5th Conference & Exposition on Petroleum Geophysics, Hyderabad-2004, India PP 975-979

Interpretation of Gravity Anomaly Over Symmetric Sedimentary Basin using the Walsh Transform
Saumen Maiti and R.K.Tiwari
National Geophysical Research Institute, Uppal Road, Hyderabad
ABSTRACT: A novel method based on Walsh function theory is developed for rapid computation of gravity anomaly over symmetric sedimentary basin. For the computation the initial model assumes that depth of symmetric basin vary exponentially toward the center along the profile. Walsh integral transform is used to construct the layered basin boundary structures using the exponential relation of the form of h=ex where h and x denote the depth and length of profile respectively. The binary waveform like Walsh function renders a more appropriate and natural representation of step-wise faulted sedimentary configuration. This procedure also facilitates fast convergence of the theoretically computed and observed gravity anomaly. The practical utility of the proposed method is demonstrated on synthetic gravity data as well as on field data obtained from East Slovakian Outer Carpathians sedimentary basin.

INTRODUCTION The main objective of gravity survey over a layered sedimentary basin is to configure and delineate the shape and nature of fractal basin boundary. In general layered sedimentary basins are associated with low gravity values due to low-density sediment fill (Athy, 1930; Howell et al., 1966). For the interpretation of gravity anomaly generally slab model is used as an initial model. The basin configuration can then be calculated from the gravity data in terms of estimated depth, and for a given depth model. The agreement between theoretical and residual gravity anomaly can be taken for granted, whereas the ambiguity rests with the fidelity of depth model itself. In this paper, we present a method to construct the fractal sedimentary basin boundary using Walsh transform techniques. THEORIES AND METHODOLOGY Walsh transform Walsh functions are a complete set of orthogonal rectangular function taking only the two values +1 and 1 within the range between 0 and 1. If we have a discrete series of numbers: x0, x1,, xN-1 which we assume spans the range 0-1 and where N is a power of two, these can be expressed as sum of N Walsh functions so that
N 1 xt = ajWALj ( xt ) j =0
N 1 WALi ( xt )WALj ( xt ) = Nij t =0

So that we can multiply both sides of above eq.(1) by WALi (xt ) and sum over t to find that
N 1 aj = 1 / N xtWALj ( xt ) t =0

(3)

j=0,.,N-1.Direct and inverse Walsh transform are identical (except for the normalization) because of symmetry of Hadamard matrix of Walsh functions. This Walsh transform is correct, formally but it is computationally slow when a large number of data points are analyzed since, there are N 2 operations (additions and subtractions) required .By suitable manipulation this can be reduced to Nlog2N operations by means of a Fast Walsh transform (FWT). Integration of Walsh functions The integral of Walsh functions can be expressed by a series
x WALn( x)dx = En(m)WALm( x) m =0 0

(4)

Where the En(m ) are given by table (I). Using table(I) I can write 8 th term approximation of Walsh integral equations within the range 0 x 1.
x I 0( x) = WAL0( x) = 0.5WAL 0( x) 0.25WAL1( x) 0.125WAL3( x) 0.0625WAL 7( x) 0

(5) (6) (7) (8)

(1)

x I1( x) = WAL1( x) = 0.25WAL0( x) 0.125WAL 2( x) 0.0625WAL 6( x) 0

x I 2 ( x ) = WAL 2 ( x ) = 0 . 125 WAL 1( x ) 0 . 0625 WAL 5 ( x ) 0
x I 3 ( x ) = WAL 3 ( x ) = 0 . 125 WAL 0 ( x ) 0 . 0625 WAL 4 ( x ) 0

Because Walsh functions are orthogonal we can write, (2)

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Interpretation of Gravity Anomaly Over Symmetric Sedimentary

Table I : Coefficients For Integrating Walsh Functions En (M)

m= n= 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0
1 2

1
1 4

2 0
1 8

3
1 8

4 0 0 0
1 16

5 0 0

6 0
1 16

7
1 16

1 4

0
1 8

0 0 0
1 6

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0
1 8

0 0 0
1 16

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0
1 16

0 0 0
1 16

0 0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0

x I 4 ( x ) = WAL 4 ( x ) = 0 . 0625 WAL 3 ( x ) 0

(9)
Start

x I 5 ( x ) = WAL 5 ( x ) = 0 . 0625 WAL 2 ( x ) 0 x I 6 ( x ) = WAL 6 ( x ) = 0 . 0625 WAL 1( x ) 0

x I 7 ( x ) = WAL 7 ( x ) = 0 . 0625 WAL 0 ( x ) 0

(10) (11) (12)

Continuous function discretisation in an interval between 0 and 1 Consider initial model

The above equations will be used to solve the differential equation, which is applied to construct sedimentary basin boundary. The total methodology can be shown as Flow diagram in Fig.1. Determination of depth to basement The work of Roy (1962) paved the way for finding the depth to the basement at isolated points in a basin where the observed gravity data indicated existence of a subsurface feature of known geometry. The maximum depth of the sedimentary basin can be calculated using the slab model formula as, 2Ghmax=gmax, (13)
No

Direct Fast Walsh transform of the discretised Data

Solve differential equation using Walsh transform

Generation of fina model l

Error=Initial mod l-Final model

if the maximum residual gravity anomaly and effective density contrast of sedimentary basin and basement are known. where, G = Universal gravitational constant, =effective density contrast between sediments and basement(in g/cc)., hmax is the maximum depth of the basin(in Km). gmax,, is the maximum residual gravity anomaly(m Gal).

Permissible

Yes

Figure 1: Flow Chart of methodology

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Interpretation of Gravity Anomaly Over Symmetric Sedimentary

First of all, the method is tested with synthetic data then it has been applied to field gravity data. EXAMPLES Synthetic example Prior to applying the proposed method on actual field data, the applicability of the method is tested on the synthetic gravity data. For sedimentary basin having effective density contrast of 0.3195g/c.c with respect to the basement and maximum depth 718km,is shown in figure 2. Synthetic gravity anomaly value is calculated along a 2km profile at an interval of 0.125 Km. To construct the basin boundary let us take a simple linear equation ,h=ex where h=depth and x= distance along profile which is solved by Walsh transform techniques as follows: To show the techniques,
( x 1)

of the equation is h=e x .The Walsh function solution consist of recasting eq.(14) into discritized state space, from where we can write, h1h and h2 dx . So the eq.(14) can be written as
dh1 = h 2 ....................(15) dx
dh

and

dh 2 = h1 .................. (16) The boundary dx

conditions are: h1=1and h2=1 at x=0. Applying boundary conditions the eq (15) and eq(16) can be written in integral form as,
x h 1 ( x ) = 1 + h 2 dx 0 x h 2 ( x ) = 1 + h 1 dx 0

(17) (18)

The Walsh transform technique is used to evaluate the above integrals. To convert the integral equation in finite series the integral representations of Walsh function will be used. We are taking 8-fold discretization, let us take h2=(1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1); Then, h2dx = WAL0( x)dx =
0
0

However the function f(x)=x is discretized over eight-two fold interval as f(x) 8 , 8 , 8 ,............................. 8 ;
1 2 3 8

x WALLo( x) = x 0

Let us consider the linear equation

dh h = 0 dx

.....(14), in the interval 0x1,

dh =1 dx

x h 2 dx the second iteration h1=1+ = 0

8 1 2 3 , , ,......... .......... .......... ; 8 8 8 8

for

16 9 10 11 ,......... .......... .......... , ; , 8 8 8 8

the boundary conditions are

and h=1 at x=0. The solution

Then,h 1 =1.5625WAL 0 (x)-0.25WAL 1 (x)-0.125WAL 2 (x)0.0625WAL7(x)

G R A V IT Y P R O F I L E (K

-0.8 0

-0.4

GRAVITY ANOMALY (mGAL)

-5

-10

-15

-20

-25 -0.8 -0.4 0

Figure 2: Construction of eighth layer sedimentary basin boundary, assuming effective density contrast with basement is 0.3195g/c.c and maximum depth is 1.718km, maximum residual gravity anomaly is 23m gal. Continuous graph shows synthetic gravity anomaly and stair-step graph shows the basin bottom boundary based on Walsh transform.

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Interpretation of Gravity Anomaly Over Symmetric Sedimentary

Now, 0.125
x WAL 2 ( x ) dx 0

=1.5625
x 0

x WAL 0 ( x ) dx 0

- 0.25

x WAL 1( x ) dx 0

-0.0625 WAL7( x)dx . Each of the above

integral can be converted to finite series using the equations (5-12). Finally we got h1dx =(0.1524,0.331,0.4650,0.677, 0 0.872,1.050,1.308,1.518). Then according to eq (18), h2=(1.1524, 1.331, 1.465, 1.677, 1.872, 2.052,2.308,2.508)
x x x h 2 dx Now, =1.7957 WAL0( x)dx -0.3894 WAL ( x)dx x x 0 0 x 0 WAL ( x)dx -0.1939 WAL ( x)dx + 0.0067 WAL 4 ( x)dx +0.02920 x x 0 0 0 x 0.0017 WAL5( x)dx - 0.0013 WAL ( x)dx -0.0963 WAL7( x)dx 0 0 0
1
2

=(0.0719,0.227,0.4023,0.5987,0.8205,1.0657,1.3371.6385). Then according to eq. (17), h 1=(1.0719,1.227, 1.4023, 1.5987, 1.8205,2.0657,2.337,2.6385); The iteration process is continued until successive iterations produced identical results to the requisite number of decimal places. The satisfactory results are h=(1.0665,1.2089,1.3703,1.5531,1.7601, 1.9949, 2.2611, 2.5627). This method can be extendable at negative side of the x-axis (x= 0) to construct the total symmetric basin boundary, which is presented in Fig. 2 as synthetic result. Field example Here we apply the above procedure to demonstrate the practical utility of the proposed method. In order to

Figure 3: Gravity low along the profile AA caused by lower Oligocene Malcov beds lying on Eocene and Paleocene flysch rocks of the Magura nappe of East Slovakian Outer Carpathians.

construct the basin boundary, we have selected a gravity profile over small symmetric sedimentary basin formed by slightly deformed porous Lower Oligocene Malcov beds (Krosno facies) lie on strongly deformed Eocene and Paleocene flysch rocks of the Magura nappe of the East Slovakian Outer Carpathians. One such basin produced residual gravity anomaly low of order of 2.5mgal. A 5 km profile AA, is displayed in Figure3 (middle). The bottom boundary of the small sedimentary basin is constructed using the proposed method as shown in Fig. 4. Clearly Figure 4 shows a natural basin structure.

GR AVITY PR OFILE ALONG

-0.8
GRAVITY ANOMALY ( Km)

-0.4

0 -1 -2 -3 -0.8 -0.4 0

Figure 4: Construction of eighth layer sedimentary basin boundary, over the profile AA caused by lower Oligocene Malcov beds lying on Eocene and Paleocene flysch rocks of the Magura nappe of East Slovakian Outer Carpathians. This basin produced maximum residual gravity anomaly 2.5mGal,assuming depth 1.718km.The effective density contrast obtained 0.035 g/cc through slab formula. Continuous graph shows actual gravity anomaly and stair-step graph shows the basin bottom boundary based on Walsh transform.

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Interpretation of Gravity Anomaly Over Symmetric Sedimentary

CONCLUSION The aim of this work was to propose a new and efficient method for the fast interpretation of gravity anomaly over the symmetrical sedimentary basin. The applications of the method provide good result over synthetic as well as on field data. For the computational point of view the proposed method based on Walsh Transform is quite fast in comparism with other traditional methods. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are thankful to the director, Dr.V.P.Dimri, National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad for his motivation and his permission to publish this work. We are also thankful to Mrs. S. Srilakshmi for preparing the manuscript. REFERENCES
Athy.L.F.,1930.Density, porosity and compaction of sedimentary rocks:Bull.Assoc.Pet.Geol.,14,1-24 Bhaskara, Rao, D., 1986.Modelling of sedimentary basins from gravity anomalies with variable density contrast: Geophys. J. Roy.Astr.Soc.,84, 207-221 Bhaskara, Rao, D., 1990. Analysis of gravity anomalies of sedimentary basins by an asymmetrical trapezoidal model with quadratic density function: Geophysics, 55,226-231

Bott, M.H.P., 1960. The use of rapid digital computing methods for direct gravity interpretation of sedimentary basins: Geophys.J.R.Astro.Soc.,3,63-67 Beauchamp, K.G., 1975, Walsh functions and their applications: academic Press, Inc., 236 Chai,Y.and Hinze,W.J.,1988.Gravity inversion of an interface above which the density contrast varies exponentially with depth:Geophysics,53,837-845 Cordell,L.,1973.Gravity analysis using an exponential density-depth function-San Jacinto Graben: California. Geophysics, 38,684-690 Fournier, M., and Krupicka,S.F., 1975. A new approximate method for directly interpreting gravity anomaly profile caused by surface geologic structure: Geophys. Prosp., v 23, p 80-92 Litinsky,V.A.,1989.Concept of effective density: Key to gravity depth determinations for sedimentary basins:Geophysics,54,1474-1482 M.S. Corrington and R.N.Adams, Application of Walsh functions to nonlinear analysis, Rome Air development center Griffiss Air Force base, N.Y.,Contract AF30(602)2484 Rep AD-227-942,Apr.1962. Topter, K. D., 1977, Improved technique for rapid interpretation gravity anomalies caused by two-dimensional sedimentary basins :Geophys.,v.43,p. 645-654 Walsh, J.L., 1923, A closed set of orthogonal functions: Am. Journ. Math.v.45 p.5-24.

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