INTERPRETATION OF MAGNETOTELLURIC RESISTIVITY AND PHASE SOUNDINGS OVER HORIZONTAL LAYERS

1 February 1976

journal article
Published by Society of Exploration Geophysicists in Geophysics

Vol. 41 (1) , 96-105
https://doi.org/10.1190/1.1440610

Abstract

The present paper deals with a new inverse method for quantitatively interpreting magnetotelluric apparent resistivity and phase‐lag sounding curves over horizontally stratified earth sections. The recurrent character of the general formula relating the wave impedance of an (n−1)‐layered medium to that of an n‐layered medium suggests the use of the method of reduction to a lower boundary plane, as originally termed by Koefoed in the case of dc resistivity soundings. The layering parameters are so directly derived by a simple iterative procedure. The method is applicable for any number of layers but only when both apparent resistivity and phase‐lag sounding curves are jointly available. Moreover no sophisticated algorithm is required: a simple desk electronic calculator together with a sheet of two‐layer apparent resistivity and phase‐lag master curves are sufficient to reproduce earth sections which, in the range of equivalence, are all consistent with field data.

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