ES416A, IITK : AM 17‐02‐2024

Exploration Geophysics
(ES416A)

Gravity Method: Interpretation & examples

Dr. Animesh Mandal

Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Copyright: “The instructor of this course owns the copyright of all the course materials. This lecture material was distributed only to the students
attending the course ‘ES416A: Exploration Geophysics’ of IIT Kanpur and should not be distributed in print or through electronic media without
the consent of the instructor. Students can make their own copies of the course materials for their use.” 1/8

Regional-Residual anomalies
• Gravity anomalies due to the
combined effect of 0.6

widespread deep-seated 0.5

mass as well as shallow
anomaly (mGals)

0.4
bodies/features
0.3
– Regional 0.2

• Large scale features 0.1

0
• Regional anomalies are very 0 100 200 300 400 500
broad and can obfuscate local distance (m)
anomalies

• Low frequency variations

– Residual
• Smaller scale/local features

• High frequency variations

– If regional slope is removed,

the residual anomaly will
show the local target
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ES416A, IITK : AM 17‐02‐2024

Regional-Residual contd…
• Different targets produce anomalies
of differing wavelengths
– The total observed anomaly may be
the sum of many targets

– To isolate the local target, you can

subtract off each regional anomaly

– It is easier to identify and isolate

slowly varying part of the gravity field

• Separation can be accomplished

using various methods and
classified as
– Direct estimates

– Graphical estimates

– Mathematical estimates 3/8

Regional-Residual contd…
• Trend surface analysis (TSA) 21.5 Deogarh
Regional gravity anomaly map (a)

Bouguer anomaly map

Pallhara 40
21.5 Deogarh 21.4
30
21.4 Pallhara 21.3 30
Latitude (Degree)

21.3 20 21.2
20
21.2 21.1
Latitude (Degree)

10

21.1 21 10
0 Kamakhyanagar
21 20.9
Kamakhyanagar -10 0
20.9
Angul
20.8
Angul -20
20.8 20.7 -10

20.7 -30
Third Degree Trend 84.8 85 85.2 85.4 (mGal)
84.7 84.8 84.9 85 85.1 85.2 85.3 85.4 85.5 (mGal) Surface Polynomial Longitude (Degree)
Longitude (Degree)
Fitting to the Bouguer Residual gravity anomaly map (b)
Anomaly 21.5 Deogarh
15
Pallhara
21.4
(Mandal et 10
21.3
al., 2015) 5
Latitude (Degree)

21.2
0
21.1
-5
21
Kamakhyanagar -10
20.9
Angul -15
20.8
-20
20.7
-25
84.8 85 85.2 85.4 (mGal)
Longitude (Degree)

Calculations for TSA were shown in class! 4/8

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ES416A, IITK : AM 17‐02‐2024

Data Enhancement
• Upward continuation
– predicts the magnetic field at a higher
elevation

– longer spatial wavelengths

• Mostly stable

• Downward continuation
– mathematical procedure that
computes magnetic field at a lower
level

– shorter wavelengths
• Generally Unstable

• Produce artefacts

• Generally avoided
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Gravity Calculations
• In practice we ‘g’ of some arbitrarily shaped mass by breaking it up into
small parts and summing their individual contributions
(x, y)

(α,β,z)
Vertical component

Buried sphere Horizontal cylinder (Infinite-2D)

Vertical cylinder

𝑟 → 𝑅 𝑡𝑜 𝑅
𝑧 ℎ 𝑡𝑜 ℎ
ℎ ℎ 𝑡
4 𝑧 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠
𝑔 𝑥 𝐺 𝜋𝑟 Δ𝜌 2𝜋𝑟 𝑧𝐺Δ𝜌 𝜑 → 0 𝑡𝑜 2𝜋
3 𝑔 𝑥
𝑧 𝑥
𝑧 𝑥

See the board work in the class! 𝑔 2𝜋𝐺𝜌 𝑅 ℎ 𝑅 ℎ 𝑅 ℎ 𝑅 ℎ

6/8

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ES416A, IITK : AM 17‐02‐2024

Depth rule

• Half-Width method: Nettleton (1940,1942)

– Assumption: A 3D anomaly is caused by a point mass and a 2D anomaly is caused by a line
mass at depth z

– A common method is based on the half-width of the gravity anomaly (X1/2).

For buried sphere depth Z =1.305X½ and for horizontal cylinder depth Z = X½
See the board work in the class! 7/8

Suggested Reading Materials

• Along with this class notes please read the following materials.
• Relevant sections of Chapter 2 of the book titled ‘Applied Geophysics’ by
Telford et al.
• Relevant sections of Chapter 6 of the book titled ‘Introduction to
Geophysical Exploration’ by Kearey et al.

8/8