Quantitative Interpretation of Self-Potential Anomalies of Some Simple Geometric Bodies

We have developed a new numerical method to determine the shape (shape factor), depth, polarization angle, and electric dipole moment of a buried structure from residual self-potential (SP) anomalies. The method is based on defining the anomaly value at the origin and four characteristic points and their corresponding distances on the anomaly profile. The problem of shape determination from residual SP anomaly has been transformed into the problem of finding a solution to a nonlinear equation of the form q = f (q). Knowing the shape, the depth, polarization angle and the electric dipole moment are determined individually using three linear equations. Formulas have been derived for spheres and cylinders. By using all possible combinations of the four characteristic points and their corresponding distances, a procedure is developed for automated determination of the best-fit-model parameters of the buried structure from SP anomalies. The method was applied to synthetic data with 5% random errors and tested on a field example from Colorado. In both cases, the model parameters obtained by the present method, particularly the shape and depth of the buried structures are found in good agreement with the actual ones. The present method has the capability of avoiding highly noisy data points and enforcing the incorporation of points of the least random errors to enhance the interpretation results.