Ákos Gyulai

A new procedure for the interpretation of VES data: 1.5-D simultaneous inversion method

In the paper the principles of a new inversion method as well as the results of its application are described by using synthetic and field VES data. The basic idea of the method says that the horizontal changes in the layer thicknesses and the resistivities of the 2-D geological structure can be described by (expanding in series) functions of one variable. The coefficients of the functions are determined from the VES data by simultaneous inversion method using a least-squares technique. The local thicknesses and the resistivities of the geological structure are calculated from the coefficients from point to point along the profile. Using this method, the equivalence can considerably be reduced, and by using the functions chosen on the basis of a priori knowledge, the whole geological model can be determined by this inversion method. In the inversion the local 1-D forward modelling is used and this approximation is often applied in the VES practice. To qualify the results of the inversion, the correlation matrix for the coefficients are calculated and the error values for the local model parameters are introduced.

On the application of combined geoelectric weighted inversion in environmental exploration

Geophysical surveying methods are of great importance in environmental exploration. Inversion-based data processing methods are applied for the determination of geometrical and physical parameters of the target model. The use of this geoelectric inversion method is advantageous in environmental research where highly reliable information with large spatial resolution is required. The 2D combined geoelectric inversion (CGI) method performs more accurate parameter estimation than conventional 1D single inversion methods by efficiently decreasing the number of unknowns of the inverse problem (single means that data sets of individual vertical electric sounding stations are inverted separately). The quality improvement in parameter space is demonstrated by comparing the traditional 1D inversion procedure with a 2D series expansion-based inversion technique. The CGI method was further developed by weighting individual direct current geoelectric data sets automatically in order to improve inversion results. The new algorithm was named combined geoelectric weighted inversion, which extracts the solution by a special weighted least squares technique. It is shown that the new inversion methodology is applicable to resolve near-surface structures such as rapidly varying layer boundaries, laterally inhomogeneous formations and pinch-outs.

In-mine geoelectric investigations for detecting tectonic disturbances in coal seam structures

The methods of in-mine seam-sounding and transillumination (geoelectric tomography) for the detection of tectonic disturbances of coal seams were developed by the Department of Geophysics of the University of Miskolc in the 1970–80’s with the effective support of the former “Borsod” Coal Mines Ltd.The paper gives an overview about the theory of seam-sounding and a special geoelectric tomographic inversion, and introduces the in-mine geoelectric seam-sounding and transillumination measurement systems using vertical electrode dipoles. In the second part the paper, the results of an in-mine geoelectric measurement are presented, which was carried out in order to detect tectonic disturbances of the Miocene aged coal seams situated in Slovakia. As results of the geophysical investigation, the authors forecasted the tectonic features in the coal seam. The company confirmed the results by independent information about seam disturbances and tectonic features arising from the excavation of the investigated area.

Geoelectric Characterization of Thermal Water Aquifers Using 2.5D Inversion of VES Measurements

This paper presents a short theoretical summary of the series expansion-based 2.5D combined geoelectric weighted inversion (CGWI) method and highlights the advantageous way with which the number of unknowns can be decreased due to the simultaneous characteristic of this inversion. 2.5D CGWI is an approximate inversion method for the determination of 3D structures, which uses the joint 2D forward modeling of dip and strike direction data. In the inversion procedure, the Steiner’s most frequent value method is applied to the automatic separation of dip and strike direction data and outliers. The workflow of inversion and its practical application are presented in the study. For conventional vertical electrical sounding (VES) measurements, this method can determine the parameters of complex structures more accurately than the single inversion method. Field data show that the 2.5D CGWI which was developed can determine the optimal location for drilling an exploratory thermal water prospecting well. The novelty of this research is that the measured VES data in dip and strike direction are jointly inverted by the 2.5D CGWI method.

Interpretation of IP Measurements Using an Inversion Based TAU-Transform Method

The paper presents the TAU-Transform of the Time-Domain IP curves and gives an approximate solution for TAU-transformation using inverse problem theory. A method for estimation of the type and the measure of soil contaminations will also be introduced. The determination of the contamination type (metallic or chemical) comes from the time constant spectra. The estimation of the soil contamination is based on the waited amplitude values of the time constant spectra. The application of the method is demonstrated in a contaminated industrial area in Hungary.