Combining TEM/resistivity joint inversion and magnetic data for groundwater exploration: application to the northeastern part of Greater Cairo,Egypt

This paper presents the combination of two complementary methods, magnetic and joint inversion of resistivity/TEM data, as an effective approach to characterize groundwater reservoirs. Twenty stations of transient electromagnetic (TEM) and vertical electrical soundings (VES) were measured and interpreted using a joint inversion technique to evaluate the subsurface low resistivity zones connected to the groundwater reservoir. A complementary survey including 871 land magnetic stations was carried out at the same area to detect the upper surface of the basaltic sheet, which represents the bottom of the Miocene aquifer in the study area. The geological log from one borehole drilled in the zone was used to partially calibrate the calculated models. The results revealed that the study area consists of five different geological units with ages ranging from Paleogene (Oligocene) to Quaternary. The methodology provides good results at a very low cost when compared with drilling boreholes.