a2. magnetotelluric response of a 2-d earth.docVIP

A2. Magnetotelluric response of a 2-D Earth Maxwell’s equations separate into two modes above a 2D Earth since ?x = 0 See Geophysics 424 notes for details of equations for individual field components In the TM mode, Ez = 0 at z = 0 because the conductivity of the air is zero. Can show that which requires that is constant for all values of y in the TM mode. Some continuous MT profiling surveys attempted to use this fact in the survey layout to save field effort (and money). Only the TM mode was investigated. Electric field dipoles were placed end-to-end to fully sample the resistivity structure and overcome spatial aliasing. In electromagnetic array profiling (EMAP) the continuous MT data were also spatially filtered to remove any lingering effects of near-surface heterogeneity (Torres-Verdin and Bostick, 1992). Since it was assumed that the TM mode magnetic field did not vary along the profile, it was assumed that only once measurement was necessary. Thus magnetic sensors (induction coils) were placed a just one location on the profile. Different situation in marine MT with electric and magnetic fields measured at the seafloor. Bx(y) is not constant in the TM mode. A2.1 Numerical modelling of the magnetotelluric response of a 2D Earth A2.1.1 Early efforts Analytic formulae do not exist for apparent resistivity and phase over a 2-D Earth. Early solutions used power series expansions for some simple geometries e.g. d’Erceville and Kunetz (1962) present the TM mode response of a vertical fault between two quarter spaces. Rankin (1963) extended this approach to compute the TM model response of a dike. These gave solutions for apparent resistivity and phase for a specific subsurface geometry, but were not flexible. The TM-mode solution of d’Erceville and Kunetz (1962) is investigated in Assignment 2 and validated by comparison with the finite-difference technique used in Winglink. To model a general