Application of Global Particle Swarm Optimization for Inversion of Residual Gravity Anomalies Over Geological Bodies with Idealized Geometries

A global particle swarm optimization (GPSO) technique is developed and applied to the inversion of residual gravity anomalies caused by buried bodies with simple geometry (spheres, horizontal, and vertical cylinders). Inversion parameters, such as density contrast of geometries, radius of body, depth of body, location of anomaly, and shape factor, were optimized. The GPSO algorithm was tested on noise-free synthetic data, synthetic data with 10% Gaussian noise, and five field examples from different parts of the world. The present study shows that the GPSO method is able to determine all the model parameters accurately even when shape factor is allowed to change in the optimization problem. However, the shape was fixed a priori in order to obtain the most consistent appraisal of various model parameters. For synthetic data without noise or with 10% Gaussian noise, estimates of different parameters were very close to the actual model parameters. For the field examples, the inversion results showed excellent agreement with results from previous studies that used other inverse techniques. The computation time for the GPSO procedure is very short (less than 1 s) for a swarm size of less than 50. The advantage of the GPSO method is that it is extremely fast and does not require assumptions about the shape of the source of the residual gravity anomaly.     

Assessing Uncertainty Associated with the Delineation of Geochemical Anomalies

A pedogeochemical exploratory survey of gold deposits was carried out in the region of São Sepé (southernmost Brazil). The region comprises a predominantly metamorphosed belt of volcanoclastics, sediments, serpentinites, basalts, gabbros, chert, tuffs, and banded iron formation of the Proterozoic age. The anomalies were identified first by stream sediment heavy mineral survey at the regional scale of exploration. Once spatial continuity was modeled, ordinary block kriging was performed to generate geochemical maps. Indicator block kriging also was used as an alternative in analyzing and interpreting geochemical data. A novel approach is proposed, which combines both ordinary and indicator kriging for delineating geochemical anomalies. Probability maps proved to be appropriate for selecting new sites for further exploration. Gold anomalies in soils trending NE were well defined by geostatistical analysis and subsequently confirmed by drilling.     

Modeling Permeability Changes Caused by Hydrothermal Circulation

A new model for simulating porosity and permeability changes caused by sedimentary reservoirsdiagenesis is presented. Permeability is computed from changes in the mineral volume fractionsresulting from precipitation and dissolution of the rock-forming mineral as fluid flows throughvariable salinity and temperature fields. Its evolution is controlled by a power—law relationship,in which a weighting coefficient is assigned to clay minerals. This approach allows theincorporation of the widely observed influence of clay content on the porosity—permeabilityrelationship. A synthetic example is set up to analyze the sensitivity of the results to a set offour controlling parameters: the effect of the clay-weighting coefficient compared to the effectof the salinity gradient, temperature gradient, and exponent coefficient of the permeabilityevolution law. Using a large range of values for these parameters, the results show that theirinfluence is of equivalent magnitude in terms of permeability evolution rate. It also seemsthat the value of the clay-weighting coefficient affects the evolution trend: permeability mayincrease when the porosity decreases (and vice versa). The model is compared to the classicalapproach for which permeability is a function of porosity change only. Results display thestrong influence of even low values of the clay-weighting coefficient on the permeabilitychange. Consequently, the specific influence of mineral transfers on pore structure changes isa key parameter for modeling permeability changes and cannot be bypassed by the use ofsimple porosity—permeability evolution law.     

热带气旋灾情的预测及评估

针对1990～1996年登陆广东省的21个热带气旋所造成的灾情,采用模糊数学原理和方法,选取不同的因子组合,计算出登陆热带气旋的综合灾情指数,并在此基础上客观地划分5个灾情等级,用来表示受灾的程度.结果表明,灾前预测及灾害评估模型都具有较高的拟合率,能较好地评价和预测登陆热带气旋可能造成的经济损失程度.