ALBERT

Description: With advancing computational resources, 3-D inversion techniques have become feasible in recent years and are now a more widely used tool for magnetotelluric (MT) data interpretation. Galvanic distortion caused by small-scale near-surface inhomogeneities remains an obstacle for 3-D MT inversion which so far has experienced little attention. If not considered properly, the effect on 3-D inversion can be immense and result in erroneous subsurface models and interpretations. To tackle the problem we implemented inversion of the distortion-free phase tensor into the ModEM inversion package. The dimensionless phase tensor components describe only variations of the conductivity structure. When inverting these data, particular care has to be taken of the conductivity structure in the a priori model, which provides the reference frame when transferring the information from phase tensors into absolute conductivity values. Our results obtained with synthetic data show that phase tensor inversion can recover the regional conductivity structure in presence of galvanic distortion if the a priori model provides a reasonable assumption for the regional resistivity average. Joint inversion of phase tensor data and vertical magnetic transfer functions improves recovery of the absolute resistivity structure and is less dependent on the prior model. We also used phase tensor inversion for a data set of more than 250 MT sites from the central San Andreas fault, California, where a number of sites showed significant galvanic distortion. We find the regional structure of the phase tensor inversion results compatible with previously obtained models from impedance inversion. In the vicinity of distorted sites, phase tensor inversion models exhibit more homogeneous/smoother conductivity structures.

Description: Analysis of more than 10 yr of vertical magnetic transfer function (VTF) estimates obtained at 12 mid-latitude sites, located in different continents and tectonic settings, reveals significant temporal variations for a period range between approximately 250 and 2000 s. The most ubiquitous pattern is a seasonal modulation of the VTF element that relates the vertical to the horizontal north–south magnetic components ( Tx ), which shows a high peak around the June solstice (and a low peak around the December solstice) regardless of the location of the site. To quantify the influence of this source effect on the amplitude of VTFs, we modelled the temporal variations of VTFs using a function with dependence on season and magnetic activity indexes. The model shows that differences between VTF estimates obtained at seasonal peaks can reach 0.08 of Tx absolute values and that the effect increases with latitude and period. Seasonal variations are observed also in the VTF component relating vertical to horizontal east–west magnetic components ( Ty ), but here the pattern with respect to the geographic distribution is less clear. In addition to seasonal trends, we observe long-term modulations correlating with the 11-yr solar cycle at some sites. The influence of these external source effects should be taken into account, before attempting a geological interpretation of the VTFs. It can be misleading, for example, to combine or compare VTFs obtained from long-period geomagnetic data acquired at different seasons or years. An effective method to estimate and remove these source effects from VTFs is by comparison with temporal variations of VTFs from synchronously recorded data at sites located at similar latitude (〈5° of difference) and longitude (〈10° of difference). Source effects in temporal variations of VTFs can be identified as those patterns that exhibit similar amplitudes and significant correlation with the geomagnetic activity at all compared sites. We also provide a second-order polynomial which can be used to estimate the amplitude of the seasonal variations in the Tx component globally as a function of latitude.