A method is described that includes receiving one or more seismic measurements corresponding to a plurality of source and receiver locations and providing an earth model for a geologic medium having a heterogeneous tilted symmetry axis. The earth model includes a nonzero shear velocity in the direction of the symmetry axis. The one or more seismic measurements are propagated over a plurality of time-steps in accordance with the earth model and a set of energy-conservative self-adjoint pseudoacoustic equations. The set of energy-conservative self-adjoint pseudoacoustic equations describes one or more seismic wavefields.