Tectonics of the Solomon Sea Basin from Vertical Gravity Gradient and Seismic Data

The Solomon Sea Basin is a Cenozoic back-arc spreading basin within the convergence system of the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates.Against the background of subduction polarity reversal,the current Solomon Sea Basin gradually formed a rhombic morphology with the subduction of the basin along the New Britain Trench and the Trobriand Trough.By analyzing the vertical gravity gradient,natural earthquake and seismic reflection data,this study determines the structural characteristics of the Solomon Sea Basin.It was found that the tectonics of the basin are characterized by the original expansion structure within the central part in addition to the structure induced by the latest subduction along the basin margin.The original spreading structure of the basin presented an east–west linear graben and horst controlled by normal faults during the basin expansion period.As a result of the subduction and slab-pull of the Solomon Sea Basin,extensional structure belts parallel to the New Britain Trench formed along the basin margin.

Bathymetry predicted from vertical gravity gradient anomalies and ship soundings

In this paper, the admittance function between seafloor undulations and vertical gravity gradient anomalies was derived. Based on this admittance function, the bathymetry model of 1 minute resolution was predicted from vertical gravity gradient anomalies and ship soundings in the experimental area from the northwest Pacific. The accuracy of the model is evaluated using ship soundings and existing models, including ETOPO1, GEBCO, DTU10 and V15.1 from SIO. The model＇s STD is 69. 481m, comparable with V15.1 which is generally believed to have the highest accuracy.

Joint inversion of gravity and vertical gradient data based on modified structural similarity index for the structural and petrophysical consistency constraint

Joint inversion is one of the most effective methods for reducing non-uniqueness for geophysical inversion.The current joint inversion methods can be divided into the structural consistency constraint and petrophysical consistency constraint methods,which are mutually independent.Currently,there is a need for joint inversion methods that can comprehensively consider the structural consistency constraints and petrophysical consistency constraints.This paper develops the structural similarity index(SSIM)as a new structural and petrophysical consistency constraint for the joint inversion of gravity and vertical gradient data.The SSIM constraint is in the form of a fraction,which may have analytical singularities.Therefore,converting the fractional form to the subtractive form can solve the problem of analytic singularity and finally form a modified structural consistency index of the joint inversion,which enhances the stability of the SSIM constraint applied to the joint inversion.Compared to the reconstructed results from the cross-gradient inversion,the proposed method presents good performance and stability.The SSIM algorithm is a new joint inversion method for petrophysical and structural constraints.It can promote the consistency of the recovered models from the distribution and the structure of the physical property values.Then,applications to synthetic data illustrate that the algorithm proposed in this paper can well process the synthetic data and acquire good reconstructed results.

An Expression for Gravity Generated by an Anomalous Geological Body and Its Application in Bathymetry Inversion

The gravity anomaly and vertical gravity gradient due to anomalous geological bodies are mainly computed by numerical methods,so it is difficult and time-consuming to use the gravity-geological method to invert seafloor topography.This paper addresses this issue by deriving an expression for gravity generated by a cylinder based on a series expansion.The choice of number for terms in the series is estimated by comparing with the numerical method,especially when the depth H=4000m,the accuracy of 1 mGal(1 Gal=10^(-2)m/s^(2))can be achieved when the series are 9.The expressions can be used to establish the relationships between the shape of an anomalous body and the generated vertical gravity and vertical gravity gradient,respectively.Finally,the potential applications of the expressions in inverting seafloor topography are illustrated by synthetic examples.