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Three-dimensional gravity inversion based on 3D U-Net++

  • Gravity exploration methods
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Abstract

The gravity inversion is to restore genetic density distribution of the underground target to be explored for explaining the internal structure and distribution of the Earth. In this paper, we propose a new 3D gravity inversion method based on 3D U-Net++. Compared with two-dimensional gravity inversion, three-dimensional (3D) gravity inversion can more precisely describe the density distribution of underground space. However, conventional 3D gravity inversion method input is two-dimensional, the input and output of the network proposed in our method are three-dimensional. In the training stage, we design a large number of diversified simulation model-data pairs by using the random walk method to improve the generalization ability of the network. In the test phase, we verify the network performance by using the model-data pairs generated by the simulation. To further illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm, we apply the method to the inversion of the San Nicolas mining area, and the inversion results are basically consistent with the borehole measurement results. Moreover, the results of the 3D U-Net++ inversion and the 3D U-Net inversion are compared. The density models of the 3D U-Net++ inversion have higher resolution, more concentrated inversion results, and a clearer boundary of the density model.

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Acknowledgment

We are sincerely grateful to the Geophysical Inversion Facility of the University of British Colombia (UBC-GIF) for providing the field data (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4089070).

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Correspondence to Li Hong-Wei.

Additional information

This work is supported by the Key Laboratory of Geological Survey and Evaluation of Ministry of Education (China University of Geosciences) (No. GLAB2020ZR13).

Wang Yu-Feng, he graduated from the Beijing Information Science and Technology University with a bachelor’s degree in information management and information system in 2016. He is currently a postgraduate student in China University of Geosciences. His research interests include applications of gravity inversion based on deep learning. Email: charmingfrank@163.com

Corresponding author: Li Hong-Wei, He was received a Ph.D. in institute of mathematical sciences from Beijing University, China (in 1996). He has been a professor at the School of Mathematics and Physics, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China. His research interests include statistical signal processing, blind signal processing, multidimensional signal processing, deep learning and time series analysis. Email: hwli@cug.edu.cn

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Yu-Feng, W., Yu-Jie, Z., Li-Hua, F. et al. Three-dimensional gravity inversion based on 3D U-Net++. Appl. Geophys. 18, 451–460 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11770-021-0909-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11770-021-0909-z

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