3-D
Gravity modeling of basins with vertical prisms: Application to Salt Lake region
(Turkey)
Oya
Tarhan Bal1* and Ibrahim Kara1
1Istanbul
University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Geophysical Engineering, 34320,
Avcilar, Istanbul, Turkey
(*tarhan@istanbul.edu.tr)
(Received
25 December 2010; accepted 06 December 2011)
Abstract: A novel 3D modeling method for interpreting gravity
maps over sedimentary basins was successfully applied on synthetic data as well
as real data from
Salt Lake
,
Turkey
. This method utilizes 3D prisms rather than 2D ones and an optimization
technique for the estimation of the block thickness. The
Salt
Lake
sedimentary basin is represented with a series of juxtaposed prisms that
exhibit parabolic density contrast and different depth to the bottom of the
prism. By fitting a parabolic density contrast function on well log data from
the same region, we determined the parameters of this function, in order to
interpret the gravity data from
Salt
Lake
. The 3D gravity modeling provided depths to the bottom of the basin by
minimizing the difference between calculated and observed gravity data. A depth
map of the
Salt
Lake
Basin
indicates that the thickness of this sedimentary basin reaches a maximum depth
of approximately 7 km.