3.4 Reduction of gravity data acai po de —| ® a: Pktdacon Fo ie x ee | J ime erent ec Latitude conection (Gouger 8 avin conection Oitanes fom Earth's ja cerion) \ j Figure 3.12 Schematic illastration of the non-geological causes of variations in measured gravity, and the sequence of thelr removal in ‘data reduction. Tow-level aeromagnetic surveys are generally to be avoided in gravity work. The survey heights are chosen to suit the gravity data and are usually greater than ideal for the ‘magnetic and radiometric measurements (see Section 2.6) 3.4 Reduction of gravity data ‘The corrections applied to remove unwanted variations (noise; see Section 2.4) in gravity are known by the param- ter that they correct or compensate, and we consider them in the order that they are applied to the observed data. The data reduction sequence is summarised in Fig. 3.12. Deriv- ations of the various correction factors can be found in Lowrie (2007). 3.4.1 Velocity effect ‘The Earth’s rotation produces an outward-directed centri- fugal acceleration which cts on all objects and is compen- sated by the latitude correction (see Sectic 44.1). ‘moving eastward (in the same direction as the Earth's spin) will experience an increase in centrifugal acceleration, ‘whereas a body moving westward (against the Earth's spin) will experience a decrease in centrifugal acceleration. The vertical component of this acceleration, plus a small accel- eration related to motion on the curved Earth, is known as the Botvis effec. Tt needs to be accounted for in gravity ‘measurements made from a continuously moving survey platform, such as an aircraft. The Eétvas correction (Gy) ist (3.12) where @ is the latitude of the measurement, V the velocity (in kilometres per hour) of the platform and a its heading direction with respect to true north, added to the gravity reading, although Ge = 40.40V cos sin a+ 0.01211V7 guser000. 7000004 & 3 =e se reduction of gravity data [107 Rotatg Earth Shea Ras Reet gravity. (b) Variation of normal gravity with latitude calculated from the International Gravity Formula 1980, Units are gu. and longitude (Fig, 3.15a). There have been a ‘of determinations of the best-fitting reference ‘The geocentric Geodetic Reference System 1980 §RS80) spheroid (similar to the World Geodetic System 84 (WGS84) spheroid) is used as the datum for positioning gravity surveying. The separation between the WGS84 and the undulating geoid is shown in Fig. 3.15b. ically the separation fs just a few tens of metres. The variation in gravity with latitude (6) is defined in ns of gravity on the surface of the spheroid, and is mn as the normal or theoretical gravity (gy). t can be ed using the International Gravity Formula, which riodically updated. For the case of the GRS80 spher- the Gravity Formula 1980 given by Moritz (1980) is: 1+ 0.001 931851353sinp 9 2S 780.326.7715 996694 380 022 98079 , (3.13) across the Earth is shown in Fig. 3.14. gu of most mineral exploration 3.4.4.1 Latitude correction ‘The variation in gravity due to the difference in latitude between the survey station and the survey base station is ‘compensated with the latitude correction. When latitude and the absolute gravity are known at all the survey sta- tions, the latter obtained by tying the base station to a permanent absolute gravity mark or when making absolute ‘gravity measurements, the latitude correction is the normal ‘gravity calculated for that location (Eq, (3.13)). It is sub- tracted from the drift, Eétws and tide-corrected reading. Since latitude is spheroid-dependent it is important that position is determined according to the correct spheroid (see Featherstone and Dentith, 1997). Alternatively, the latitude correction can be obtained from the latitudinal gradient of normal gravity. At ‘ activities, the chang rmal gravity isravity and mag a) — Reference spheroid \ ec so ee ee a _s Topographic surface < \ J Units are metres, represents the change in gravity with north-south distance from a base station and is given by: Sq¢x-s) = 9.00812 sin 29 gu/me._s) (3.14) where ¢ is the latitude (negative for southern hemisphere) of the base station. This formula is accurate enough for ‘most exploration applications for distances up to about 20 km north and south of the base station (preferably located central to the survey area). It is useful where the latitudes of the gravity stations are unknown, The latitude correction at a gravity station is simply the north-south latitude gradient multiplied by the north-south distance (in metres) between the station and the base station, Since gravity increases towards the poles (Fig, 3.14b), the correction is subtracted for stations located on the pole side of the base station and added for stations on the equatorial side, i Station location needs to north-south in order to cak ‘oan accuracy of 0.1 gu, Tlishwn to eboar eee culate the latitude correction i ie smooth reference spheroid. Vertical is everywhere p. Figure 3.15 (a) Relationship between the undulating geoid and th : d a the geod Separation bewezn the WS spheroid and the EGM96 geoid. Computed using data from Lemoine et al. - it, Bouguer and terrain corrections. When 3.4.5 Variations in gravity due to h and topography Topography influences gravity measureme causes variations in station elevation, ie. th between the station and the centre of the Ear See Eq, (3.3). Also significant are the effects of forming the mass of the topography. They exert th sravitational attraction which tends to oppose the in gravity caused by increasing elevation, but as by Eq. (3.3), the attraction of the mass has less the distance factor. Terrain effects can be as comp the terrain itself, they are Particularly stron; gradient measurements. ; Compensation of height and topographic involves three sequential corrections, known a ‘meter is located on the surface of the situation based topography. @ ground survey, all three corrections are th the height of the topography above some :aa | a wposrnty —_ Height duo to | ‘monn TAMARA Figure 3.16 (a) The relationship between instrument height, topography and the datum level for the free-air correction. (b) The concept of the Bouguer slab. The significance ofthe various hatched areas is described in the text. () Representation of topographic variation (in 2D) by a series of flat-topped prisms. Note the smaller site ofthe prisms close to the gravity station, level, usually the geoid (sea level), so they can be combined {nto a single elevation correction. When the gravity meter is elevated above the topography (Fig. 3.16a), eg. on. tripod or in an aircraft, itis not possible to apply a single height- dependent elevation correction, Usually the three correc- tions are applied separately and in the sequence described below. ‘A common misconception regarding these corrections is that their application produces the equivalent reading that would have been obtained if the gravity meter had been located at the datum level. This is not the case, since such a process must include continuation of the field (see Section 373.2). Instead, what the reduction process does is correct for height and topographic effects whilst retaining relative changes due to lateral density changes in the subsurface. Another influence related to topography is the isostatic state of the survey area, in particular whether local or regional isostatic compensation occurs (Lowrie, 2007). For example, the mass deficit of a mountain’s root in local Airy-type compensation leads to lower gravity than a set- ting where the flexural rigidity is sufficient to carry the load 3.4 Reduction ot gravity aaa of the mountain in a Pratt-type model. This is because the ‘mass deficiency comprising the root zone partly balances the gravitational consequences of the mass excess repre- sented by positive topography. If there is no local compen- ation, then obviously the gravitational effects of the terrain alone affect the reading, The isostasy-related changes in gravity tend to be of sufficiently long wave- length that they appear as a constant component in most, exploration-related gravity surveys. They can be compen- sated using an isostatic correction (Lowrie, 2007), import ant for very large regional surveys, but not normally required for smaller mineral exploration-scale surveys 3.4.5.1 Free-air correction Ifa measurement of gravity were made on flat ground and then, at the same location, the measurement repeated at the top of a tall step ladder, the value of observed gravity ‘would be less at the top of the ladder owing only to the Increase in distance between the measurement location and the Earth’s centre of mass; the 1/7 component of Eq, (3.3). The change in gravity with height is compensated with the free-air correction (gra) given by: 2 Sea = (3.15) ‘where his the height (m) of the gravity station above the datum (usually the geoid), R is the average radius (m) of the Earth (6371 km) and G the universal gravitational constant given in Section 3.2.1.1. ‘This reduces to: Seq = 3.086 gu (3.16) which is simply the free-air gradient multiplied by the height. Station height needs to be measured with an accur- acy of about 3 cm in order to calculate the free-air correc- tion to an accuracy of 0.1 gu, The free-air correction ‘compensates for height variations of the gravity meter above or below the datum level, where the station height is that of the topography (lop) plus the height above the ground surface of the gravity meter (ha,) (Fig. 3.16a). The. free-air correction is added to the gravity reading, noting that height is negative for stations below the datum level so the free-air correction is then negative, 3.4.5.2 Bouguer correction ‘The free-air correction only accounts for the difference in height between the instrument and the datum level. When the height variation is caused by ic variations, as is usually the case, the in of a hill above ee2.17 Estimated magnitude of the terain corrections, n gu, to small-scale topographic features close to the gravity station frawn, with permission, from Leaman (1988). x density. The process is repeated for each gravity as they will all (or mostly) have different heights so Bouguer slab at each station has different thickness topography. Alternatively, the Bouguer correction can gnored, and the gravitational attraction of the undulat- surrounding the gravity station can be computed full terrain correction with respect to the datum level ‘gravitational attraction of topography depends on ze of the topographic features, and decreases with increasing distance from the gravity station. ‘on the desired accuracy of the survey and the ss of the terrain, this means that relatively small ‘lose to the survey station, such as culverts, storage reservoirs, mine dumps, open-pits and rock tors, can significant effect on the measured gravity and can be jor source of error in high-resolution gravity work 3.17; Leaman, 1998). In addition, topographic fea- as of kilometres away from the station, and even ‘mountain ranges more than a hundred Kilo- ,, may need to be accounted for. The effects features appear as a regional gradient in the ‘effect could be removed with the regional field ). The terrain correction is by far the most ‘complex correction to implement as it requires the topog- raphy and its density distribution be accurately known; but this is usually difficult to achieve, so itis prone to error. Digital terrain data provide the essential heights and shape of the topography needed for calculating the terrain correction. ‘The ability to mathematically describe the ter- rain in terms of the digital data depends on the nature of the data and their resolution. Some airborne gravity systems are equipped with a laser scanner which maps the terrain in an across-line swathe below the aircraft, provid- ing terrain information of soflicient resolution and accur- acy for the terrain correction. For ground surveys, data may ‘be true point (spot) heights taken from aerial photography or contour maps, or may be average heights of compart- ments subdividing the photography or contour map. It is important that the actual elevations of the gravity stations match the equivalent points on the DEM as discrepancies in heights and locations are sources of errors. The DEM ‘may lack sufficient resolution to adequately define small topographic features and large abrupt surface irregularities, such as the edges of steep cliffs and the bases of steep hills, in the immediate vicinity of the gravity station, an additional source of error for stations affected in this way. During the gravity survey it is necessary to record details of small local features manually. Leaman (1998) provides practical advice ig terrain effects close to the gravity station. Various procedures for geometrically describing the digital terrain, so that its volume above the datum level can be calculated, have been implemented. The most ‘common approach divides the terrain into a large number ‘of volume elements (voxels), usually flat-top juxtaposed prisms, extending down to the datum level. Their gravita- tional attractions are computed and summed at each grav- ity station (Fig. 3.16c) and the whole process repeated for ‘each gravity station. Given that topography closer to the gravity station exerts greater influence than more distant terrain features, efficient algorithms implement smaller prisms with more realistic, i. topography resembling, upper surfaces close to the station in order to minimise errors, Distant features, having a smaller gravity effect, are described more crudely with larger and fewer voxels, which ‘also significantly reduces computing resources. Specific3.5 Measurement of the Earth’s magnetic field ER L2sto)pronotte/syerienasan a Pronottaatite breccia [EI crantoiss (Precambrian) figure 3.18 Geological and geophysical data from Cripple Crek. (a) Simplified geology, (6) distribution of Au-Ag-Te mineralisation and associated hydrothermal potassic alteration, variations of the field due to magnetic materials in the crust that are of interest in mineral exploration. The average strength of the Earth’s magnetic field is about 50,000 nT and variations of geologi 10,000 nT, which is about 20% of the field strength, so Variations can be extremely large compared with the Yery small influence that local geological features have on the gravity field. However, these large variations are rare. More common are variations of tens or hundreds of nanoteslas. Unlike the gravity field, the Earth’s magnetic field is fundamental in determining the strength and shape of crustal magnetic anomalies. Without it there would be no ‘magnetic anomalies and no formation of remanent ma§- Aetism, The magnetic field changes significantly in both I origin may exceed (6) gravity before correction for height and topography, ‘The gravity images were created from open-file gravity data, Geological nd () complete Bouguer anomaly data based on diagrams in Kleinkopf et al, (1970), direction and strength over the Earth and at time scales Which are significant for exploration surveys. These short-term temporal variations are a source of noise during magnetic surveying, and corrections can be applied to compensate for them. ‘The instrument used to measure the magnetic field is called a magnetometer. Magnetometers used in exploration ‘make absolute measurements, although only relative dif- ferences are actually required, and these are usually the scalar strength of the field (TMI). The strength of the field in a particular direction, ie. a component of the field, is, made with a vector magnetometer. The instruments are relatively small and lightweight, and measurements are routinely made from the air, on the ground and downhole, Magnetic surveys conducted in the air with a fixed-wing 107