NEWNOVEL METHOD TO ESTIMATE BODY CHARACTERISTICS (DIMENSIONS, DEPTHS AND DENSITY CONTRASTS) OF THREE DIMENSIONAL PRISMATIC BODIES BY APPLYING DIFFERENTIAL OPERATORS (GRADIENT  g  , LAPLACIAN 2Z AND BIHARMONIC 4Z ) TO THEIR GRAVITY FIELDS

Abstract

:Differential Operators (Gradient, Laplacian and Biharmonic) have been used todetermine anomaly characteristics using theoretical gravity field for prismatic bodies with differenttop depths, dimensions and density contrasts. The concepts of gradient and laplacian operator arewidely used in image processing. The intersection between the gravity field and the three differentialoperator's fields could be used to estimate the depth to the top of the prismatic bodies regardless oftheir differences in dimensions, depths and density contrasts. The Biharmonic Operator has anexcellent result, were two zero closed contour line produced. The outline of the internal closed zerocontour line define precisely the dimension of the prismatic bodies. The distance between this zerocontour and the maxima of the Laplacian Operator define the exact depth to the top of the prismaticbodies. The maxima of the Biharmonic amplitude could be used for density contrast approximation.This is the first attempt to use such technique for estimating body characteristics. Also, theBiharmonic Operator has high sensitivity to resolve hidden small anomaly due the effect of largeneighborhood anomaly, the 2nd derivative Laplacian Filter could reveal these small anomaly but theBiharmonic Operator could indicate the exact depth. The user for such technique should be very careto the accuracy of digitizing the data due to the high sensitivity of Biharmonic Operator. The validityof the method is tested using field example for salt dome in Gulf Coast basin