Interpretation of the magnetic

anomalies
Saman Tavakoli
October 2009
 Fundamentals
• The force between the poles is defined by coulomb as :

F = p1p2/r2 or  0 p1 p2
F
4r r 2
• 0 is the magnetic permeability of free space (i.e. vacuum)

•  0  4 10 7 NA2 or Wb/(A·m). in the SI system and 1 in the cgs

•  r Is the relative permeability of a medium

• The magnetic field B due to a pole of strength p1 at a distance r from the pole is
defined as the force per unit positive pole at that point
 Fundamentals
• In actuality, the magnetic field can be either represented by:

• H, the magnetic field intensity (A/m, mks-SI; orested, cgs)

- or

• B, the magnetic induction (Teslas, SI; gauss, cgs)

• 1 A/m = 4 x 10-3 oersteds

1 Tesla = 104 gauss
• 1 Gauss = 100,000 nT
• B and H are useful when considering a magnetic field inside the magnetic object, but
magnetic field of the earth is measured in none-magnetic media such as air or water,
therefore the equations in free space for H and B are :

• At the Earth's surface the total intensity varies from 24,000 nanotesla (nT) to 66,000 nT
 Fundamentals
• Magnetic susceptibility : The degree to which a body becomes
magnetized is determined by its magnetic susceptibility and is the
fundamental parameter in magnetic prospecting.

• K for sedimentary rocks : K  10  4

• K for granite and gneiss rocks : 10 3  K  10  4

• K for intrusive basic rocks : K  10 3

 Fundamentals
• Minerals which are mainly responsible for the magnetic properties of the Rocks :

• And Pyrothite Fe7 S8

Ilmenorutile

TiO2–FeO–Fe2O3 ternary diagram

 Fundamentals
• 3 Main classes of the magnetic behavior based on the magnetic susceptibility :

• Diamagnetic minerals : the magnetic susceptibility is low and negative to an external magnetic
field, normally is masked since is overlain by the stronger paramagnetic or ferromagnetic
properties. is independent of the temperature : quartz ,feldspars, salt
 10 6
Diamagnetic minerals are not able to retain the magnetic properties when the external field is
removed.

• Paramagnetic minerals : have low and possitive susceptibilities, minerals containing transitional
elements (Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, Mn, Cr, Ti ) are paramagnetic. susceptibility varies inversely with the
temperature: pyroxine , olivine and amphibole with susceptibility of 10 5  10 4
Paramagnetic minerals are not able to retain the magnetic properties when the external field is
removed.

• Ferromagnetic minerals : have high possitive susceptibilities and strong magnetic properties : iron
, nickel.
They are able to retain their magnetic properties after the external field has been removed.
 Fundamentals
• The origin of the Earth's magnetic field is not completely understood, but is thought to be associated with
electrical currents produced by the coupling of convective effects and rotation in the spinning liquid metallic
outer core of iron and nickel. This mechanism is termed the dynamo effect.
• Elements of the earth magnetic field :

• At any point of the earth’s surface, the magnetic field can be defined by three vectors and 2 angles :

• Vectors :
X and y are North and East geomagnetic fields
1. Horizontal field(H)
respectively
2. Vertical field(Z)
3. Total field(T)

• Angles :
1. Declination (D) : Or magnetic variation is the angle between magnetic meridian and
the geographic meridian
2. Inclination (I) : The angles at which the magnetic vector dips below the horizontal

• Relationship
H = T cosI
Z = T sinI = H tanI
X = H cosD
Y = H sinD

Magnetic meridian
Fundamentals
 Fundamentals
• The purpose of the magnetic surveying is to identify and describe regions
of the earth’s crust that have unusual (anomalous) magnetizations.

• Magnetic surveying consists of :

1. Measuring the magnetic field at predetermind points

2. Correcting the measurement for known changes
3. Comparing the resultant value of the field with expected value at each
measurement station

• The expected value of the field at any place is that of International Geomagnetic
Reference Field (IGRF). The difference between the observed and expected
values is magnetic anomaly
 Fundamentals
• Measurement methods :

1. Land : An operator uses a portable magnetometer to measure the magnetic field at

the center of the earth, over a suspected geological structure,slow, but gives very
good detail of the anomalous source since is close to the source

2. Sea : A magnetometer in a waterproof fish is towed behind the ship at the end of
the long cable, since the ship are consisting of thousands ton of steel, they cause
big magnetic disturbance, so the cable must be 100-300m long. The depth of
measurement depends on the speed of ship and length of cable. For 10km/h, 20-
30 meter depth investigation is expected.

3. Air : The most effiecient method of the surveying magnetic anomalies. The
magnetometer must be removed as far as possible from the magnetic environment
of the aircraft
 Fundamentals
• Magnetic gradiometer :

• A magnetic gradiometer is an installation comprising two magnetic sensors

oriented either vertically above each other or horizontally beside each other.
Gradients are calculated by subtracting the value of measurements made at
one sensor from those made at the next sensor, and dividing by the
distance between sensors.

• Why using that?

1. Removing diurnal effects. Diurnal and other temporal changes
in the magnetic field are eliminated by synchronously taken readings.

2. Resolving complex anomalies related to overlapping sources.

Magnetic gradiometers
Fundamentals

Land

Air

Sea
 Fundamentals

• a. Constant flight elevation above the sea level

• b. A helicpter can keep the distance from magnetic

source as small as possible by flying at constant
height above the surface

c. The usual way of survey along parallel flight lines

 Fundamentals
• Corrections for the magnetic data :

• In comparison to the gravity data, magnetic data require very few corrections

1. Diurnal correction: One effect that must be compensated is variation in intesity of the
geomagnetic field at the earth’s surface during the day. ( The best solution for it’s
correction is to instal a constantly rocording magnetometer at a fixed base station within
the survey area.)

2. Terrain correction : Topography may give rise to magnetic anomalies. There is no

general rule to do the terrain correction. Normaly, if there is a good correlation between
topography and magnetic anomalies, the anomaly is not very significant!

3. Temperature correction : Older instruments were temperature dependent but in modern

instruments this is negligible. These changes are generally incorporated into the diurnal
correction.

4. Normal Correction : Removal of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF)

 Interpretation of the magnetic
anomaly
• Advantages and disadvantages :

• Disadvantages :

1. No unique solution is available for an anomaly, similar to gravity interpretation

2. High remanent magnetization lead to difficulties when interpreting magnetic anomalies
3. Magnetic susceptibilies can vary within a certain rock type
4. The characteristic of anomalies are dependent of direction of magnetization.

• Advantages :

1. Cost effective method given the area surveyed.(Both ground and aeromagnetic surveys)
2. The magnetic anomaly have normaly high precision
3. Although the earth’s magnetic field’s orientation affect the anomaly, in a certain survey area
even large, is constant, helping geophysicist for interpretation.
4. Since the susceptibility values are small, they can represent specific rock types easier than
the gravity anomalies.
 Interpretation of the magnetic
anomaly
• Half-Maximum technique :

x1/ 2 max
• Considering a slender vertical srtraightforward and bottom far away from observer Z 
0.766
• For a sphere and a cylinder, total width of an anomaly curve at Z A (magnetic field intensity) max/2
equals the depth to center of sphere and cylinder
Interpretation of the
magnetic anomaly
• Peter’s slope method to depth problem :

1. Identifying maximum slope on the anomaly curve

2. Creating a line with a one-half slope of maximum slope value
3. Moving the current line until two points of tangency are identified
4. Distance between points of tangency is d
5. The relationship between d and depth to the top
of the prism,z is :

d
Z
1.6
Z=0.3km 2,3

• 1
This method assumes :
1. Length of prism is great compared to width
2. Depth to prism top is the same as the prism width
3. And prism has infinite length and oriented parallel to
4
the magnetic meridian
 Interpretation of the magnetic
anomaly

If the magnetic field of the

anomalous body at a given
location along the profile line is
vertical then is a maximum
(positive or negative depending
on whether the magnetic field
reinforces or opposes the
Earth’s field) at that location.
If the vertical component of the
magnetic field of the anomalous
body opposes the vertical
component of the Earth’s magnetic
field along the profile line, then D Z
at that location has a negative value.
 Interpretation of the magnetic
anomaly
Component of anomalous field parallel to inducing field
• a. Magnetic anomaly of a monopole vertical dike :
Anomalous field of magnetized body

• We assume the dike is infinite in the depth

Inducing magnetic field

• So that the dike is a monopol model

• The magnetometer mesearues the sum of the

Indcing field and anomalous field

• The magnetic anomaly is possitive everywhere here,

increasing from zero far from the dike to maximum
value directly over it
 Interpretation of the magnetic
anomaly
• b. Magnetic anomaly of a dipole vertical dike :

• The dike here is finite, as what we see in the real world

• The distribution of south poles produce possitive magnetic anomaly
• Distribution of the North poles produce negative magnetic anomaly
• Close to the dike, the dipole has a component that reinforces
the inducing field, caused a positive central anomaly.

• Why the North poles’s negative anomaly is weaker than the

Possitive anomaly of the South pole ?

• Why The negative anomaly of North poles becomes stronger

than the South poles anomaly Right of R and Left of L ?
 Interpretation of the magnetic
anomaly
• Effect of the block width on anomaly shape :

• A narrow but extended in depth block gives a sharp possitive anomaly(a)

• For a body in which it’s width is considerably large compared to it’s depth,
South and North pole’s distribution is equal, so the possitive anomaly is
almost zero, near the edge of block, the effect of South
pole is larger than that of North(d)

• The observed dip in the middle of the anomaly

is due to the depth of the block, if it was
infinitely deep, the effect of North pole would
be missing and the anomaly would look
flat-topped!
 Interpretation of the magnetic
anomaly
Example of upward continuation (Blue line)

Initial anomaly
2500 m upward continuation

3500 m upward continuation

1500 m upward continuation
 Interpretation of the magnetic
anomaly 1500m downward continuation,
Look at the sharp anomalies,
Example of downward continuation (Blue line) Is this anomaly reliable ?

Initial anomaly
200m downward continuation

100m downward continuation 300m downward continuation

 Useful links
• The geomagnetic calculator : http://williams.best.vwh.net/magvar.htm