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Parsimonious Inversion of the Gravity Anomaly for Salt-Base Delineation
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 79th EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2017, Jun 2017, Volume 2017, p.1 - 5
Abstract
A principal difficulty with the inversion of gravity data is the inherent non-uniqueness that exists in any geophysical method based upon a static potential field: since the gravity field is known only on the surface of the earth, there are infinitely many equivalent density distributions beneath the surface that will reproduce the known field.
However a proper manipulation of the recorded gravity anomaly together with an adequate choice of the model representation can turn the inversion of the potential-field data into a valid ally for the basement delineation as witnessed by a large number of publications.
Under certain assumptions, the method for the estimation of the depth of the basement can be adapted for salt-base delineation: this approach enables an integrated earth model building workflow that exploits the potential-field data library of the client to complement and, if needed, to disambiguate the seismic image.
A synthetic example based on a complex salt province is used to illustrate the modelling and inversion process, together with its outcomes.