GRAVITY ANOMALIES

Presented by - Alankritha Maheshwaran (500084432)

Palak Singh (500084434)
Table of Contents -

● INTRODUCTION
● ANOMALIES AND DISCREPANCIES
● CAUSES OF ANOMALIES
● TYPES OF ANOMALIES
● GEOID & GEODESY
● SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS (GRACE)
● GRAVITY CORRECTIONS
● GRAVITY PROFILE EXAMPLES
● (PARTS OF CANADA , SOUTH ATLANTIC ANOMALY - BERMUDA TRIANGLE)
GRAVITY

Gravity is a natural phenomenon by which all things

with mass or energy are attracted to (or gravitate
towards) one another. It has infinite range although it
becomes weaker as objects get further away.

Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces in the

universe alongside weak and strong nuclear forces and
electromagnetism.

It is most accurately described by the general theory of

relativity proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915. However,
for most applications, gravity is well approximated by
Newton's law of universal gravitation.
GRAVITATIONAL ANOMALY

It is the difference between observed acceleration of an object in free fall on a planet’s surface ,
and the corresponding value predicted from a model of the planet’s gravitational field.

Anomaly values are typically a small fraction of the values of gravity itself. They describe the
local variations of the gravity field around the model field.

A location with a positive anomaly exhibits more gravity than predicted by the model , while a
negative anomaly exhibits a lower value than predicted. These anomalies are thus of
substantial geophysical and geological interest.

The anomalies highlight the variations in the strength of the gravitational force over the
surface of the earth.

The earth’s gravitational field is depicted in two ways - Gravity anomaly maps and maps of the
Earth’s GEOID.

The gravity anomaly maps depict the variations between the Earth’s actual gravitational field,
from that of a uniform, featureless earth surface.
ANOMALIES AND DISCREPANCIES

There are some observations that are not adequately accounted for, which may point to
the need for better theories of gravity or perhaps be explained in other ways.

● Extra-fast stars
● Flyby anomaly
● Accelerating expansion
● Anomalous increase of the astronomical unit
● Extra energetic photons
● Extra massive hydrogen clouds
CAUSES

● Latitudinal effect - earth is

not perfectly round
● Rotational effect - earth
spins faster at the equator
● Altitudinal effect - gravity
diminishes with altitude
● Geological makeup -
density of rocks ,
mountains , oceans , higher
subsurface.
● The unusual
concentrations of mass in a
region.
TYPES OF ANOMALIES

Most commonly considered types are -

● Free-air gravity anomaly

● Bouguer gravity anomaly
● Isostatic gravity anomaly

Some other types like Rudzki inversion and

Helmert condensation gravity anomalies have
been proposed as well.
GEOID & GEODESY

A GEOID is a hypothetical solid figure, whose surface corresponds to mean sea level, and its imagined
extensions under (or over) land areas. It is used as a reference surface, which defines the horizontals, to
which gravity acts perpendicular to the defined horizontals.

Geodesy is the science of precisely measuring and understanding three fundamental

properties of the earth, its geometric shape, its orientation in space, and its gravity field.
The use of satellites for these studies is quite extensive.
Two main methods of Geodesy are:
● Doppler tracking.
● Interferometry.
SATELLITES USED FOR
LASER RANGING
This is a contour map of the marine geoid north of
Puerto Rico from the GEOS-C radar altimetry, from
the study by Marsh and Chang in 1985.
SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS (GRACE)

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE, is a satellite mission, which helps to
study time-variable gravity effects.

They are twin satellites which follow eachother with a separation between them, of
about 220 km.

This mission detects the change in earth’s gravity field.

GRACE has far exceeded its 5 year design life span.

It was launched on March 17th, 2002.

 GRAVITY CORRECTIONS

● Earth is not a perfect sphere

● Free air correction
● Bouguer correction
● Terrain correction

They should not be confused with the types of anomalies

We can use gravity measurements to determine whether an area is in isostatic

equilibrium. Though in practice calculating interpreting gravity measurements is
convoluted process.

Free air anomalies are always almost isostatic anomalies.

GRAVITY PROFILE EXAMPLE

CASE B CASE C
CASE A
BIBLIOGRAPHY

❖ Exploring Space, Exploring Earth. A New understanding of the Earth from Space Research.
Foreword, Neil Armstrong. By Paul Lowman. A Cambridge Publication.
❖ Treatise on Geophysics, Volume 10 (Planets and moons), Gerald Schubert and Tilman Spohn.
❖ Gravity anomalies : Interpretation. By Luman E. Wilcox.
❖ Earthobservatory.nasa,gov
❖ Link.springer.com
❖ Science.howstuffworks.com
❖ Drishtiias.com
❖ Livescience.com
❖ Oceanservice.noaa.gov.in
❖ Britannica.com
❖ ResearchGate Papers.
❖ Wikipedia.com
THANK
YOU Palak Singh &
Alankritha
Maheshwaran.