Structural Setting of the Northeastern Biga Peninsula (Turkey) from Tilt Derivatives of Gravity Gradient Tensors and Magnitude of Horizontal Gravity Components

Abstract

The tilt derivatives (or angles) are determined using the gravity gradient tensors (GGT) from two horizontal components (Gx, Gy) and vertical component (Gz), and the magnitude of the horizontal components (MHC). We show that the tilt derivatives from GGT and MHC are highly suitable for mapping linear geological structures or edges of target geology. The results obtained from theoretical data, with and without random noise, have been analyzed in this study. The tilt derivatives from GGT and MHC allow imaging the horizontal boundaries of gravity sources with a high resolution and show an improvement performance as edge detectors since they are ultra sensitive for detecting source boundaries.

The tilt derivatives from GGT and MHC over the northeast of the Biga Peninsula in northwestern, Turkey are interpreted to image the edges of geological structures. Tilt derivatives provide a quick method which works well to obtain a detailed structural image of the complex area, with the most precision. The results indicate that the most predominant structural trends are in a NE-SW direction. Therefore, a good correspondence is recognized between structures well known by surface geology and many other lineaments which are unknown or only partially known.