THE ELECTRONIC COMPUTER AND GEOPHYSICS

Abstract

With the advent of electronic computers a revolution in data handling has been brought about. As yet few people outside of scientific research or accounting fields are familiar enough with these computers to know how they can be applied in their particular type of work. Electronic computers consist of three basic elements: an operations register, a digital computer and a memory unit. The memory unit retains information in numeric form in locations that are identified by a coordinate system. Data stored in memory may be retrieved and processed in the digital computer and the results of the computation may be stored for later use. Computations are carried out in the binary or two‐digit number system. The operations register controls the operation of the digital computer and the memory unit and acts as a link between the intent of the programmer and the internal operation of the system. An object, given the proper code numbers describing its shape, size, color, etc., can be identified from other objects by comparison of code numbers. The speed and ability of electronic computers to compare and identify makesn possible the solution of very exacting problems that otherwise would be humanly next to impossible from time considerations. Electronic computers have been used in geophysical exploration to compute and contour derivative maps of gravity and magnetic data. They have been used to reduce gravity data to datum, compute interval and average velocities from velocity profile data and have been used to solve many non‐recurring problems.