Abstract The complexity of volcanic rocks presents challenges in seismic data quality and fine characterization of structural morphology, making velocity modeling difficult. In this study, we propose a velocity modeling method for volcanic rock areas that combines the use of amplitude envelope attribute and grid tomography inversion. By exploiting the strong reflection characteristics of volcanic rocks, the amplitude envelope attribute is employed to identify volcanic rock structures, eliminating the need for labor-intensive manual interpretation. The grid tomography inversion technique is then used to derive background velocity fields for all strata. These are further refined by incorporating the residual velocity fields of volcanic rocks through fusion and superposition. This integrated approach significantly improves the efficiency and accuracy of velocity modeling in complex volcanic rock areas, overcoming the limitations associated with conventional volcanic rock structural models and resulting in more accurate velocity inversion. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method for velocity modeling in volcanic rock zone are demonstrated through the application of seismic data from an oilfield in eastern China. The results highlight the method's strong industrial application value.