Delineating Geothermal Structure from 3D Joint Inversion of MT and Gravity Data

Abstract

Summary We have implemented 3D faults as discontinuity surfaces, of finite extent, in the regularization step of our non-linear inversion engine (RLM-3D), for both single domain and cross-gradient joint inversion cases, and applied this for geothermal magnetotellurics (MT) and gravity inversion models: firstly for a synthetic graben case, and then on data from Sorik Marapi, a geothermal field located on the Great Sumatran Fault. Through integrated, quantitative modeling of multiple geophysical data types over geothermal fields, now including faults as sharp discontinuities, we facilitate geologically and structurally reliable multi-property 3D earth models that consistently explain the observations of available geophysical datasets.