Electric inversion

method.
Presents:
Ysidro Landeros Luis Alberto
Burelo Lopez Albin
Geophysical Inversion Basics

What is geophyiscal inversión?

What does geophysical inversion recover?

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Schlumberger array

GEOMETRIC FACTOR K

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FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

In FEA, you divide your model into

small pieces. Those are called
Finite Elements (FE). Those Elements
connect all characteristic points
(called Nodes) that lie on their
circumference. This “connection” is
a set of equations called shape
functions.

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 2D and 3D
resistivity
inversion CONTENT:

1. Study area.
2D and 3D resistivity 2. Resistivity data acquisition
inversion of 3. 2-D resistivity inversion
Schlumberger vertical 4. 3D resistivity inversion
electrical soundings in 5. Reliability of inversion models
Wadi
6. Discussion and conclusion
El Natrun, Egypt: A
case study

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 1. Study area.

Wadi El Natrun is an elongated

depression attaining a length
of about 50 km and a width
ranging from 5 to 10 km. It is
located between latitudes 30°
15′ and 30° 30′N, and
longitudes 30° 00′ and 30° 30′. It
covers an area of about 500
km2, at a distance of 90 km
northwest of Cairo, and 40 km
from the Rosetta branch

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Fig. 1. Location map of Wadi El Natrun, and the study area.
1. 2. Resistivity data
acquisition

Forty-five vertical electrical

soundings were collected.
The maximum AB/2 was 300
m. The interval distance
between stations ranges
from 300 to 1000 m. The
stations were distributed in a
regular grid

Fig. 2. Location map of the measured vertical electrical

soundings.
  The 2-D resistivity program is based on the finite element
technique. The inversion algorithm is based on the
smoothness-constrained least-squares method.

 The problem is linearized as

J Δp = Δd Eq.(1)
3. 2-D resistivity inversion
 where Δp is the vector containing the corrections to the
model parameters p
 Δd=yc−yob is the vector of the differences between the
model responses and the measured data,
 and J is the derivative matrix (Jacobian) containing the
derivatives of the model responses with respect to the
model parameters (Jij=∂yic/∂Pj).

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 Fig. 3. 3-D resistivity
model obtained from
the inversion of VES.
4. 3D resistivity The sounding locations
and numbers are
inversion shown on
shallowest slice.
the

 The 3D inversion was performed

using a program based on finite
element and a regularization
method for the inversion like that
one used in the 2D case (Santos
and Sultan, 2008).

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 The Volume of Investigation Index
(VOI) and the Depth of
Investigation Index (DOI) were
proposed by Oldenborger et al.
(2007) and Oldenburg and Li
(1999) in order to evaluate the
resolution of 3-D and 2-D models,
5. Reliability of respectively. VOI and DOI provide
a measure of model resolution

inversion models
incorporating all the inverse
problem components, such as
data error and modeling error.
According to Oldenburg and Li
(1999) and Oldenborger et al.
(2007), the VOI (and DOI) is
Eq. (2) calculated from Eq. (2).

Where p2 is the model obtained by inverting the

data with initial model 𝑝2𝑟𝑒𝑓 and p1 is the model
obtained by inverting the data with initial model
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𝑝1𝑟𝑒𝑓 .
 The VOI maps show
the distribution of v
value in the 3D
model. VOI maps
were calculated
using high and low
initial reference
resistivity values of
𝑝1𝑟𝑒𝑓 . =120 Ω-m and
𝑝2𝑟𝑒𝑓 . =40 Ω-m. The
value of 0.3 was
selected as a
critical v values in
Fig. (4) shows that a
quite well resolved
Fig. 4. Volume of investigation (VOI) maps at depths 40, 25, 12, and 7.5 m.
resistivity distribution
for depths greater
than 25 m.

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The DOI sections were
calculated using high and
low initial reference resistivity
values of 𝑝1𝑟𝑒𝑓 =300 Ω-m
and 𝑝2𝑟𝑒𝑓 =100 Ω-m. The v
distribution shows that the
major part of each profile
has a reliable resistivity
distribution, where v is less
than 0.3, which means that
the solution of inversion does
not depend on the initial
model.

Fig. 5. 2-D inversion models of all sections compared with geology in some
nearby boreholes and (DOI) sections.
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6. Discussion and conclusion

 The middle resistivity layer is observed as well in the 2D and the 3D models. It represents
the main fresh water aquifer in the area.

 The results show that valuable information can be obtained from 2D and 3D inversion of
isolated VESs, even when their AB distance does not allow a significant overlap between
soundings.

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References

 Khalil, M. A., & Santos, F. A. M. (2013). 2D and 3D resistivity inversion of Schlumberger

vertical electrical soundings in Wadi El Natrun, Egypt: A case study. Journal of Applied
Geophysics, 89, 116-124.

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