Inversão gravimétrica estável do relevo do embasamento e da variação da densidade com a profundidade em bacias sedimentares

Abstract

The present method assumes a decrease in the density contrast of a sedimentary basin according to a hyperbolic law and has two objectives: (1) to estimate the basement relief of the sedimentary basin assuming that the gravity anomaly, the density contrast at the surface and the decaying factor of the density contrast with depth are known; (2) to estimate the basement relief, the density contrast at the surface and the decaying factor of the density contrast with depth, assuming that the gravity anomaly and the depth to the basement at a few points are known. In both cases the interpretation model is a set of vertical rectangular 2D prisms whose thicknesses are parameters to be estimated and represent the depth to the interface separating sediments and basement. The solutions of both problems are stable because of the incorporation of additional a priori information about the smoothness of the estimated relief and about the depth to the basement at a few locations, presumably provided by boreholes. The method was tested with synthetic gravity anomalies produced by simulated sedimentary basins presenting smooth relief. The results showed well-resolved estimated relieves. Besides, estimated density contrasts at the surface and the decaying factors of the density contrast with depth close to the true ones were obtained, indicating the potentiality of the proposed method in gravity interpretations of sedimentary basins. The method was applied to the Bouguer anomaly from Recôncavo Basin, producing an estimated relief with a maximum depth of 6 km, a figure similar to the one obtained from seismic interpretations. The estimates of the surface density contrast and of the decaying factor of the density contrast with depth were -0.30 g/cm3 and 30 km, respectively, producing an estimate of 4% for the maximum sediment compaction.