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Gravity & Magnetic

By
BAKHTIAR QADER AZIZ
Assistance professor
2010-2011

The Second Semester

Gravity Method
Magnetic Method

Syllabus of the Gravity Method:

Introduction
Theoretical background
Data Reduction
Survey procedure
applications
Instruments for measuring gravity
Interpretation
Separation of Anomaly
Regional and Residual gravity
Methods of separation
Ambiguities in gravity
modeling

References:

1. Applied Geophysics, 1996, Telford, W.,M.

2. An introduction to applied and environmental
3.
4.
5.
6.

geophysics, 1997, Reynolds, J. M.

Introduction to geophysical prospecting, 1988,
Durbin, M. B.
Applied and environmental geophysics, 1999,
Sharma,V.,P.
www.Geophysics.Com
www.Geophysics.net

The gravitation
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law of attraction was discovered by Isaac Newton in

Gravity: It is an attractive force between all pairs of massive objects in

the universe.
Newton is referred to Universal Mutual Gravitation
Universal: Gravity works every where in the universe, not just on the
earth.
Mutual: Gravity works between pairs of objects.
The force of gravity depend on:
1- Mass
2- Distance
Mass and weight:
In popular language mass and the weight refer to the same thing.
Weight= Mass x Gravity
Mass is a measure of how much materials are in an object, while weight
is a measure of the gravitational force exerted on that material.
Mass= Density x Volume

Gravity in Physics:
It is a rate of increase of velocity measured by cm/Sec2
It is constant :
1- The earth is perfect sphere
2- The earth is uniform or homogenous
Newtons Law of Gravitation states that the force of attraction F
between two masses m1 and m2 is directly proportional to the product
of the masses and inversely to the square of distance between them.

m1 x m2
r2
m xm
F G 1 2 2
r
F

r
m1

m2

G: is a gravitational constant equal to the force between two unit mass

(1 Gram) separate by a distance of 1 cm. = 6.67x10-8 Dyne. Cm2/gm2
The relation between force and distance is known as Inverse Square
law

1
F 2
r

Acceleration of Gravity: It is a force acting on a unit mass

G m1m2
2
F
r
g

m2
m2
m1
g G 2
r

m2
r

Earth

m1

When making measurements of the earth's gravity, we usually don't

measure the gravitational force, F. Rather, we measure the gravitational
acceleration, g. The gravitational acceleration is the time rate of change
of a body's speed under the infuence of the gravitational force.
Units Associated With Gravitational Acceleration
Units Associated with Gravitational Acceleration As described earlier,
acceleration is dened as the time rate of change of the speed of a body.
Speed, sometimes incorrectly referred to as velocity, is the distance an
object travels divided by the time it took to travel that distance (i.e.,
meters per second (m/s)). Thus, we can measure the speed of an object by
observing the time it takes to travel a known distance, If the speed of the
object changes as it travels, then this change in speed with respect to time
is referred to as acceleration. Positive acceleration means the object is
moving faster with time, and negative acceleration means the object is
slowing down with time. Acceleration can be measured by determining 8the
speed of an object at two different times and dividing the speed by the

between the two observations ,Therefore, the units associated with

acceleration is speed (distance per time) divided by time; or distance per
time per time, or distance per time squared.
If an object such as a ball is dropped, it falls under the influence of gravity
in such a way that its speed increases constantly with time. That is, the
object accelerates as it falls with constant acceleration. At sea level, the
rate of acceleration is about 9.8 meters per second squared. In gravity
surveying, we will measure variations in the acceleration due to the
earth's gravity.
As will be described next, variations in this acceleration can be caused by
variations in subsurface geology. Acceleration variations due to geology,
however, tend to be much smaller than 9.8 meters per second squared.
Thus, a meter per second squared is an inconvenient system of units to
The units typically used in describing the graviational acceleration
use when discussing gravity surveys.
variations observed in exploration gravity surveys are specied in
milliGals. A Gal is dened as a centimeter per second squared. Thus, the
Earth's gravitational acceleration is approximately 980 Gals. The Gal is
named after Galileo Galilei. The milliGal (mgal) is one thousandth of a Gal.
In milli- Gals, the Earth's gravitational acceleration is approximately
980,000.
1 gal
= 10-2
m/s2
= 10-2
newton/m2
1 mgal = 10-5 m/s2 = 10-3 gal
1ugal = 10-8 m/s2 = 10-3 mgal

Figure 1: The concept of velocity.

Figure 2: The concept of acceleration.

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The fundamental physical property of gravity is

density

High
Gravity

Gravity

Gravity

Observe the following cases:

Low
Gravity

High
density

Constant
Gravity

Distance

Distance
2.1 2.6 3 2.4 2.1

Gravity

Density = Mass / Volume

3.1 2.7 2.3 2.6 3.2

Low
density

Distance
2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1
Constant
density

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Gravity and Geology

How is the Gravitational Acceleration, g, Related to Geology?
Density is defend as mass per unit volume. For example, if we were to
calculate the density of a room filled with people, the density would be
given by the average number of people per unit space (e.g., per cubic
foot) and would have the units of people per cubic foot. The higher the
number, the more closely spaced are the people. Thus, we would say the
room is more densely packed with people. The units typically used to
describe density of substances are grams per centimeter cubed
(gm/cm3); mass per unit volume. In relating our room analogy to
substances, we can use the point mass described earlier as we did the
number of people.
Consider a simple geologic example of an ore body buried in soil, Figure
3. We would expect the density of the ore body, d2, to be greater than
the density of the surrounding soil, d1.
The density of the material can be thought of as a number that
quantifies the number of point masses needed to represent the material
per unit volume of the material just like the number of people per cubic
foot in the example given above described how crowded a particular
room was. Thus, to represent a high-density ore body, we need more
point masses per unit volume than we would for the lower density soil3,
Figure
Now, 4.
let's qualitatively describe the gravitational acceleration
experienced by a ball as it is dropped from a ladder, Figure 5. This
acceleration can be calculated by measuring the time rate of change12of

Figure 3: Earth density model of an ore body.

Figure 4: Point mass representation of
the ore body density model.

Figure 6: Building a
gravity profile.

Figure 5: More point masses mean

more acceleration.

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