Environmental and Exploration Geophysics I

Gravity Methods I-contiued

tom.h.wilson tom.wilson@mail.wvu.edu Department of Geology and Geography West Virginia University Morgantown, WV

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

There are great differences in the acceleration due to gravity on the Earth that, in may instances, are unrelated to the details of subsurface geology

Rp = 6356.75km RE= 6378.14km gP=9.83218 m/s2 gE=9.780319 m/s2 This is a difference of 5186 milligals. These kinds of differences, which in this case are a function of latitude need to be corrected for or eliminated
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Substitute for the different values of R

mE gE = G 2 RE

Density differences arising from isostatic equilibrium processes represent large scale regional changes of g that are often removed before modeling and interpretation.

R. J. Lillie, 1999
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Isostatic compensation and density distributions in the earths crust

Generally geological processes produce linear sheet like distributions of materials

Its generally easier to accept this kind of model

R. J. Lillie, 1999
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Does water flow downhill?

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

The notion of downhill is associated with a surface along which the gravitational potential decreases
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

The geoid is a surface of constant gravitational potential. The gradient of the potential is perpendicular to the surface. Thus gravitational acceleration is always normal to the equipotential surface.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Geoid height anomalies

140 meters uphill

Contours are in meters

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Is the ocean surface a flat surface?

Aside from wind generated surface waves and ocean scale wind generated swells

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

SeaSat

Map of the ocean floor obtained from satellite radar observations of ocean surface topography.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Detailed map of a triple-junction on the floor of the Indian Ocean derived from ocean surface topography
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Gravity provides interesting views of objects buried deep beneath the surface - out of our reach In the environmental applications of gravity methods anomalies smaller than a milligal can be of interest to the geophysicist. A modern gravimeter is capable of measuring gravity to an accuracy of about 100th of a milligal or better. Well spend considerable time discussing the applications of gravity data in groundwater exploration. An example of this application is discussed in Stewarts paper (see web site link) on the use of gravity methods for mapping out buried glacial Valleys in Wisconsin - so read over this paper as soon as you can.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

The gravity anomalies associated with these glacial valleys have a range of about 4 milliGals.

Residual gravity data

Bedrock models derived from gravity data

Form Stewart
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Why residual? The residual eliminates the influence of the deeper strata which dip uniformly across the area. Their configuration is not relevant to the problem at hand. The residual can eliminate geology we arent interested in

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Karst

The anomaly shown here is only 1/2 milligal

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

These variations in gravitational acceleration are very small. To give you some additional perspective on the magnitude of these changes, consider the changes in g as a function of r (or RE) as indicated by Newtons law of gravity mE g =G 2 RE Recognize that the above equation quantifies the variation in g as a function of r for objects that can effectively be considered as points. For now, lets take a leap of faith and assume that we can represent the Earth as a point and that the above equation accurately describes the variations in g as a function of distance from the center of the earth, RE.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Given this relationship -

g sl = G

mE
2 RE
sl=sea level

h RE

What is g at a distance RE+h from the center of the earth?

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

gh = G

(RE + h )2

mE

g = g sl g h
Is there another way to compute the change in g?

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

What is the derivative of g with respect to R?

g =G

mE
2 RE

dg d m E G = 2 dR dR R E
dg d 2 = GmE RE dR dR

( )

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

At Morgantown latitudes, the variation of g with elevation is approximately 0.3086 milligals/m or approximately 0.09406 milligals/foot. As you might expect, knowing and correcting for elevation differences between gravity observation points is critical to the interpretation and modeling of gravity data. The anomalies associated with the karst collapse feature were of the order of 1/2 milligal so an error in elevation of 2 meters would yield a difference in g greater than that associated with the density contrasts around the collapsed area.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Just as a footnote, Newton had to develop the mathematical methods of calculus to show that spherically symmetrical objects gravitate as though all their mass is concentrated at their center.

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

The acceleration term in Newtons law of gravitation.

m g =G 2 r

tells us we need to consider mass (m) and its distance(s) (ri) from some observation point. In practice we usually compute the acceleration of some arbitrarily shaped mass by breaking it up into small parts and summing their individual contributions to g.

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Integral form of Newtons law of gravitation

Gdm g= L , S , or V r 2
Line, surface or volume dz dy dx

Depending on symmetry

g=
dV

G dV r2

g=

G dxdydz r2

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Consider the following: what is the gravitational attraction of a buried spherically symmetrical object?

Lets work through this on the board

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

What is the vertical component?

gV = g R cos

cos =

(x

z
2

+z

2 1/ 2

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

A symmetrical Earth holds no riddles for the geophysicist.

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

If the earth were this simple our study would be complete.

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Gravity methods thrive on heterogeneity. In general the objects we are interested in are not so symmetrical and provide us with considerable lateral density contrast and thus gravity anomalies.

How thick is the landfill?

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

How does g vary from A to E?

We might expect that the average density of materials in the landfill would be less than that of the surrounding bedrock and thus be an area of lower g
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Another variable for us to consider is the elevation at which our observations are made.

At present weve only accounted for variations in g as a function of elevation or distance from the center of the earth. But obviously we have further to go in terms of conceptualizing and developing the computations needed to understand and evaluate geological problems using measured gravitational fields.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

A hill will take us down the gravity ladder, but as we walk uphill, the mass beneath our feet adds to g.

How do we compensate for the influence of matter between the observation point (A) and sea level? How do we compensate for the irregularities in the earths surface - its topography?
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

What other effects do we need to consider?

Latitude effect

Centrifugal acceleration

463 meters/sec ~1000 mph

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Solar and Lunar tides

Instrument drift

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

To conceptualize the dependence of gravitational acceleration on various factors, we usually write g as a sum of different influences or contributions. These are -

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Terms
gn the normal gravity of the gravitational acceleration on the reference ellipsoid gFA the elevation or free air effect gB the Bouguer plate effect or the contribution to measured or observed g of the material between sealevel and the elevation of the observation point gT the effect of terrain on the observed g gTide and Drift the effects of tide and drift (often combined) These different terms can be combined into an expression which is equivalent to a prediction of what the acceleration should be at a particular point on the surface of a homogeneous earth.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Thus when all these factors are compensated for, or accounted for, the remaining anomaly is associated with lateral density contrasts within area of the survey.

The gravity anomaly = g obs gt

The geologist/geophysicist is then left with the task of interpreting/modeling the anomaly in terms of geologically reasonable configurations of subsurface intervals.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

The Theoretical Gravity

That predicted or estimated value of g is often referred to as the theoretical gravity - gt

= gt g n ( ) g FA + g B gt gTide + Drift
If the observed values of g behave according to this ideal model then there is no geology! - i.e. there is no lateral heterogeneity. The geology would be fairly uninteresting - a layer cake ... Well spend more time with these ideas, but in the next couple lectures we will develop a little better understanding of the individual terms in this expression.

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

Read general introduction from pages 349-355 and continue reading about gravity corrections through the top of page 373

Well carry on this discussion in greater detail next time. Make sure you continue reading chapter 6 in Burger et al. Well go over some of the basic ideas associated with the plate correction and the topographic (or terrain) correction. The basis for these two corrections are associated with the gravitational acceleration produced by a plate of finite thickness but infinite horizontal extent and by individual sectors from a ring of given thickness and width.
Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography

 Keep reading Chapter 6. Hand in the three intro gravity problems before leaving today Gravity papers are in the mail room! Start looking over problems 6.1 through 6.3

Tom Wilson, Department of Geology and Geography