Juanjo Ledo

2-D Versus 3-D Magnetotelluric Data Interpretation

In recent years, the number of publications dealing with the mathematical and physical 3-D aspects of the magnetotelluric method has increased drastically. However, field experiments on a grid are often impractical and surveys are frequently restricted to single or widely separated profiles. So, in many cases we find ourselves with the following question: is the applicability of the 2-D hypothesis valid to extract geoelectric and geological information from real 3-D environments? The aim of this paper is to explore a few instructive but general situations to understand the basics of a 2-D interpretation of 3-D magnetotelluric data and to determine which data subset (TE-mode or TM-mode) is best for obtaining the electrical conductivity distribution of the subsurface using 2-D techniques. A review of the mathematical and physical fundamentals of the electromagnetic fields generated by a simple 3-D structure allows us to prioritise the choice of modes in a 2-D interpretation of responses influenced by 3-D structures. This analysis is corroborated by numerical results from synthetic models and by real data acquired by other authors. One important result of this analysis is that the mode most unaffected by 3-D effects depends on the position of the 3-D structure with respect to the regional 2-D strike direction. When the 3-D body is normal to the regional strike, the TE-mode is affected mainly by galvanic effects, while the TM-mode is affected by galvanic and inductive effects. In this case, a 2-D interpretation of the TM-mode is prone to error. When the 3-D body is parallel to the regional 2-D strike the TE-mode is affected by galvanic and inductive effects and the TM-mode is affected mainly by galvanic effects, making it more suitable for 2-D interpretation. In general, a wise 2-D interpretation of 3-D magnetotelluric data can be a guide to a reasonable geological interpretation.

Partial melting of subducted continental lower crust in the Pyrenees

A magnetotelluric profile through the Central Pyrenees indicates the présence of very high conductive zones at lower crustal and upper mantle depths. High conductivity at upper mantle depths is interpreted as partial melts within subducted lower crust, whereas high conductivity at lower crustal depths is interpreted as rising magmas derived from the melting crustal slab. Such melts suggest that the continental lower crust, together with its lithospheric mantle may have been subducted into the mantle during the Pyrenean continental collision. Thus, magma generation can be related to thermal reequilibration of a subducted lower crust, a scenario that may serve as a model for understanding the late evolution of other collisional orogens.

WALDIM: A code for the dimensionality analysis of magnetotelluric data using the rotational invariants of the magnetotelluric tensor

In the magnetotelluric (MT) method, the analysis of geoelectric dimensionality has acquired special importance in the last years, because numerical codes have made it possible to model and invert data using either one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) approaches. We present a FORTRAN code termed WALDIM to perform the dimensionality analysis of a set of MT data, according to the WAL rotational invariants criteria. These criteria are based on the possible annulment of the invariants of the MT tensor, which allow retrieval of as much information as possible from this tensor, without taking any a priori dimensionality assumption. When determining the dimensionality of real and therefore noisy data, two problems arise. The first is due to the data errors, which propagate into the invariants values, and therefore, to the determination of the dimensionality. The second is the fact that the invariants are rarely precisely zero, and the definition of a threshold is necessary. To solve these problems, WALDIM takes into account the data errors. Additionally, the dimensionality results can be grouped into frequency bands. Thus, we provide a software utility that allows providing a robust description of the dimensionality, and the parameters necessary for data correction prior to modeling. Given its completeness at analyzing the MT tensor for both individual and bands of frequencies, this code is meant to be a practical tool for MT data analysis.

New geophysical constraints on the deep structure of the Pyrenees

A 2D modeling of geoid/quasigeoid data across the Pyrenees is consistent with electromagnetic images of the Pyrenean lithospheric structure, showing a subducted Iberian lower crust. Using new magnetotelluric data acquired through the orogen, a 3D electrical conductivity model of the Pyrenean lithospheric structure is obtained. The most outstanding feature is the presence of a high conductivity zone at lower crustal depths along the orogen in the contact zone between the Iberian and European plates. The integration of various geophysical parameters suggests that the simplest and most reasonable mechanism to explain the observed data is partial melting of the subducted Iberian lower crust.

A multidisciplinary geophysical study in the Betic chain (southern Iberia Peninsula)

Abstract The combined analysis of magnetotelluric measurements, tomographic velocity models and deep seismic reflection images confirms that the Betics orogen consists of the juxtaposition of two crustal domains characterized by distinctive physical properties. At depth these data sets show evidence for a non-coincidence of the petrological and the seismic Moho beneath the Betics chain. The data sets reveal the geophysical properties of the Alboran domain (Internal Betics) and the Iberian Massif (External Betics). According to this, the Iberian crust features a relatively high seismic velocity, is seismically transparent in the seismic reflection images and is electrically resistive. The Alboran domain crust is characterized by a low average velocity, displays high reflectivity in the seismic reflection images and is electrically conductive. The outcrops of the metamorphic complexes (Alpujarride and Nevado Filabride), showing relatively high velocities coupled with low V p /V s values (1.67) derived from the Wadati slopes, suggest the existence of rocks rich in silica beneath the Alboran domain crust. An interpreted detachment at 12 km depth imaged by deep seismic reflection suggests that these rocks could be related to the Iberian upper crust. Partial melts and fluids are proposed to explain the high conductivity observed at deep crustal levels. These would account also for the reflectivity and the low V p /V s ratios mapped beneath the Alboran domain.

A high electrical conductive zone at lower crustal depth beneath the Betic Chain (Spain)

Abstract Magnetotelluric data with periods of up to 2000 s were collected and the conductivity structure of the crust and upper mantle was imaged in the Central Betic chain. Interpretation of the impedance tensor components and the geomagnetic transfer functions was made in terms of a two-dimensional resistivity model along a NW–SE profile from the Guadalquivir foreland basin and across the boundary between the External and the Internal Betics. Elongated high conductivity zones in the upper and middle crust related to fluid circulation along both sediments and faults were detected. The conductors in the upper crust coincide with the areal distribution of the Cenozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks from the Guadalquivir basin and the External Betics and the conductors in the middle crust with the major Miocene extensional detachments affecting the basement rocks of the Internal Betic zone. A high conductivity zone at lower crustal levels beneath the outer Internal Betics was also detected next to an area where earlier seismic reflection data had imaged a duplication of the reflective Moho. This conductor was interpreted as partial melting of a southeast dipping subducted Iberian lower crust. The geodynamic significance of this subduction depends mainly on whether the overthrusting lower crust belongs to the Alboran domain or to the Iberian plate. In the former case it would correspond to a major plate boundary and in the latter to an intraplate feature.

Lithospheric structure of the Yukon, northern Canadian Cordillera, obtained from magnetotelluric data

[1] Two goals of Lithoprobe’s geoscientific studies in the Phanerozoic accretionary cordillera of western North America were to define the subsurface geometries of the terranes and to infer the physical conditions of the crust. These questions were addressed in Canada’s southern cordillera a decade ago and have more recently been addressed in the northern cordillera, of which one component of the new studies is magnetotelluric (MT) profiling from ancestral North American rocks to the coast. We present a resistivity cross section, and its interpretation, of the northern cordillera derived from modeling data from 42 MT sites along a 470-km-long NE-SW profile. Beneath the Coast Belt (southwestern end of the profile) a deep crustal low-resistivity layer dips inland; we interpret the crustal part of this conductor as being due to metasedimentary rocks emplaced and metamorphosed during Paleocene Kula plate subduction. A strong lateral transition in lithospheric mantle resistivity exists below the Intermontane Belt that is spatially coincident with changes in chemical and isotopic characteristics of Tertiary to recent alkaline lavas, suggesting that isotopically enriched lithosphere related to the Coast Belt basalts extends partly beneath the Intermontane Belt. The unusually high lower crustal resistivity in the Intermontane and Omineca Belts, similar in value to the resistivity found in the unextended part of central British Columbia, excludes the presence of fluids or conducting metasediments. Finally, our resistivity model displays strong lateral variation of the middle and lower crust between different terranes within the same belt, as a result of the complex structural evolution of the lithosphere. INDEX TERMS: 0925 Exploration Geophysics: Magnetic and electrical methods; 1515 Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism: Geomagnetic induction; 8110 Tectonophysics: Continental tectonics—general (0905); 8120 Tectonophysics: Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle—general; KEYWORDS: magnetotelluric, accreted terranes, northern Canadian Cordillera

Monitoring freshwater-seawater interface dynamics with audiomagnetotelluric data

Saltwater intrusion is one of the main environmental concerns within coastal aquifers. In this study we test the audiomagnetotelluric (AMT) method as a technique that can detect changes in electrical resistivity as a result of seasonal groundwater salinity changes. AMT is a frequency domain electromagnetic induction technique ideally suited for hydrogeophysical investigations at the basin scale, specifically in low resistivity environments such as saltwater encroachments areas. We present numerical seawater intrusion models to explore the effects of saline content variability on the model resolution. Survey data were also acquired during a long-term AMT monitoring experiment in a natural condition aquifer system and these results were compared to the numerical modelling results. The aquifer system is located in the deltaic zone of the Tordera River (north-eastern of Iberian Peninsula), where a main paleochannel that works as a seawater intrusion path was already identified in previous studies. Every four months, between 2004 and 2006, seven AMT soundings were recorded along a 1700 m long profile over the paleochannel. The final models reveal dynamic changes in the seawater-freshwater interface that correspond directly with the hydrologic state of the aquifer system.

Regional electrical resistivity structure of the southern Canadian Cordillera and its physical interpretation

The regional geoelectric crustal structure of the southern and central Canadian Cordillera of western Canada is interpreted from the inversion of magnetotelluric data along five profiles crossing the physiographic morphogeological belts, with emphasis on the Intermontane and Omineca Belts. Decomposition of the tensor impedance response estimates demonstrates that large-scale regional structures can be reasonably approximated along each profile as two-dimensional, with dominant geoelectric strikes of either � 30� or +15� , depending on profile location. These profile-specific strike directions are consistent with a local clockwise rotation of crustal structures in the southern Intermontane and Omineca Belts suggested by others based on paleomagnetic data and palinspastic reconstructions. Comparing the resistivity models derived from two-dimensional inversions of the distortion-corrected data along each profile allows us to construct an orogen-scale three-dimensional resistivity model for southern British Columbia. Generally, the model shows a resistive upper crust overlying a conductive lower crust. The resistivity of the lower crust beneath the Intermontane Belt is independent of latitude and is similar for all profiles. In stark contrast, a 2 orders of magnitude variation in lower crustal resistivity is observed along strike in the Omineca Belt, with higher conductivities to the south in the region of Eocene extension and lower conductivities to the north in the unextended part of the belt. Such spatial association has noteworthy implications for the cause of lower crustal resistivity in active, or recently active, young regions. Our preferred interpretation of the observed lower crustal resistivities with other geophysical data is in terms of fluids, with brines dominating for the most part but partial melt possible at the base of the crust in specific localities. We attribute the along-strike variation in the Omineca Belt mostly to variation in fluid content and interconnectivity, with the lowermost crust of the southern Omineca Belt being partially molten. This physical state difference is a consequence of degree of extension and implies that mantle- derived fluids are important for lower crustal resistivity.

Feasibility of Monitoring the Hontomín (Burgos, Spain) CO2 Storage Site Using a Deep EM Source

Geophysical methods have been used experimentally during the last decade, a period of strong development, being adopted as complementary techniques for characterizing and monitoring hydrocarbon and gas reservoirs. In this study, we evaluated the ability of the controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) method to monitor the storage of CO2 at the Research Laboratory on Geological Storage of CO2 at Hontomín (Burgos, Spain). Two aspects of the CSEM monitoring were examined considering the geoelectrical structure at the site, the technological constraints and the noise conditions of the Hontomín area. Borehole-to-surface simulations were performed to evaluate the detectability of the resistivity changes in the reservoir and the capacity to determine the location of the CO2 plume. The synthetic time-lapse study explores the possibilities of CSEM monitoring with a deep electric source. Three depths of the source are analyzed: above the plume, inside the plume, and beneath the stored CO2. In terms of the Hontomín storage site, the study confirmed that a deep electric source located beneath the injection depth can provide valuable information on the behavior of the stored CO2.