On the classification of surface geoelectric arrays

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Abstract
We collected approximately one hundred independent geoelectric arrays from published geophysical literature. We have presented them in a systematic way and with a unified notation. The classification of arrays is based on three divalent parameters: “superposition” of measurements, “focusing” of currents and “colinearity” of the array, creating 8 classes of geoelectric arrays.Among the 102 independent arrays we found in the geophysical literature, we managed to classify 92 arrays in the aforementioned way. Ten further techniques fell beyond the proposed classification.The classification we propose may open the way to new geoelectric arrays, hopefully providing improving responses to the infinite variety of field problems we may face. It may bring to daylight, exclusively in a logical way, currently unused arrays. In searching new geoelectric arrays this paper helps to avoid rediscovering the discovered. Although it might be thought that the modern multielectrode systems will supersede all former arrays, such systematization is not only for historical and tutorial interests: some of the “old” arrays can be perhaps built into new multielectode systems, further enhancing their effectivity in the future. Finally, this collection of arrays establishes the possibility of systematic intercomparisons of arrays on the basis of various theoretical or practical aspects.

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