An iterative approach to depth determination from moving average residual self-potential anomalies

Abstract EN

A numerical method to determine the depth to the center of a buried structure from moving average residual self-potential anomalies due to horizontal cylinders and spheres has been developed.

The depth determination problem has been transformed into the problem of finding a solution of a nonlinear equation in the form of J{z) = z using simple iteration technique.

Procedures are also formulated to estimate the polarization angle and the electrical dipole moment.

The method can be applied not only to true self-potential anomalies but also to an observed anomaly profile consisting of the integrated effect of a residual component - due to a purely local structure - and a linear regional component.

The method is applied to synthetic data with ± 5% random errors.

The maximum error in model parameters is ± 6%.

The validity of the method is tested on a field example from Turkey.