  We propose a computationally efficient technique for extrapolating seismic
waves in an arbitrary isotropic elastic medium. The method is based on
factorizing the full elastic wave equation into a product of
pseudo-differential operators. The method extrapolates displacement fields,
hence can be used for modeling both pressure and shear waves. The proposed
method can achieve a significant reduction in the cost of elastic modeling
compared to the currently prevalent time- and frequency-domain numeric modeling
methods and can contribute to making multicomponent elastic modeling part of
the standard seismic processing work flow.
