Abstract: Marine vertical cable seismic survey is a new exploration technology that deploys hydrophones vertically into the water. Compared with traditional streamer seismic survey, it has the advantages of high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio. In view of the different characteristics of seismic illumination density duo to different marine vertical cable observation systems, the multiple reverse time migration imaging was used to conduct forward simulation and imaging process for vertical cable seismic acquisition based on acoustic wave equations for the Marmousi model, and the detection precision of vertical cable seismic exploration method was analyzed. Results show that when the vertical cable was located in the center of the exploration area, the imaging of the exploration target layer was most beneficial. Imaging seismic data that contain free surface multiples could effectively increase the underground illumination range, making imaging results clearer in high and steep structural areas. This research is of great significance to the design of marine vertical cable seismic exploration observation systems and high-precision imaging process.