The purpose of multicomponent seismic is to record and utilize both compressional (P) and shear (S) wave modes. Recording both wave modes captures more information related to rock properties.

P waves are influenced by all three bulk rock properties (compressibility, rigidity and density) while S waves are influenced by rigidity and density only. Combining these observations allows more accurate estimation of key reservoir characteristics.

Multicomponent has many vital uses including lithology identification, fluid discrimination, imaging through gas, fracture and stress-field characterization and density estimation.

Multicomponent provides important complementary seismic information for comparison with conventional P-wave images and AVO results.