ELSEVIER Journal of Applied Geophysics 36 (1996) 131- 136

Calculation of gravity anomalies of 3D sources using drillhole

density data
Tapio Ruotoistenmiiki *

Geological Survey of Finland, Division of Regional Geophysics, Betoniraiehenkuja 4, SF-02150 Espoo, Finland
Received 1 March 1996; accepted 18 September 1996

Abstract

The method whereby the gravity anomaly of three-dimensional sources is calculated using a combination of analytical
and numerical integration can be generalized for models where the upper and lower surfaces of the source can vary
arbitrarily and its three-dimensional density variation is defined by vertical density polynomes fitted to the measured values
of the drillhole samples in the area. This method permits modelling of, for example, folded sources where the density varies
arbitrarily in three dimensions in the source region. At the first stage of interpretation, the density distribution between the
drillholes is determined as a weighted average of the surrounding drillhole densities. The difference between the measured
anomaly and the anomaly calculated from this density model can then be used to calculate new theoretical density
distributions for fictitious drillholes in the area between the real drillholes. One can use those points also for guiding the
location of future holes, for instance, in ore prospecting or oil drilling. By keeping the upper and lower surfaces constant and
by fitting new drillholes in the area, we can perform 'semi-geometric' modelling without making any a priori assumptions
concerning the geometry of the source. The method is equally well applicable to magnetic modelling.

Keywords: Geophysical methods; Gravity modelling;Drillholes;Density

1. Introduction interpration procedure namely the gravity modelling

of an impact crater in western Estonia. Richter et al.
When making detailed modelling of a gravity
(1990) describe an interactive 3D interpretation
source, the density information obtained from drill-
method using borehole and surface gravity data. As a
holes is essential. In the modelling work the varying
model they used a combination of 2.5D 'slices'
density values of the sources have been commonly
administrated by a data base and edited interactively.
averaged to give representative homogeneous values
Bachem et al. (1990) used a combination of 3D
of the various sub-sources. In modern interpretation
gravity modelling, borehole gravity data and seismic
programs the borders of the sub-sources have been
data in modelling salt diapirs in northern Germany.
generally defined as 2 - 3 dimensional polygons.
The above models consist of pre-defined submod-
Plado et al. (1996) described an example of this
els whose density is assumed to be homogeneous in
all directions. Moreover, if the modelling work is
* Tel.: + 358-0-46932301;fax: + 358-0-462205;Telex: 12 3185 used for guiding the drilling, it is relatively difficult
geolo SF. to sustain the models unmodified in the known drill-

0926-9851/96/$15.00 Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PII S0926-985 1(96)0005 1- 1
132 T. Ruotoistenmiiki / Journal of Applied Geophysics 36 (1996) 131-136
hole areas while modifying the source model(s) in
areas of unknown density. An ' i d e a l ' model would
be one, where the gravity anomalies could be calcu-
lated directly from the borehole density data. The
density between the holes is defined by weighted
averaging from the known values of the surrounding
holes. Then, if the measured and calculated anoma-
lies differ significantly at some points in the survey
area one could use the anomaly difference to define
there a 'theoretical' borehole density variation and
use those points also for guiding the location of
future holes.
In previous papers (Ruotoistenm~iki, 1992, 1993,
1994, 1995, 1996) I described methods for calculat-
ing gravity and magnetic anomalies using a combina-
tion of analytical and numerical integration. In the
most flexible model described the upper and lower
surfaces of the source can vary arbitrarily and the
density or susceptibility distribution between the sur-
faces is described by a polynomial function of the
vertical coordinate. Moreover, using a coefficient
function of horizontal coordinates we can simulate
the effect of regional metamorphosis.
Here, I generalize the model in such a way that
the vertical density polynomial can also be a func-
tion of horizontal coordinates. Using this model, we
can present density variations defined by existing
drillholes in the area. The upper and lower surfaces
of the source can vary freely as can the density
polynomials between them, for instance, when mod-
elling folded sources where the density is variable in
horizontal and vertical directions in various source
areas.
2. The method and theoretical examples
W e analyse density variations in a theoretical
source area x I - x 2, y~ - Y2 (see Fig. 1) with drilled
holes 1 - 6 in the figure. The drillholes should be
vertical. If they are not, they must be projected on a
vertical plane using the knowledge of the geological
dip in the area. W e define a normalized density
polynomial (Ruotoistenm~iki, 1994):
6z, ( z ' ) = A ' z '5 + B'z '4 4- C'z '3 4- D'z '2 4- E'z' + F'
between the upper ( z ' = 0) and lower surfaces ( z ' =
1). The algorithms for the anomaly calculation with
the density polynomial values derived for one drill-
hole, 'stretched or squeezed' between the surfaces,
are given in Ruotoistenm~iki, 1994.
For demonstration, the density variations in drill-
holes 1 - 6 of Fig. 1 are shown in Fig. 2. The open
circles are the 'measured' values and the solid cir-
cles define the fifth degree polynomial fitted (LSQ
fit) to them. In this case, the polynomial coefficients
are functions of horizontal coordinates:
6:,,~( z ' , x , y ) = a ' ( x , y ) z '5 + B'( x , y ) z '4
+ C ' ( x , y ) z '3 + O ' ( x , y ) z '2
+E'(x,y)z'+g'(x,y) (2)
The anomaly is calculated by numerical integra-
tion in x- and y - d i r e c t i o n s (Eq. (6) in
Ruotoistenm~iki, 1994). The coefficients A ' ( x , y) .....
F ' ( x , y ) at integrating point x , y are obtained by
weighted averaging from the coefficients of the
known drillhole polynomials. W e thus get the origi-
nal (polynomial) density distribution in the surround-
ings of the existing drillholes and their weighted
averages in the space between. The calculated coeffi-
cients can then be substituted in Eq. (1). Thus, when
calculating the anomaly, we have a continuously
4O
=.., 38
36
34
32
30
28
2°3°/
26
24
xl x2
22
20
10 12 14 16 18 20
x [kin]
Fig. 1. Anomaly calculation area. The sub-area x t - x 2, Yt - Y2
and the ellipse inside it define the horizontal cross-sections of the
theoretical anomaly sources described in the text. Circles 1-6
define the positions of drillholes in the area.
 T. Ruotoistenmiiki / Journal of Applied Geophysics 36 (1996) 131-136 133

variable density in the source depending on the 3. Prismatic model

density polynomials of the surrounding drillholes.
The variation in density can be controlled by the When surveying an area by drilling one often
choice of the weighting function (in this example assumes that the values of petrophysical parameters
inverse of distance). continue linearly between the holes. A density distri-

~
z' 0.0 z' 0.0
0.1 Polynorne 1 0.1 ynome 2

i,
0.2 0.2
0.3 0.3
0.,4 0.4
0.5 0.5
0.6 0.6
0.7 0.7
0.8 0.8
0.9 0.9
1.0 1.0 ' t , E i , , - ,

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 50 100 150 200 250 300
Density contrast [kg/m3] Density contrast [kg/m 3]

z' 0.O 0.0

0.1 0.1
0.2 0.2
0.3 0.3
0.4 0.4
0.5 0.5
0.6 0.6
0.7 0.7
0,8 0.8
0.9 0.9
1.0 , ~ , J , i , i , p , 1/ , 1.0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 50 100 150 200 250 300
3
Density contrast [kg/m 3] Density contrast [kg/m l

z' 0.0 z' 0.0

0.1 0.1
0.2 0.2
0.3 0.3
0.4 0.4
0.5 0.5
0.6 0.6
0.7 0.7
0.8 0.8
0.9 0.9
1.0 1.0 , d , i , r , i , i , i , i , T ,

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

Density contrast [kg/m 3] Density contrast [kg/m3]

Fig. 2. Density variations in drillholes 1-6 between the normalized depths of the upper (z' = 0) and lower surfaces (z' = 1). Open circles
refer to the 'measured' values and solid circles to the fifth degree LSQ polynomial fitted to measured values.
134 T. Ruotoistenmi~ki / Journal of Applied Geophysics 36 (1996) 131-136

4. Paraboloid model

i Fig. 4a depicts the upper and lower surfaces of a

paraboloid source. Its horizontal cross-section is
i given in Fig. l and vertical cross-section at point

points were given in two matrices and the values in

,~ ~ ~.~.~..~..~y~,. the integration points were calculated using linear
~ , ~ ~ interpolation. Here, the density polynomials l - 6 i n
Fig. 2 were defined as varying between the upper
i~ 5 ~ . . ~ ~ ~ and lower surfaces of the paraboloid (the background
-~ ' density was set to zero). Moreover, the damping

ii/ a :
Fig. 3. Anomaly (a) of the heterogeneous prismatic model, and its ~:~:~>~--~ ~ TT II1[ ¢ ~l!
cross-section at y= 35.5 (b). -

bution of this kind can be modelled by the polynomi-

als given in Eq. (2). The anomaly calculation is now
relatively simple, because we do not have to define
any complex geometries. For example, if we define
the upper and lower surfaces of the source between 0,! \ !
x I - x 2 and y ~ - y 2 in Fig. 1 as 10 m and 1.5 km,
respectively, and if we use the polynomial density
distributions given in Fig. 2 (density being zero
outside the area x ~ - x 2, Y ~ - Y 2 ) , we get the
anomaly and cross-section given in Fig. 3.
10 11 12 13 "[4 15 16 17 18 19 20
From Fig. 3, we see that the anomaly amplitude × [kin]
increases towards holes 5 and 6, the maximum being Fig. 4. Upper and lower surfaces (a) of the paraboloid source and
above hole 5, where the density of shallow sources its cross-section at v = 35.5 (b). Note, in (a) the surfaces have a
has its maximum. different vertical scale.
 T. Ruotoistenmiiki / Journal of Applied Geophysics 36 (1996) 131-136 135

effect of regional metamorphosis on density distribu-

tion was simulated by multiplying the anomaly am-
plitudes by x - y-dependent coefficients, shown in
Fig. 5. The anomaly of the paraboloid source was
also calculated using a homogeneous density contrast
(166.9 k g / m 3 ) , which is the integrated average of
the polynomials shown in Fig. 2. The calculated
anomalies and cross-sections at y = 35.5 of the ho-
mogeneous and heterogeneous sources are shown in
Figs. 6 and 7.
When comparing the anomalies in the figures we
see that the amplitude of the homogeneous source is
higher, because in the polynomial density distribu-
tions the main mass is concentrated on the deeper
half of the source. The anomaly of the homogeneous
source is symmetric, but that of the heterogeneous
source is not, which is due to regional effect and the
increase in shallow densities towards drillholes 5 and 5.0
6. When we compare the anomalies of the prismatic 4.5
source in Fig. 3 and that of the heterogeneous 4.0
paraboloid in Fig. 7 we see that the amplitude maxi- 3.5
3.0
mum of the prismatic source is close to drillhole 5 o
~ 2.5
because of the effect of dense shallow sources. How- 2.0
ever, for the paraboloid model the maximum is 1.5
closer to drillhole 6 because of the more effective 1.0
0.5
0"C10 1'1 lj2 ll3 1'4 1~5 1~6 1~7 1~8 1'9 210
x [km]
Fig. 6. Anomaly (a) of the homogeneousparaboloid source and its
cross-section at 3'= 35.5 (b).

combination of source thickness and shallow high

densities.

5. Conclusions

The vertical density polynomials fitted to mea-

Fig. 5. Amplitude coefficient matrix of the paraboloid model,
representing the effect of regional metamorphosis.
sured drillhole data can be used for modelling three-
dimensional density distributions of sources with
variable upper and lower surfaces. In its most com-
plicated form, the method can be used for calculating
very complex source anomalies where the upper and
lower surfaces and density vary arbitrarily, for in-
stance, in folded sources, meteorite impact craters or
heterogeneous intrusions where the density varies in
x-, y- and z-directions. The densities and surface
depths can first be defined from existing drillholes
136 72 Ruotoistenmiiki / Journal of Applied Geophysics 36 (1996) 131-136

fitted to the measured values. In general this is

justified while the low degree variations in density
affect mainly on the anomaly and the effect of sharp
variations is smoothed by the effect of the distance
between the source and measuring point. However, if
strong and sharp regional density discontinuities oc-
cur, such as in contact zones of very different rock
types, we must use a combination of sub-sources
where the internal density variations can be modelled
separately with the drillhole model described above.
The method was applied above for gravity mod-
elling. It is, however, also applicable for magnetic
modelling using the algorithms given in Ruotoist-
enm~iki, 1993. We can, for example, define vertical
susceptibility distributions and also vary their direc-
tions as functions of x,y, z-coordinates.

2025t
1.5 \,\
References
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