Introduction to this special section: Potential fields

Abstract

This special section of The Leading Edge is dedicated to recent advances in potential field methods of geophysical exploration. In their broadest sense, these methods are rooted in data whose origins are compatible with solutions to the Laplace equation such as gravity, magnetics, and electrostatics, each responding to distinct and complementary material properties of the subsurface such as mass density, magnetic susceptibility, and electrical conductivity. These proxies for the real targets of geologic interest (lithologic boundaries, fluid-saturated zones, regions of mineral alteration, etc.) have proven themselves indispensable, for example, through joint inversion of seismic data and their direct reflection — no pun intended — of subsurface variations in seismic wavespeed. Indeed, joint inversion seismic and gravity data yield a direct path toward inference and constraint of the elastic moduli variations within the subsurface — variations that, themselves, can reveal changes in rock porosity or fracture density.