ASEG Extended Abstracts

ISSN: 2202-0586 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/texg19

Using the ASVI to invert for remanently

magnetised bodies

John Paine, Mike Haederle & Marcus Flis

To cite this article: John Paine, Mike Haederle & Marcus Flis (2001) Using the ASVI to invert
for remanently magnetised bodies, ASEG Extended Abstracts, 2001:1, 1-4, DOI: 10.1071/
ASEG2001ab100

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1071/ASEG2001ab100

Published online: 11 Feb 2019.

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 Using the ASVI to invert for remanently magnetised bodies
John Paine Mike Haederle Marcus Flis
Scientific Computing & Appl, Australia RioTinto Exploration, Australia Hammersley Iron Pty Ltd, Australia
John.Paine@onaustralia.com.au Mike.Haederle@expl.riotinto.com.au Marcus.Flis@hi.riotinto.com.au

METHOD AND RESULTS

SUMMARY Inversion of synthetic TMI data

Magnetic inversion programs such as mag3d from UBC
have proven to be very useful for generating realistic 3D
susceptibility models from surface Total Magnetic
Intensity (TMI) data.
However, these programs do not perform well when the
observed data includes the response of bodies which are
strongly remanently magnetised. This failure occurs
because the forward model algorithm used in the
inversion only generates the induced response, so the
remanent component in the TMI has to be modeled using
the induced response for an unrealistic distribution of
susceptibility.
In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of inverting
the analytic signal of the vertical integral (ASVI) for
12000
synthetic and real TMI data using mag3d. For both data
sets we find that the inversion of the ASVI data produces
a model which is much more realistic than that obtained
11000
by inverting the original data.
The theoretical response for a 0.1SI outcropping body 800m
long, 100m wide, striking 120° and dipping 85°S was
calculated for a magnetic field of amplitude 23300nT,
inclination –28.4°, and declination –19.8°. To illustrate the
effect of remanence, the calculation was repeated with the
inclusion a very strong remanent component (Q=2, I=210°,
d=-85°).
The purely induced and induced + remanent TMI responses
for this body are displayed in Figure 1 and clearly show that
the magnitude of the remanent component is similar to that of
the induced component and the direction of the remanence is
quite different from that of the inducing field.
10 000 11 000 12 000 10 000 11 000 12 000
12000
11000

Key words: analytic signal, 3D inversion, remanence

10000 10000
10 000 11 000 12 000 10 000 11 000 12 000

a b
INTRODUCTION
Figure 1. Computed TMI for (a) purely induced
The inversion process used in the program mag3d from UBC magnetisation, (b) induced + remanent magnetisation
GIF (Li and Oldenburg) successively refines a 3-dimensional
The purely induced and induced + remanent TMI responses
susceptibility model until the TMI calculated for the model
were inverted using mag3d and NS sections through the
matches the observed TMI data to the desired accuracy.
inverted models at 11225E are displayed in Figure 2.
Mag3d only calculates the induced TMI response for the 10 000N 11 000N 12 000N
a 0 0
model, so any remanent component in the observed TMI data
has to be modeled using a distribution of susceptibility for
which the induced TMI response matches the observed
remanent response. -500 -500

This is not a problem if the remanent component is small b 0 0

relative to the induced component or if the direction of the
remanent component is close to the direction of the induced
field. In such cases the susceptibility distribution is driven by
the dominant induced component and the inverted model will
be reasonably consistent with the real susceptibility
distribution.
However, if the remanent component is not in the same
direction as the induced field and is of the same or larger
magnitude as the induced component, mag3d will be forced to
generate a distribution of susceptibility which is significantly
different from the actual distribution in order to fit the data.
-500 -500
10 000N 11 000N 12 000N
Figure 2. NS section at 11225E through mag3d inverted
models with true model superimposed (a) purely induced
magnetisation, (b) induced + remanent magnetisation.
It is readily apparent that the inversion of the induced data
produces a model which is quite consistent with the actual
body, while the inversion for the TMI data containing
remanence does not.

It is important to note that the latter model is in fact a perfectly

feasible solution that adequately fits the supplied data.

th
ASEG 15 Geophysical Conference and Exhibition, August 2001, Brisbane. Extended Abstracts
Paine, Haederle and Flis Inverting remanent mag data using the ASVI

However even though the model is feasible, in this case we 10 000N 11 000N 12 000N
0 0
happen to know that it is wrong.
a

Inversion of synthetic ASVI data

-500 -500
The above results demonstrate that mag3d does not generate 0 0
reasonable models when inverting data which contains strong b
remanent components. If such data is to be inverted, we
therefore need to either modify the algorithm in mag3d to -500 -500
include remanence or modify the TMI data to remove the 10 000N 11 000N 12 000N
remanent component. Since the former option is not available
the only choice we have is to modify the data used in the Figure 4. NS section at 11225E through ASVI mag3d
inversion. inverted models (a) purely induced magnetisation, (b)
induced + remanent magnetisation
Directly removing the remanent component is not feasible
since we do not generally know the distribution, strength or For the models generated from the TMI and ASVI data
direction of the remanent magnetisation in the area of interest. containing remanence, the ASVI inversion is clearly far
However it is well known (MacLeod et al) that the analytic superior to the original TMI inversion though the distribution
signal is relatively insensitive to the direction of of susceptibility is again broader and deeper than the model
magnetisation, so calculating the analytic signal for TMI data generated by inverting the induced TMI data in Figure 2a.
which contains both induced and remanent components will
transform both components into a single coherent response. Case Study: Silvergrass Peak

The analytic signal data is still not useful for inversion as it is Silvergrass Peak is an iron-ore prospect being explored by
quite different in nature to the induced TMI response. Hammersley Iron. The observed TMI data for this prospect is
However, if the analytic signal is vertically integrated, the displayed in Figure 5. Figure 6 displays profiles of the TMI
resulting value will have the same units as TMI and can be along the sections marked in Figure 5.
used in mag3d.
479 000 480 000 481 000
C
In practice we actually calculate the analytic signal of the
vertical integral as the vertical integration greatly amplifies 7 558 000 7 558 000
any low frequency content of the data. This high amplitude
low frequency component is removed by the analytic signal,
D
thus resulting in a more realistic dataset for the inversion than
7 557 000 A 7 557 000
would be generated if the transforms are applied in the reverse
order.

Figure 3 displays the analytic signal and the ASVI transform 7 556 000 7 556 000
B
of the TMI data with remanence displayed in Figure 1b. This
demonstrates that the ASVI data is qualitatively similar to a
purely induced response (for a vertical magnetic field) for the 479 000 480 000 481 000
original model, but is lower in magnitude and broader in
extent. Figure 5. Observed TMI for Silvergrass Peak

10 000 11 000 12 000 10 000 11 000 12 000 60000

a
40000
12000 12000 20000

0
A 500 1 000 B

11000 11000 0
b
-20000

-40000

10000 10000 -60000

10 000 11 000 12 000 10 000 11 000 12 000
C 500 1 000 D
a b

Figure 3. Transformed induced + remanent TMI: (a) Figure 6. Profiles of TMI for Silvergrass Peak (a) section
analytic signal, (b) ASVI AB, (b) section CD

The TMI data for the purely induced and induced + remanent
models was transformed using the ASVI and the resulting data
sets were inverted using mag3d. The NS sections at 11225E
for the inverted models are displayed in Figure 4. These
sections show that the ASVI inversion of the purely induced
data is reasonable, though the body generated is broader and
deeper than in the inversion of the original TMI data.
The southern profile (AB) shows a very strong positive
anomaly and the northern profile (CD) shows a strong
negative anomaly. The southern part of the anomaly is caused
by a magnetic banded iron formation (BIF) that is almost
vertical and striking in a NE direction. The northern part of
the anomaly is thought to be a remanently magnetised
continuation of this BIF which may be prospective for massive
iron-ore mineralisation.
Paine, Haederle and Flis Inverting remanent mag data using the ASVI

The observed TMI data was inverted using mag3d and
sections through the model corresponding to the sections AB
and CD are displayed in Figure 7. The southern section clearly
shows a highly magnetic body which is striking in a NE
direction. The northern section (CD) shows no evidence of a
continuation of the body seen in the southern section, however
it does display a susceptibility distribution which is similar to
that seen in Figure 2b.
The 3D perspective view of the 2SI isosurfaces for the TMI
and ASVI inversions displayed in Figure 10 shows that the
two inversions agree quite well in the southern half of the
prospect and that there is a highly magnetic almost vertical
narrow structure striking in a NE direction. However, the
ASVI inversion suggests that the structure in the south
continues in the northern part of the prospect, while the TMI
inversion does not.

500 500 500 500

0 0 0 0

-500 -500 -500 -500

A B C D
a b

Figure 7. NW-SE sections through mag3d inversion using

observed TMI for Silvergrass Peak (a) section AB, (b)
section CD

The analytic signal and the ASVI of the observed TMI for
Silvergrass Peak is displayed in Figure 8. The two sections of Figure 10. 3D perspective view of 2Si isosurfaces from
the model obtained by inverting the ASVI data with mag3d TMI (gold) and ASVI (translucent green) inversions
are displayed in Figure 9.
The northern part of the linear structure predicted from the
479000 480 000 481000 479000 480000 481000
ASVI inversion has been tested with a drillhole. Full details
C C
for the drillhole are not yet available, but hand measurements
7558000 7558000 7558000 7558000 show that it intersected a wide band of highly susceptible
(>1SI) material. According to the TMI inversion, the drillhole
D D

A A
should not have intersected any susceptible material, so these
7557000 7557000 7557000 7557000
results demonstrate that the inversion of ASVI data can be
used to generate reliable structural information when inverting
7556000
B
7556000 7556000
B
7556000 data containing remanence.

479000 480 000 481000 479000 480000 481000

CONCLUSIONS
a b
Inverting TMI data containing strong remanent components
Figure 8. Transformed data for Silvergrass Peak observed using mag3d may generate unrealistic models. These models
TMI (a) analytic signal, (b) ASVI contain distinctive shell-like structures which can be
diagnostic for the presence of remanence. In such cases
500 500 500 500 transforming the TMI data using the ASVI and inverting the
transformed data is more likely to generate realistic models of
the susceptibility structure.
0 0 0 0

-500 -500 -500
A B C D
a b
Figure 9. NW-SE sections through mag3d inversion using
the ASVI data for Silvergrass Peak (a) section AB, (b)
section CD
The southern section in 9a is qualitatively similar to that
displayed in Figure 7a thus suggesting that the southern
anomaly is a purely induced response. The northern section in
9b is quite different to that displayed in 7b as it now suggests
that the northern part of the survey area contains a
continuation of the NE striking BIF seen in the south.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
-500
The authors wish to thank Hammersley Iron for granting
permission to use the data for Silvergass Peak and RioTinto
for permission to use the synthetic model data.
REFERENCES
MacLeod, I. N., Jones, K. and Dai, T. F., 1993, 3-D
analytic signal in the interpretation of total magnetic
field data at low magnetic latitudes, Australian Society
Of Exploration Geophysicists, 24, 679-688.
Li, Y. and Oldenburg, D. W., 1996, 3-D inversion of
magnetic data: Geophysics, 61, no. 02, 394-408.