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Using the pseudo-gravity functional transform to enhance deep-magnetic sources and enrich
regional gravity data
Stefano Panepinto*, Luciana De Luca, Marco Mantovani, and Maurizio Sfolciaghi, Schlumberger; Bruno
Garcea, Edison
Summary
Magnetic anomalies are difficult to analyze and interpret
because they are not always located in the vertical direction
of the perturbing bodies. Depending on the parameters of
the geomagnetic field, the shape of the anomalies cannot be
uniquely related to a given source. The complexity of the
magnetic field and of its anomaly-to-lithology relationship
often complicates interpretation. The amplitude of the
anomalies is dominated by the magnetic bodies that are
present in the shallowest geologic structures. This dominant
influence of shallow geologic bodies makes the detection of
the deeper geological sources, which contribute to the
medium and long period components of the observed
magnetic signal, difficult. Conventional filtering methods
smear out the shallow sources and are not capable of
separating the lower amplitude magnetic anomalies
associated with the deeper magnetic source rocks.

and more focused and reliable interpretations, the intrinsic

nonuniqueness principle of any geophysical solution must
be considered and minimized. All of these interpretations
are equally probable without any further geological and/or
geophysical information.
Potential field methods are historically the first seismic
partner to build an integrated earth model with
independent geophysical information. Furthermore,
considering aeromagnetic surveys as a primary tool for
providing uniform coverage of a geophysical parameter
over large areas, the proposed approach is of primary
interest in processing and interpreting potential field data.
The following application consists of enhancing existing
vintage data sets by using the PSG transform to enrich
the available regional Bouguer anomaly map.

Poissons theorem relates linearly the derivative of the

gravity taken along the total magnetization vector direction
and the magnetic potential due to a common, isolated
source with constant density and magnetization
distributions. From this theorem, two very useful functional
transformations for magnetic anomalies, the reduction-topole (RTP) and the pseudo-gravity (PSG) vertical
integration, were formulated by Baranov.

The aeromagnetic and regional gravity data were provided

by Edison. The two data sets were used for the functional
transformation of geo-potential field data. The first data
set is a magnetic-data grid recovered from an analog
anomaly map. After correcting the measurements for the
temporal variations of the magnetic field, the TMI anomaly
was produced by subtracting the theoretical geomagnetic
field or international geomagnetic reference field (IGRF)
(see Figure 1).

In this paper, a procedure to simplify the complex

information of the original magnetic data is described,
which consists of deriving a PSG map on which the
amplitude of the displayed function is directly and simply
related to a physical property of the underlying rocks. The
Pseudo-Gravity transform is the vertical integration of the
total magnetic intensity (TMI) grid data and uses
conventional FFT tools to relate the anomalies to the
vertical of the sources. The procedure was applied to a real
data set and used also to enrich the low resolution of
regional gravity data available for the studied area. The
PSG transform demonstrates its excellent characteristics as
an interpretation tool for the detection of deep-magnetic
sources. Finally, the transformed PSG data set was modeled
using conventional 3D modeling and inversion methods
that gave a useful marker for the interpretation.

Figure 1: TMI derived by computing geomagnetic elements. The

area of interest (AOI) scale is displayed by the black box.

Introduction
The most consolidated geophysical methodology for
reservoir modelling in the oil and gas industry is seismic.
Even though modern 3D acquisition techniques make more

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The second data set is the complete Bouguer anomaly map

obtained by using a reduction density of 2.67 g/cm3 (Figure
2). Because the data sets involve a not fully explored area
of interest (AOI) in the following discussion, any
geographical, positioning, or geologic references are
intentionally omitted.

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aim of merging all of the available information for

producing a reliable interpretation of the basement relief.
PSG functional transform: theory and results

Figure 2: Bouguer anomaly map showing mostly regional features.

The black box highlights the AOI. Please note that Figure1 and 2
are not at the same scale.

Figure 2 clearly shows that the Bouguer anomaly map has

only regional characteristics and no feature at the scale of
the survey area is usable to assist in the local geologic
interpretation. However, the Bouguer anomaly was used to
scale the dynamics of the PSG result and to produce an
enriched gravity image.
Also, a seismic line and a well density log are available to
conduct a multiparametric study of the AOI (Figure 3).

The PSG transform is an old method that has received little

attention in practical exploration problems with few
applications in real data. The PSG transform has interesting
characteristics that reduce the dominance of the shallow
magnetic sources and enhances the amplitude of magnetic
anomalies from deeper magnetic source rocks (Pratt and
Shi, 2004). Some references about this methodology clearly
indicate the PSG transform can be a more useful tool than
the RTP (Baronov, 1957; Fedi, 1989; Blakely, 1995).
Indeed, the PSG integration, in contrast to the RTP,
provides a smoothing of the anomaly map, highlighting the
deep-source contribution and reduces the degree of
nonlinearity existing in the mathematical relationship
between the data and the source depth (Fedi, 1989). Thus,
accurate estimates of the geometric parameters of the
unknown source can be more easily and rapidly calculated
by the transformed pseudo-anomalies.
For a complete discussion of the theory on which the PSG
integration and the RTP are based, readers are referred to
Baronov (1957). Here, only a brief description of the
applied methodology is given.
The PSG transformation follows from Poissons relation
between the magnetic potential and the gravitational field.
Considering a body with uniform magnetization and
density occupying a volume v,
the magnetic scalar potential is:

V ( p) M p

1
dv
d

(1)

where p is the observation point and d the distance from p.

The gravitational potential is:
1
U ( p) G
dv
(2)
v d

Figure 3: Poststack vintage migration seismic line

To locate and outline crustal magnetic sources that could be

interpreted as basement relief, the following PSG transform
(Baronov, 1957-1975) is applied to the magnetic data. By
using the PSG transform, the apex of the magnetic
anomalies is shifted over the source body and the distortion
due to the earths magnetic field can easily be removed. As
the magnetic anomalies very rarely are centered above their
source, the proposed procedure is intended to simplify the
interpretation of magnetic data by treating magnetization in
the same way as density. The following procedure has the

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where G is the gravitational constant and r the density.

Combining Equation 1 and Equation 2 leads to the
following:
1
1
V ( p)
M p U
MgM
(3)
G
G
by Poissons relation gM is the component of gravity in the
direction of magnetization. Thus, pseudo-gravity is defined
as the gravity anomaly that would be observed if the
magnetization distribution were replaced by an identical
density distribution, i.e. /M is a constant. However, one
can consider a body to be composed of arbitrarily small

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volumes in which density and magnetization can be

regarded as constant. Since potential sums, the equation (3)
applies to a body which density and magnetization vary in
proportion. Because the method uses an integration of the
total magnetic field grid, which produces strong edge
effects beyond the boundaries of the survey area, a 10% of
data grid extension was applied.
The spectral analysis of the extended magnetic data set was
thus performed by computing the radially averaged power
spectrum (RAPS). The RAPS characterization (Figure 4)
allows us to consider three different terms: i) long term; ii)
intermediate term; and iii) short term.

F( )

G M

sinI a i cosI cosD 2 r

if I a I , I a I

,
(4)

Where:
I = geomagnetic inclination
Ia = inclination for amplitude correction (never less than I).
= density contrast in g/cm3
G = gravitational constant
M = magnetization in Gauss
D = geomagnetic declination
= direction of wavenumber in degrees azimuth
r = wavenumber (radians/ground-unit).
The denominator of Equation 4 is used to calculate the
magnetic potential by a reduction of the magnetic pole
and vertical integration, while the numerator converts
magnetic potential to PSG.
Figure 5 shows the PSG result. The dynamic range of the
short-wavelength features that is evident in the TMI image
(Figure1) is much lower in the PSG image.

Figure 4: The computed RAPS using a 10% extension for the

magnetic data set. Each term revealed by the spectral analysis is
related to a different depth source (see text for more explanation).

Each of these terms is linked to a different depth of the

causative sources. Depending on the survey scale and
geological setting of the area, the long-term interval ranges
from kilometers to tens of kilometers, the intermediate-term
interval from hundreds of meters to some kilometers, and
the short-term interval from tens of meters to kilometers
scale.
Using the results of the spectral analysis, a filtering test was
performed and the best filter option was tuned to reduce the
high-amplitude long wavelengths anomalies using a cutoff
at the 36 km. These last anomalies are mainly due to the
10% data padding, and the effects that would dominate the
PSG transform were filtered out before the vertical data
integration.
The pseudo-gravity transform was applied to the filtered
total magnetic intensity grid using FFT. The general
expression for the PSG filter includes both a reduction to
the magnetic pole and vertical integration (Blakely, 1995):

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Figure 5: PSG result coupled with a high-pass filter to cut out the
long-wavelength term. The color bar is intentionally omitted.

The obtained PSG grid can be modelled using conventional

3D modelling and inversion methods, where the density is
considered through the Poissons theorem as a pseudodensity defined by the relationship:

kM
G

(5)

where * is the pseudo-density contrast, k is magnetic

susceptibility, M is the total magnetic field intensity and G
is the universal gravitational constant. This relationship
assumes that the magnetization is induced and no
remanence is present.

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To provide a reasonable marker for the seismic

interpretation, an inversion test of the PSG anomaly grid
has been executed by using the Parkers algorithm (Parker,
1972; Oldenburg, 1974). Because the entire AOI is
probably characterized by a complex density distribution,
the inversion test was applied to a smaller area than the
available one to be able to consider a homogeneous density
contrast at the inverted interface (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Selected area for the inversion experiment.

A possible source for magnetic field is identified by the

Parker algorithm at a depth of approximately 6500 m.

Conclusions
The anomalies deduced from the pseudo-transform are not
density related; i.e., they are still magnetic anomalies,
computed on the assumption that the magnetization vector
is vertical. The process does not imply that the distribution
of magnetism in the Earth is necessarily related to the
density distribution. The essential fact is that the deduced
anomalies are as simple as Bouguer anomalies. The
anomalies are located on the vertical of the magnetized
masses and do not depend on the inclination of the normal
field nor on the direction of the magnetization. The PSG
functional transformation is useful in interpreting magnetic
anomalies, not because a mass distribution actually
corresponds to the magnetic distribution beneath the
magnetic survey, but because gravity anomalies are easier
to interpret and quantify than magnetic anomalies. The
PSG transform enhances the anomalies associated with
deep-magnetic sources at the expense of the dominating
shallow-magnetic sources as shown in Figure 5.
Finally, as demonstrated by the inversion experiment, the
PSG transform is an excellent interpretation tool for the
detection of deep-magnetic sources and allows the PSG
data to be modeled by conventional 3D modeling methods
that provide valuable results.
At the resolution of the magnetic data, the method
presented provides an excellent tie with available 2D
seismic, and allows for some extrapolation of the identified
formation in the 3D sense where no seismic exists.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge Edison for permission to
use the aeromagnetic and gravity data and to publish the
results of this research.

Figure 7: The blue curve is a legacy interpretation, while the red

curve is Parker algorithm inversion result.

The amplitude and wavelength of the inverted surface

appears to approximately match a sharp boundary existing
in the 2D seismic line (Figures 3 and 7). This may provide
a reasonable marker for interpreting the observed magnetic
data and the geological source of the dominating field.

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EDITED REFERENCES
Note: This reference list is a copy-edited version of the reference list submitted by the author. Reference lists for the 2014
SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts have been copy edited so that references provided with the online metadata for
each paper will achieve a high degree of linking to cited sources that appear on the Web.
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