A Method to Constrain the Configuration of the Subsurface Structure in 3-D Gravity Inversion

摘要

A three-dimensional inversion technique is developed to investigate the structure of the oceanic crust, using high quality offshore bathymetry, gravity and seismic data. The gravity signatures associated with variations in the thickness of the oceanic crust are isolated from the observed free-air anomaly by subtracting the gravitational effects of seafloor topography and the upper mantle thermal structure, downward continued to the mean depth of the crust/mantle interface and converted onto the relief on that surface. The thickness of the oceanic crust is then calculated by subtracting sea water depth from the depth of the gravity-inferred crust/mantle interface. Seismic refraction data was introduced directly as a constraint in the construction of the initial model for the configuration of the crust/mantle interface and the iterative process of the 3-D joint inversion to reduce the ambiguity in gravity interpretation. This technique can be easily applied to the off-shore areas to interpret bathymetry, gravity and seismic data that have been routinely collected for the purpose of geophysical exploration. Compared to the unconstrained gravity inversion, this technique can predict a 3-D crustal model that fits better both gravity and seismic observation data of the study area.