Prospection géophysique et certitude d'interpretation de ses données

Summary

In Chapter I the outlines of the problem of the interpretation in geophysics are given, followed by an example of the linear interpretation: seismic mirror. The author differentiates between the algebric interpretation and the statistical one. Examples of application of the method of the least squares are mentioned too.

Chapter II contains the classification of the problems of the interpretation in geophysics: the author points out that there arefour fundamental problems. Thefirst one consists in choosing the hypothetical geologic structure and in describing it in mathematical forms having various parameters. Thesecond problem is the determination of the numerical values of these parameters. Usually an engineer looks for the most probable numerical values; but these values are not the only possible ones. Therefore thethird problem consists in determining the likelihood of all possible values. This is to determine the likelihood of this or other geological structures entering in the outlines of the assumed hypothesis. Thefourth and last problem is the determination of the likelihood of the hypothesis itself.

In Chapter III the author investigates the certitude of the geophysical calculations, he indicates that it is necessary to accept some limitations for the variations of the parameters; the likelihood can correspond only to a group of these variations. He gives a detailed scheme for the numerical computation of the likelihood of the assumed geological structure.

Chapter IV contains the application of the general theory to the determination of a fault from the gravimetric observations. This more complicated computation completes the simple examples from the seismic survey given in the preceding chapters.