Downward Continuation of Bouguer Gravity Anomalies and Residual Aeromagnetic Anomalies by Means of Finite Differences

Abstract

The depths to buried bodies, characterized by anomalous gravity and magnetic properties, are determined by a combination of two numerical techniques. An upward continuation integral is solved by a method by Paul and Nagy using elemental squares and low order polynomials to describe the behavior of the gravity or magnetic data between observed data points. Downward continuation of the magnetic or gravity data is done by a finite difference technique as described by Bullard and Cooper. The applicability of the techniques are determined by comparison to depths determined by other means over the same anomalies and by comparison to various rule-of-thumb methods prevalent in the geophysical literature. The relative speed and cost of the particular computer system used is also considered in the applicability. The results show that although the initial costs of the computer program are high, the combined technique is as good as and at times better than the rule-of-thumb methods in determining the depth to the anomaly-causing body and is useful when more than just an approximate depth is of interest.