Correct identification of geologic discontinuities, such as faults, pinch-outs, and small-size scattering objects, is a primary challenge of the seismic method. Seismic response from these objects is encoded in diffractions. Our method images local heterogeneities of the subsurface using diffracted seismic events. The method is based on coherent summation of diffracted waves arising in media that include interface discontinuities and local velocity heterogeneities. This is done using a correlation procedure that coherently focuses diffraction energy on a seismic section by flattening diffraction events using a new local-time-correction formula to parameterize diffraction traveltime curves. This time correction, which is based on the multifocusing method, depends on two parameters: the emergent angle and the radius of curvature of the diffracted wavefront. These parameters are estimated directly from prestack seismic traces. The diffraction multifocusing stack (DMFS) can separate diffracted and reflected energy on a stacked section by focusing diffractions to the diffraction location and defocusing the reflection energy over a large area.

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