly contrasting structures, whose understanding is rendered even more challenging by the strong overprint of the Messinian salt tectonics. There is ample evidence of a compressive reactivation of the North Ligurian margin since 5 Ma at least, especially to the East, along the Gulf of Genoa. Such deformation is associated with some notable seismicity originating from faults and mechanisms that remain poorly apprehended. Yet, this seismicity peaked at one historical Mw ~6.6-6.9 destructive event (1887 Ligurian earthquake). The main objective of the SEAFASILS effort is a better characterization of the crustal structures, and chiefly, of the active crustal faults and their potential interplay with salt tectonics beneath the margin and the northernmost part of the basin, both featuring seismicity. Linking these aspects with broader-scale lithospheric processes within the Southern Alps/Northern Apennines, addressed in the AlpArray initiative, is also of great importance. Here we present preliminary results of these seismic investigations, with time and prestack depth migrated MCS data. Emphasis was put on the construction of some suitable velocity models to get optimal focusing of structures from surface to depth. Some active crustal tomographic velocities derived from the dense OBS deployment providing complementary insight will also be presented.

Understanding the physical parameters and processes that control the seismogenic behavior of subduction zones megathrust faults remains one of the outstanding challenges in Earth Sciences.Here we present important results from several large seismic experiments aimed at addressing this question. These experiments focused on the three subduction zones off Greece, the Lesser Antilles islands, and Ecuador, with different convergence rates and seismic activities. Surveys included multibeam bathymetry, multichannel reflection seismic (MCS) and wide-angle seismic (WAS) acquisitions over the forearc domain, as well as teleseismic receiver-functions and local earthquakes monitoring with temporary deployments of seismological networks.Our results demonstrate the needs of both dense and extensive geophysical investigations.In the central Lesser Antilles subduction zone, the interplate has been imaged down to the backstop at 12-15 km depth over the 350-km-long Antigua to Martinique islands segment. The outer forearc crust is strongly faulted in response to the two subducting Tiburon and Barracuda ridges (SISMANTILLES1-and-2 surveys). Two WAS profiles constrained the deeper geometry of the interplate down to the forearc Moho located at 28 km depth (TRAIL survey). The OBS networks deployed over several months (OBSANTILLES and OBSISMER surveys) revealed mantle wedge supraslab earthquakes and M4-5 possible repeaters with flat-trust mechanisms. The joint active-source/local earthquake seismic tomography let us to unveil the Vp and Vp/Vs heterogeneity along the slab surface and derive unprecedented constraints on multi-stage fluid release from subducting slow-spread oceanic lithosphere. Farther northwest, where the convergence obliquity strongly increases, we constrained the geometry of the interplate down to the forearc Moho at 25 km depth. Strain partitioning localizes on inherited major structures within the forearc domain, like the left-lateral partitioning system of the Anegada Passage and the 850-km-long Bunce fault, located along the backstop (ANTITHESIS survey).On the southwestern Hellenic subduction zone, MCS and WAS acquisitions highlight the existence of an outer forearc crust beneath the forearc Matapan Trough, but its highly complex structure prevented us to image the interplate (ULYSSE survey). Acquisition by the R/V Marcus Langseth with its 8-km-long streamer finally made it possible (SISMED survey). Dense receiver-function acquisition on a 300-km-long mobile seismic network constrained the 3D geometry of the slab top underneath central Greece. This imaging revealed that the subducting oceanic crust and backstop updip limit are segmented by 9 trench-normal subvertical faults, seismically active at intermediate depths and possibly of inherited origin (THALES WAS RIGHT survey).South of the 1906 M8.8 Ecuador-Columbia rupture area, the April 2016 Mw7.8 Pedernales subduction earthquake and its ensuing postseismic phase revealed a combination of seismic/aseismic slip behavior. Fluid-enriched parts of the megathrust fault and structural margin segmentation are hypothesized to play a major role in controlling slip behavior but direct observations are still lacking. Previous MCS acquisitions revealed very locally a fluid-rich subduction channel along with severe damage effect of the forearc margin due to seamounts subduction (SISTEUR survey). Forthcoming 3D seismic acquisition along this segment will examine the impact of the along-strike and along-dip variations of the physical properties and fluid content on the slip mode (HIPER survey).

The north Ligurian margin is a complex geological area in many ways. It has witnessed several phases of highly contrasting deformation styles, at both crustal scale and that of shallower cover tectonics, simultaneously or in quick succession, and with significant spatial variability. This complex interplay is mirrored in the resulting intricate structures that make it hard to identify active faults responsible for both, the significant seismicity observed, and the tectonic inversion undergone by the margin, identified at longer time scales on morphostructural grounds. We present here the first preliminary results of the leg 1 of SEFASILS cruise, conducted in 2018 offshore Monaco, in an effort to answer these questions by means of modern deep seismic acquisitions, using multichannel reflection and wide-angle sea-bottom records. Some first interpretations are provided and point towards an active basement deformation that focuses at the limits between main crustal domains.

International audience; In the last decade, seismic imaging below salt/basaltic bodies proved beyond doubt to be the most challenging task using conventional strategies in terms of surveying, processing and inversion. Recent innovations across the whole workflow pushed further the resolution limit in such complex environments for resource exploration purposes. On the other hand, for instance, the western Mediterranean basin, a fairly studied seismogenic zone, still raises some questions due to the lack of clear-cut imaging results. The latter is caused by the presence of the ill-famed Messinian salt at shallow depth in this region which generates a wavefield dominated by backscattering and diffractions due to the abrupt high velocity contrast and structural complexity.We take a fresh look at a new batch of towed-streamer data acquired in the Ligurian basin during the SEFASILS campaign. During this study, we examine preliminary results using a conventional velocity model building strategy based on velocity analysis techniques and another based on a state of the art tomographic method.We review the theory behind slope tomography, a reflection/diffraction tomography method based upon inversion of locally-coherent events. A locally-coherent seismic event, described by its two-way traveltimes and the slopes, in a common-shot or common-receiver gather can be interpreted as a reflection/diffraction from a small reflector segment or diffractor in depth. A key advantage of slope tomography methods in such settings is the automatic densely picked data cube of locally-coherent events opposed to a very challenging tracking of continuous events. We also explain the advantages of our parsimonious formulation in tackling the velocity-position trade-off.We illustrate the resolution power of slope tomography compared to more conventional techniques. We point out the main challenges and insurmountable obstacles encountered while assessing the quality of the reconstructed models and depth migrated images.

International audience; The north Ligurian margin is a complex geological area on many accounts. It has witnessed several phases of highly contrasting deformation styles, at crustal scale and through shallow cover tectonics, simultaneously or in quick succession, and with significant spatial variability. This complex interplay is mirrored in intricate structures that make it hard to identify active faults responsible for both, the significant seismicity observed and the tectonic inversion undergone by the margin, identified on morphostructural grounds. We present here the first preliminary results of the leg 1 of SEFASILS cruise, conducted in 2018 offshore Monaco, in an effort to answer these questions by means of modern deep seismic acquisitions, using multichannel reflection and wide-angle sea-bottom records. Some first interpretations are provided and point towards an active basement deformation that focuses at the limits between main crustal domains.

International audience; The north Ligurian margin is a complex geological area on many accounts. It has witnessed several phases of highly contrasting deformation styles, at crustal scale and through shallow cover tectonics, simultaneously or in quick succession, and with significant spatial variability. This complex interplay is mirrored in intricate structures that make it hard to identify active faults responsible for both, the significant seismicity observed and the tectonic inversion undergone by the margin, identified on morphostructural grounds. We present here the first preliminary results of the leg 1 of SEFASILS cruise, conducted in 2018 offshore Monaco, in an effort to answer these questions by means of modern deep seismic acquisitions, using multichannel reflection and wide-angle sea-bottom records. Some first interpretations are provided and point towards an active basement deformation that focuses at the limits between main crustal domains.