Geophysical methods

Introduction to Geophysical Methods
Techniques and Targets
Geophysical techniques measure physical phenomena:
• Gravity
• Magnetism
• Elastic waves
• Electricity
• Electromagnetic waves
Which are sensitive to sub-surface physical properties:
• Density
• Magnetic susceptibility
• Seismic wave velocity and density
• Resistivity
• Conductance/inductance/permitivity

Active and passive
Active
Transmit a signal into the subsurface and record what comes back
• Seismic arrival – explosions
• Electrical current
• Electromagnetic waves
Passive
Measure naturally occurring phenomena
• Gravity field
• Magnetic field
• Seismic arrivals - earthquakes

The techniques we’ll talk about are used in the fields of
• Environmental geophysics
• Engineering geophysics
• Exploration geophysics
………….and our scale is meters to km

For Example
Magnetics
Main use:
locating steel
drums and pipes

Limitations
Methods require contrast in physical properties
• No uniqueness
Direct modeling: calculate the result of a specific structure Inverse modeling:
determine the causative structure from
observations – usually ambiguous
e.g. small shallow body vs. large deep body
• Resolution is determined by the wavelength of the signal seismic: km, radar: cm
• Noise prevents recovery of low amplitude signal
e.g. wind, traffic, water pumps, power lines
How to overcome this
Use different methods for same targets

Gravity Method
Gravity Survey - Measurements of the gravitational field at
a series of different locations over an area of interest. The
objective in exploration work is to associate variations with
differences in the distribution of densities and hence rock
types*.

Gravitational Force
Geophysical interpretations from gravity surveys are based on the mutual
attraction experienced between two masses* as first expressed by Isaac Newton
in his classic work Philosophiae naturalis principa mathematica (The mathematical
principles of natural philosophy). Newton's law of gravitation states that the mutual
attractive force between two point masses**, m1 and m2, is proportional to one
over the square of the distance between them.
The constant of proportionality is usually specified as G, the gravitational constant.
Thus, we usually see the law of gravitation written as shown to the right where F is
the force of attraction, G is the
gravitational constant, and r is the distance between the two masses,
m1 and m2.

*As described on the next page, mass is formally defined as the
proportionality constant relating the force applied to a body and the
acceleration the body undergoes as given by Newton's second law, usually
written as F=ma.
Therefore, mass is given as m=F/a and has the units of force over
acceleration.
**A point mass specifies a body that has very small physical dimensions.
That is, the mass can be considered to be concentrated at a single point.

Gravitational Acceleration
When making measurements of the earth's gravity, we usually don't measure
the gravitational force, F. Rather, we measure the gravitational acceleration, g.
The gravitational acceleration is the time rate of change of a body's speed
under the influence of the gravitational force. That is, if you drop a rock off a
cliff, it not only falls, but its speed increases as it falls.
In addition to defining the law of mutual attraction between masses, Newton
also defined the relationship between a force and an acceleration. Newton's
second law states that force is proportional to acceleration. The constant of
proportionality is the mass of the object. Combining Newton's second law with
his law of mutual attraction, the gravitational acceleration on the mass m2 can
be shown to be equal to the mass of attracting object, m1, over the squared
distance between the center of the two masses, r.

Units Associated with Gravitational Acceleration
As described on the previous page, acceleration is defined as the time rate of change of the speed
of a body. Speed, sometimes incorrectly referred to as velocity, is the distance an object travels
divided by the time it took to travel that distance (i.e., meters per second (m/s)). Thus, we can
measure the speed of an object by observing the time it takes to travel a known distance.
If the speed of the object changes as it travels, then this change in speed with respect to time is
referred. to as acceleration. Positive acceleration means the object is moving faster with time, and
negative acceleration means the object is slowing down with time. Acceleration can be measured by
determining the speed of an object at two different times and dividing the speed by the time
difference between the two observations. Therefore, the units associated with acceleration is speed
(distance per time) divided by time; or distance per time per time, or distance per time squared.

 If an object such as a ball is dropped, it falls under the influence of
gravity in such a way that its speed increases constantly with time.
That is, the object accelerates as it falls with constant
acceleration.
 At sea level, the rate of acceleration is about 9.8 meters per
second squared.
 In gravity surveying, we will measure variations in the acceleration
due to the earth's gravity. As will be described next, variations in
this acceleration can be caused by variations in subsurface
geology.
 Acceleration variations due to geology, however, tend to be much
smaller than 9.8 meters per second squared.
 Thus, a meter per second squared is an inconvenient system of
units to use when discussing gravity surveys.

 The units typically used in describing the gravitational
acceleration variations observed in exploration gravity surveys
are specified in milliGals.
 A Gal is defined as a centimeter per second squared. Thus,
the Earth's gravitational acceleration is approximately 980
Gals. The Gal is named after Galileo Galilei .
 The milliGal (mgal) is one thousandth of a Gal. In milliGals, the
Earth's gravitational acceleration is approximately 980,000.

How is the Gravitational Acceleration, g, Related to Geology?
 Density is defined as mass per unit volume. For example, if we were to calculate the density
of a room filled with people, the density would be given by the average number of people per
unit space (e.g., per cubic foot) and would have the units of people per cubic foot.
 The higher the number, the more closely spaced are the people. Thus, we would say the
room is more densely packed with people.
 The units typically used to describe density of substances are grams per centimeter cubed
(gm/cm^3); mass per unit volume.
 In relating our room analogy to substances, we can use the point mass described earlier as
we did the number of people.
 Consider a simple geologic example of an ore body buried in soil. Consider a simple
geologic example of an ore body buried in soil. We would expect the density of the ore body,
d2, to be greater than the density of the surrounding soil, d1.

 The density of the material can be
thought of as a number that
quantifies the number of point
masses needed to represent the
material per unit volume of the
material just like the number of
people per cubic foot in the example
given above described how crowded
a particular room was.
 Thus, to represent a high-density ore
body, we need more point masses
per unit volume than we would for the
lower density
 soil*.
*In this discussion we assume that all of
the point masses have the same mass.

 The density of the material can be thought of as a number that quantifies the
number of point masses needed to represent the material per unit volume of the
material just like the number of people per cubic foot in the example given above
described how crowded a particular room was.
 Thus, to represent a high-density ore body, we need more point masses per unit
volume than we would for the lower density soil*.
*In this discussion we assume that all of the point masses have the same mass.

The Relevant Geologic Parameter is Not
Density, But Density Contrast
 Contrary to what you might first think, the shape of
the curve describing the variation in gravitational
 acceleration is not dependent on the absolute
densities of the rocks. It is only dependent on the
density difference (usually referred to as density
contrast) between the ore body and the
surrounding soil.
 That is, the spatial variation in the gravitational
acceleration generated from our previous example
would be exactly the same if we were to assume
different densities for the ore body and the
surrounding soil, as long as the density contrast,
d2 - d1, between the ore body and the surrounding
soil were constant.
 One example of a model that satisfies this
condition is to let the density of the soil be zero and
the density of the ore body be d2 - d1.

The only difference in the gravitational accelerations produced by the
two structures shown above (one given by the original model and one
given by setting the density of the soil to zero and the ore body to d2
- d1) is an offset in the curve derived from the two models. The offset is
such that at great distances from the ore body, the gravitational
acceleration approaches zero in the model which uses a soil density of
zero rather than the non-zero constant value the acceleration
approaches in the original model. For identifying the location of the ore
body, the fact that the gravitational accelerations approach zero away
from the ore body instead of some non-zero number is unimportant.
What is important is the size of the difference in the gravitational
acceleration near the ore body and away from the ore body and the
shape of the spatial variation in the gravitational acceleration. Thus, the
latter model that employs only the density contrast of the ore body to the
surrounding soil contains all of the relevant information needed to
identify the location and shape of the ore body.
*It is common to use expressions like Gravity Field as a synonym for
gravitational acceleration.

Density Variations of Earth Materials
Thus far it sounds like a fairly simple
proposition to estimate the variation in
density of the earth due to local changes in
geology. There are, however, several
significant complications. The first has to do
with the density contrasts measured for
various earth materials.
The densities associated with various earth
materials are shown in the table .

 Notice that the relative variation in rock density is quite small,
~0.8 gm/cm^3, and there is considerable overlap in the
measured densities. Hence, a knowledge of rock density alone
will not be sufficient to determine rock type.
 This small variation in rock density also implies that the spatial
variations in the observed gravitational acceleration caused by
geologic structures will be quite small and thus difficult to
detect.

A Simple Model
 Consider the variation in gravitational
acceleration that would be observed over a
simple model.
 For this model, let's assume that the only
variation in density in the subsurface is due to the
presence of a small ore body.
 Let the ore body have a spherical shape with a
radius of 10 meters, buried at a depth of 25
meters below the surface, and with a density
contrast to the surrounding rocks of 0.5 grams
per centimeter cubed.
 From the table of rock densities, notice that the
chosen density contrast is actually fairly large.
 The specifics of how the gravitational
acceleration was computed are not, at this time,
important.

 There are several things to notice about the gravity anomaly* produced by this structure.
 The gravity anomaly produced by a buried sphere is symmetric about the center of the sphere.
 The maximum value of the anomaly is quite small. For this example, 0.025 mgals.
 The magnitude of the gravity anomaly approaches zero at small (~60 meters) horizontal distances
away from the center of the sphere.
 Later, we will explore how the size and shape of the gravity anomaly is affected by the model
parameters such as the radius of the ore body, its density contrast, and its depth of burial. At this
time, simply note that the gravity anomaly produced by this reasonably-sized ore body is small.
When compared to the gravitational acceleration produced by the earth as a whole, 980,000 mgals,
the anomaly produced by the ore body represents a change in the gravitational field of only 1 part in
40 million.
 Clearly, a variation in gravity this small is going to be difficult to measure. Also, factors other than
 geologic structure might produce variations in the observed gravitational acceleration that are as
large, if not larger.
*We will often use the term gravity anomaly to describe variations in the background gravity field
produced by local geologic structure or a model of local geologic structure.

How do we Measure Gravity?
As you can imagine, it is difficult to construct instruments capable of measuring gravity
anomalies as small as 1 part in 40 million. There are, however, a variety of ways it can be
done, including:
1. Falling body measurements. These are the type of measurements we have described up to
this point. One drops an object and directly computes the acceleration the body undergoes
by carefully measuring distance and time as the body falls.
2. Pendulum measurements. In this type of measurement, the gravitational acceleration is
estimated by measuring the period oscillation of a pendulum.
3. Mass on spring measurements. By suspending a mass on a spring and observing how
much the spring deforms under the force of gravity, an estimate of the gravitational
acceleration can be determined.

Falling Body Measurements
 The gravitational acceleration can be measured
directly by dropping an object and measuring its
time rate of change of speed (acceleration) as it
falls.
 By tradition, this is the method we have
commonly ascribed to Galileo Galilei. In this
experiment, Galileo is supposed to have dropped
 objects of varying mass from the leaning tower of
Pisa and found that the gravitational acceleration
an object undergoes is independent of its mass.
 He is also said to have estimated the value of the
gravitational acceleration in this experiment.
While it is true that Galileo did make these
observations, he didn't use a falling body
experiment to do them.
 Rather, he used measurements based on
pendulums.

 It is easy to show that the distance a body falls is proportional to the time it has fallen squared. The
proportionality constant is the gravitational acceleration, g. Therefore, by measuring distances and
times as a body falls, it is possible to estimate the gravitational acceleration.
 To measure changes in the gravitational acceleration down to 1 part in 40 million using an
instrument of reasonable size (say one that allows the object to drop 1 meter), we need to be able
to measure changes in distance down to 1 part in 10 million and changes in time down to 1 part in
100 million!! As you can imagine, it is difficult to make measurements with this level of accuracy.
 It is, however, possible to design an instrument capable of measuring accurate distances and times
and computing the absolute gravity down to 1 microgal (0.001 mgals; this is a measurement
accuracy of almost 1 part in 1 billion!!). Micro-g Solutions is one manufacturer of this type of
instrument, known as an Absolute Gravimeter. Unlike the instruments described next, this class of
instruments is the only field instrument designed to measure absolute gravity.

 That is, this instrument measures the size of the vertical component of gravitational acceleration at a
given point. As described previously, the instruments more commonly used in exploration surveys
are capable of measuring only the change in gravitational acceleration from point to point, not the
absolute value of gravity at any one point.
 Although absolute gravimeters are more expensive than the traditional, relative gravimeters and
require a longer station occupation time (1/2 day to 1 day per station), the increased precision
offered by them and the fact that the looping strategies described later are not required to remove
instrument drift or tidal variations may outweigh the extra expense in operating them.
 This is particularly true when survey designs require large station spacing's or for experiments
needing the continuous monitoring of the gravitational acceleration at a single location. As an
example of this latter application, it is possible to observe as little as 3 mm of crustal uplift over time
by monitoring the change in gravitational acceleration at a single location with one of these
instruments

If we were to construct a simple pendulum by hanging a
mass from a rod and then displace the mass from
vertical, the pendulum would begin to oscillate about the
vertical in a regular fashion. The relevant parameter that
describes this oscillation is known as the period* of
oscillation.
*The period of oscillation is the time required for the
pendulum to complete one cycle in its motion. This can
be determined by measuring the time required for the
pendulum to reoccupy a given position. In the example
shown to the left, the period of oscillation of the pendulum
is approximately two seconds.

The reason that the pendulum oscillates about the vertical is that if the pendulum is
displaced, the force of gravity pulls down on the pendulum. The pendulum begins to
move downward. When the pendulum reaches vertical it can't stop instantaneously. The
pendulum continues past the vertical and upward in the opposite direction. The force of
gravity slows it down until it eventually stops and begins to fall again. If there is no
friction where the pendulum is attached to the ceiling and there is no wind resistance to
the motion of the pendulum, this would continue forever.
Because it is the force of gravity that produces the oscillation, one might expect the
period of oscillation to differ for differing values of gravity. In particular, if the force of
gravity is small, there is less force pulling the pendulum downward, the pendulum
moves more slowly toward vertical, and the observed period of oscillation becomes
longer.
Thus, by measuring the period of oscillation of a pendulum, we can estimate the
gravitational force or acceleration.

It can be shown that the period of oscillation of the pendulum, T, is proportional to one over the
square root of the gravitational acceleration, g. The constant of proportionality, k, depends on the
physical characteristics of the pendulum such as its length and the distribution of mass about the
pendulum's pivot point.
Like the falling body experiment described previously, it seems like it should be easy to determine
the gravitational acceleration by measuring the period of oscillation. Unfortunately, to be able to
measure the acceleration to 1 part in 50 million requires a very accurate estimate of the instrument
constant k. K cannot be determined accurately enough to do this.
All is not lost, however. We could measure the period of oscillation of a given pendulum at two
different locations. Although we can not estimate k accurately enough to allow us to determine the
gravitational acceleration at either of these locations because we have used the same pendulum at
the two locations, we can estimate the variation in gravitational acceleration at the two locations
quite accurately without knowing k.

The small variations in pendulum period that we need to observe can be estimated by allowing the
pendulum to oscillate for a long time, counting the number of oscillations, and dividing the time of
oscillation by the number of oscillations.
The longer you allow the pendulum to oscillate, the more accurate your estimate of pendulum period
will be. This is essentially a form of averaging. The longer the pendulum oscillates, the more periods
over which you are averaging to get your estimate of pendulum period, and the better your estimate
of the average period of pendulum oscillation.
In the past, pendulum measurements were used extensively to map the variation in gravitational
acceleration around the globe. Because it can take up to an hour to observe enough oscillations of
the pendulum to accurately determine its period, this surveying technique has been largely
supplanted by the mass on spring measurements described next.

Mass and Spring Measurements
The most common type of gravimeter* used in
exploration surveys is based on a simple mass-
spring system. If we hang a mass on a spring,
the force of gravity will stretch the spring by an
amount that is proportional to the gravitational
force.
It can be shown that the proportionality between
the stretch of the spring and the gravitational
acceleration is the magnitude of the mass hung
on the spring divided by a constant, k, which
describes the stiffness of the spring.
The larger k is, the stiffer the spring is, and the
less the spring will stretch for a given value of
gravitational acceleration.
Like pendulum measurements, we can not
determine k accurately enough to estimate
the absolute value of the gravitational
acceleration to 1 part in 40 million. We can,
however, estimate variations in the
gravitational acceleration from place to place
to within this precision.
To be able to do this, however, a
sophisticated mass-spring system is used
that places the mass on a beam and employs
a special type of spring known as a zero-
length spring.

Instruments of this type are produced by
several manufacturers; LaCoste and
Romberg, Texas Instruments (Worden
Gravity Meter), and Scintrex. Modern
gravimeters are capable of measuring
changes in the Earth's gravitational
acceleration down to 1 part in 100 million.
This translates to a precision of about 0.01
mgal. Such a precision can be obtained
only under optimal conditions when the
recommended field procedures are
carefully followed.

LaCoste and Romberg Gravity Meter

Geophysical methods

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