Source depth characterization of potential field data of Bay of Bengal by continuous wavelet transform

Abstract

Wavelet transform is an efficient technique to interpret the potential field data. The continuous wavelet transform is used to locate and characterize the source of the potential field by transferring the data into an auxiliary space. The technique has been tested on several synthetic source anomalies and applied to potential field data from Bay of Bengal. Using free air gravity and magnetic data the mean depth to causative sources indicates presence of lithospheric flexure at the central part of profile across 85ºE ridge. Using free air gravity data, it is inferred that mean depth to causative sources decreases from west to east across 90E ridge along MAN-01 profile which indicates increase of sediment thickness across the ridge from east to west. The technique gives mean depth of the causative sources without any a priori information which can be used as a initial model in any inversion algorithm.