Marc Munschy

We compare marine magnetic measurements simultaneously acquired with absolute and three-component fluxgate sensors to evaluate their respective benefits for marine geophysical mapping and detection surveys.Shom collected the data in shallow waters, in the Bay of Brest (France) and in the Iroise Sea, during two cruises in the Fall 2021. As per standard practice, an absolute Overhauser magnetometer was towed 180 m behind the 60 m-long Laplace and Lapérouse hydrographic vessels. In addition, two vector magnetometers were temporarily installed at the top of the ship’s mast and on the roof of a 10 m-long launch. Scalar data were processed following Shom’s standards: shift to sensor position, layback adjustments, removal of gyrations and spikes, filtering and calculation of magnetic anomalies by removing the IGRF model (Alken et al., 2021) and reducing external variations measured at a local reference station. Vector data were corrected for the strong magnetic fields generated by the hull and other steel components of the ship by the application of a “scalar compensation” using a least-squares regression analysis (Leliak, 1961) on data from figures of merit. The compensated vector data then need to be low-pass filtered to remove uncorrected variations of attitude and heading. Magnetic anomalies were finally computed by removing the median value for each profile and reducing external variations from the same local reference station.Our first results show that maps of total-field anomalies derived from vector data acquired on the ship are very close to those of the absolute data upward-continued to the altitude of the mast. This similarity suggests that it is possible to perform good-quality magnetic surveys without the constraint of having to tow an instrument. The different processing steps however raise the detection threshold for anthropogenic objects lying on the seafloor or partially buried. Vector data acquired on smaller launchs are much more complicated to compensate as ranges of pitch, roll and heading variations are greater than for a large ship and potentially imperfectly sampled by the figures of merit.

Melt supply at the ultraslow‐spreading Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) has been shown to vary from nearly amagmatic, leading to ultramafic seafloor, to magmatically robust, producing fully volcanic seafloor. The center of the SWIR 50°28′E segment represents a magmatically robust endmember. High‐resolution bathymetry and backscatter, near‐bottom magnetic data, and visual observations were acquired to infer spatiotemporal variations in upper‐crustal construction over the past 780 kyr. Tectonic strain inferred from observed faults represents <8% of the total plate divergence during this period. Mapped seafloor and lava morphologies show a prevalence of smooth seafloor and smooth hummocky seafloor (64% mapped area), corresponding to a dominance of high‐effusion‐rate, sheet‐lobate lavas, over hummocky seafloor (29%) that mostly comprises low‐effusion‐rate pillow lavas. This prevalence is most pronounced within a ∼5 km‐long domain at the segment center, while hummocky seafloor prevails to its east and west, indicating a substantial along‐axis decrease in average eruption rate. Across‐axis changes of seafloor morphologies and faulting pattern indicate two successive cycles of upper‐crustal construction. These cycles last ∼300 kyr, interpreted as waxing and waning magmatic phases. During waxing phases, shallow axial melt lenses (AMLs) form beneath the segment center, feeding narrow diking systems that build high‐eruption‐rate smooth domal volcanos. During waning phases, lower frequencies of melt replenishment may cause the AML to become deeper and ultimately disappear. This configuration triggers diking and hummocky‐dominated eruptions over a wider axial domain, with more faults. We propose that modes of upper‐crustal construction at slow and ultraslow mid‐ocean ridges are influenced by melt supply more than spreading rate.

– Availability of fast and precise ground and drone-borne magnetic surveys.– Extraction of information on the sources through potential field transforms.

In many grabens of the West European Rift System, several drilling projects are targeting fluid conductive faults to produce electricity with geothermal energy. In order to reach the adequate temperatures, the targeted faults are located in the basement rocks or at the basement/cover interface. Unfortunately, the basement rock facies and structural data useful for reservoir modeling are often poorly constrained because of the lack of boreholes deeper than 2,000 m and seismic information on the deep subsurface. With the aim to outline the basement structure in the Upper Rhine Graben, two aeromagnetic surveys were conducted where the basement outcrops in the Northern Vosges, with different flight parameters and types of magnetometers. An interpolator using equivalent sources for gridding these two surveys is described by Gavazzi et al. (2020). Here, we describe the geological interpretation of these surveys. We demonstrate the consistency between the total magnetic field intensity and the outcropping lithological units organized in ENE‐WSW subvertical bands. In detail, three main blocks were delineated, separated by N‐S faults linked to the graben formation and ENE‐WSW‐inherited Hercynian faults. The latter faults, together with more local NE‐SW and NW‐SE faults, compartmentalize the N‐S‐oriented basement rocks. This is relevant for geothermal prospection where the N‐S faults are the main targets because fluid flow through other fault systems is deemed restricted. With a focus on the interface between the Northern Vosges and the Upper Rhine Graben, we also demonstrate considerable segmentation on the main graben boundary faults.

Airborne magnetic surveys are common in geosciences. High‐precision surveys are usually performed at a low altitude, draping the topography, using scalar absolute magnetometers and active compensation systems to correct the disturbances generated by the carrier. Another solution is to measure the total magnetic intensity using vector magnetometers, which allows compensation for aircraft fields to be calculated directly, without compensation systems. This study uses data of an industrial airborne survey and of a vector magnetometer survey with a small overlapping area in the Vosges (France) to compare both data sets and shows that both solutions provide results of the same overall precision. This paper also addresses the issue of combining fixed altitude and draped level data sets as well as topographic effect management by proposing an equivalent source interpolator based on a set of simple dipole sources. A synthetic case shows that the equivalent source interpolator allows to compute grids of the magnetic anomaly as well as potential field transforms from a draped data set with an error level a few orders of magnitude lower than could be obtained with minimum curvature, a classically applied interpolator. The interpolator is also tested on a case study in the Vosges massif of which geological interpretation is presented in Bertrand et al. (2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JB017688). The results confirm the observations made on the synthetic case and show that the equivalent source interpolator is more tolerant to navigation errors (altitude) than minimum curvature and allows more rigorous computation of potential field transforms of draped data sets.

Recent developments of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle raise an interest for aerial magnetic measurements closer to the sources than the usual aeromagnetic surveys done with planes. For some years now, ECA Group has been developing an UAV named IT-180. It was decided to use this UAV to carry a three-component fluxgate magnetometer in order to measure ships’ signature. Some major issues are addressed as the magnetic field of the drone must be reduced as low as possible. On the other hand, vector magnetic measurements cannot be performed with a moving sensor and only the total magnetic field can be measured. It is shown how the influence of a carrier and the three main type of errors of the fluxgate magnetometer can be reduced, using calibration and compensation procedures, and two different methods are proposed to compute the three components of the magnetic field using the total magnetic field measurements. Finally, those methods are field tested, using a calibrated source with a strong vertical magnetization.

Open access peer-reviewed chapter

The shape of an anomaly (magnetic or gravity) along a profile provides information on the geometry, horizontal location, depth, and magnetization of the source. For a 2D source, the horizontal location, depth, and geometry of a source are determined through the analysis of the curve of the analytic signal. However, the amplitude of the analytic signal is independent of the dips of the structure, the apparent inclination of magnetization, and the regional magnetic field. To better characterize the parameters of the source, we have developed a new approach for studying 2D potential field equations using complex algebra. Complex equations for different geometries of the sources are obtained for gravity and magnetic anomalies in the spatial and spectral domains. In the spatial domain, these new equations are compact and correspond to logarithmic or power functions with a negative integer exponent. We found that modifying the shape of the source changes the exponent of the power function, which is equivalent to differentiation or integration. We developed anomaly profiles using plots in the complex plane, which is called mapping. The obtained complex curves are loops passing through the origin of the plane. The shape of these loops depends only on the geometry and not on the horizontal location of the source. For source geometries defined by a single point, the loop shape is also independent of the source depth. The orientation of the curves in the complex plane is related to the order of differentiation or integration, the geometry and dips of the structures, and the apparent inclination of magnetization and of the regional magnetic field. The application of these equations and mapping on total field magnetic anomalies across a magmatic dike in Norway shows coherent results, allowing us to determine the geometry and the apparent inclination of magnetization.

Magnetic surveys for geophysical interpretation will most usefully furnish estimates of the three components of the magnetic field vector. We review methods for obtaining this information based on scalar and tensor magnetic field measurements and point out the advantages of fluxgate vector measurements. Fluxgate vector magnetometers can be powerful instruments in magnetic mapping. The main problems in using fluxgate magnetometers arise from calibration errors and drift but these can be overcome using a quick and simple method of calibration. This method also has the advantage of compensating permanent and induced magnetic fields generated by the airplane. This is illustrated by a new aeromagnetic survey flown in the Vosges area (France). Measurement accuracy is shown to be similar to that obtained with scalar magnetometers. We take advantage of this accuracy to calculate in the Fourier domain other magnetic functions from the total‐field anomaly, in particular, the magnetic gradient tensor is obtained without using any superconducting quantum devices. A similar approach is used to introduce a new magnetic anomaly tensor that is the equivalent of the pseudo‐gravity tensor. Maps presented in the last sections serve as an example to illustrate the various functions, the goal of the paper being to obtain magnetic vector data from the observations without first postulating the detailed nature of the sources.