A sedimentary geological model is established in order to study the seismic reflection characteristics of channel sand bodies. Synthetic seismic shot gathers are simulated using the acoustic wave equation and then are prestack time migrated. On the imaged data, the reflection characteristics and instantaneous attributes are analyzed and log-constrained impedance inversion is tested. Because of wave field interference, the experimental results show that seismic events do not definitely correspond to the channel sand bodies and that seismic modes of occurrence do not represent the actual ones. The seismic events formed by wave interference may lead to errors and pitfalls in sand body interpretation. The corresponding relations between instantaneous seismic attributes and sedimentary sands are not well established. Log-constrained impedance inversion improves the resolution of channel sands. However, if the inverted resolution is forced to be too high, artifacts related to the initial model may occur.
