Optimising Surface Mapping of Elongated Geological Features from Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry

This inversion technique maps zones of influence of isolated elongated geological features. The outcomes are not too technically complex, and we demonstrate a practical application of how to use all of the observed tensor components to extract maximum signal content. The method is based on the physics of isolated sources. As previously discussed (2014), these cluster derived regions form a good starting point to determine dip estimates.

The time to solve the clustering is not significant (say 5 minutes), and so this technique should find general application. It does depend upon an estimation of an optimum near surface rock density, so that a terrain correction can flatten the response to sub-surface sources. This method is a useful a-priori method for mapping geology and not the other way round, i.e., no prior geological knowledge is required to infer sub-surface geology. The method is a joint inversion of all the measured gravity gradient tensor components, combined with clustering methods.