Application of The 3D Magnetotelluric Inversion Code in A Geologically Complex Area

Geophysical Prospecting, 2010, 58, 11771192 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2478.2010.00896.
x
Application of the 3D magnetotelluric inversion code in a geologically
complex area
Qibin Xiao
1
, Xinping Cai
2
, Xingwang Xu
2
, Guanghe Liang
2
and Baolin Zhang
2
1
Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China, and
2
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Received December 2008, revision accepted April 2010
ABSTRACT
The WSINV3DMT code makes the implementation of 3D inversion of magnetotel-
luric data feasible using a single PC. Audio-magnetotelluric data were collected along
two profiles in a Cu-Ni mining area in Xinjiang, China, where the apparent resistiv-
ity and phase curves, the phase tensors and the magnetic induction vectors indicate a
complex 3D conductivity structure. 3D inversions were carried out to reveal the elec-
trical structure of the area. The final 3D model is selected from the inversion results
using different initial Lagrange values and steps. The relatively low root-mean-square
(rms) misfit and model norm indicate a reliable electrical model. The final model
includes four types of low resistivity areas, the first ones coincide with the known
location of an orebody and further forward modelling indicates that they are not in
full connectivity to form a low resistivity zone. The second ones are not controlled
by magnetotelluric sites and embody little information of the observed data, they are
considered as tedious structures. The third one is near to the regional Kangguer fault
and should be treated carefully considering the effect of the fault. The last ones are
isolated and existing at a limited level as the first ones, they should be paid more
attention to.
Key words: 3D inversion, Forward modelling, Geologically complex area, Magne-
totellurics.
I NTRODUCTI ON
In the last ten or more years, the 2D inversion techniques have
replaced one-dimensional inversion and become the main-
stream in magnetotelluric (MT) data interpretation. Com-
mon inversion codes are, for instance, the Occam method
(Wannamaker, Stodt and Rijo 1986, 1987; Constable, Parker
and Constable 1987; deGroot-Hedlin and Constable 1990,
2004), the reduced basis Occam inversion (Siripunvaraporn
and Egbert 2000, 2007), the inversion method based on an
Bayesian information criterion (Uchida 1993), the non-linear
conjugate gradients (Rodi and Mackie 2001) and the rapid
E-mail: xqbchina@sina.com
relaxation inversion (Smith and Booker 1991). 2D inversion
methods made the application fields of magnetotellurics ex-
pand rapidly. On the other hand, 2D inversion methods en-
counter increasing challenges in geologically complex regions.
The typical problems that increase the uncertainty of the in-
version results are the static shift of the apparent resistiv-
ity curves and the distortion of the impedance tensor, both
caused by local inhomogeneous bodies at shallow level, as
well as the determination of an appropriate 2Dstrike direction
and hence the right selection of polarization modes. Though
there are some special discussions on the veracity of 2D inver-
sion (Berdichevsky, Dmitriev and Pozdnjakova 1998; Ogawa
2002; Ledo et al. 2002; Ledo 2005) and different tools, such as
decomposition of impedance tensor, static shift removing and
determination of the regional electrical strike direction, have
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2010 European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers 1177
1178 Qibin Xiao et al.
been proposed (Bahr 1988, 1991; Jones 1988; Groom and
Bailey 1989; deGroot-Hedlin 1991; Ogawa and Uchida 1996;
Ogawa 1999; McNeice and Jones 2001). They are based on
some simplifications of the true structure, for example, most
methods of decomposition of the impedance tensor are based
on the assumption that the nature or dimensionality of the
regional conductivity structure is 2D. In order to increase the
veracity and stability of magnetotelluric data interpretation
further, the 3D inversion has become more common in MT
data interpretation, a fine 3D model can even compensate for
the static shift and distortion caused by shallow inhomoge-
neous bodies. A number of 3D inversion codes have been de-
veloped recently (Avdeev 2005), e.g., the conjugate gradients
method (Mackie and Madden 1993), the non-linear conjugate
gradients method (Newmann and Alumbaugh 2000; Mackie,
Rodi and Watts 2001) and the 3D inversion technology based
on the Gauss-Newton algorithm (Sasaki 2001; Farquharson
et al. 2002; Avdeev and Avdeeva 2006; Han et al. 2008).
Though all these three-dimensional inversion methods have
been validated with synthetic data, the 3D inverse problem is
far from being solved. Most 3D inversion routines can only
be applied on a high-end workstation or parallel machine. In
addition, there have been few discussions on the stability and
reliability of practical application (Mackie et al. 2001; Han
et al. 2008; Farquharson and Craven 2009).
Siripunvaraporn and Egbert (2000) applied the data-space
method to solve the 2D magnetotelluric (MT) inversion prob-
lem for the first time and developed the conversion of Occam
inversion based on model-space to data-space, which greatly
increases the computational speed of inversion. Recently,
they applied the data-space method to 3D MT inversion
(Siripunvaraporn et al. 2005a; Siripunvaraporn, Egbert and
Uyeshima 2005b). With great decreasing of computational
consumption, it is possible to implement 3D MT inversion on
a single PC. In this article we apply the 3D MT inversion code
WSINV3DMT introduced by Siripunvaraporn et al. (2005a)
to a set of MT data obtained in the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining
area, Xinjiang. The 3D inversion using WSINV3DMT was
stable, converged rapidly and achieved a good data fit, sug-
gesting a reliable electrical model. The final 3D conductivity
structure was tested with forward modelling.
THEORETI CAL BACKGROUND
In the forward subroutine of WSINV3DMT, Siripunvara-
porn, Egbert and Lenbury (2002) adopted the popular stag-
gered grid finite difference method and used the second-order
Maxwells equation as equation (2) to solve the electric field,
then used the first-order Maxwells equation as equation (1)
to solve the magnetic field.
E = i H, (1)
E = i E. (2)
In the above equations, is the air magnetic permeability,
is the angular frequency, is the conductivity, E is the electric
field and H is the magnetic field.
The inversion subroutine of WSINV3DMT is based on the
Occam inversion. The objective function (m,) has the fol-
lowing form:
(m, ) = (mm
0
)
T
C
1
m
(mm
0
)
+
1

(d F[m])
T
C
1
d
(d F[m])
.
(3)
Here m is the resistivity model, M is the number of model
parameters, m
0
the prior model, C
m
the model covariance
matrix that defines the resistivity variation of magnitude and
smoothness relative to the prior model, d the observed data,
N the number of observed data, F[m] the model response, C
d
the data covariance matrix and the Lagrange multiplier.
The traditional iterative approximate solutions of equation
(3) are as follows:
m
k+1
() =
k+1
J
T
k
C
1
d
X
k
+m
0
. (4)
Figure 1 Geology and layout of geophysical exploration work in the
Tulargen Cu-Ni mining area: 1. Quaternary system; 2. Carboniferous
stratum; 3. volcanic rock of Devonian system; 4. granite of Hercynian
period; 5. granite-prophyrite of Hercynian period; 6. survey line and
number; 7. MT site and number; 8. known ultrabasic ore-bearing
rock mass; 9. fault zone.
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2010 European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers, Geophysical Prospecting, 58, 11771192
Application of a 3D magnetotelluric inversion code 1179
Here k is the iteration number, J
k
= ( F/m)
k
is an N M
sensitivity matrix calculated at m
k,
X
k
= d F[m
k
] + J
k
(m
k
m
0
),
k+1
= [C
1
m
+
m
k
]
1
,
m
k
= J
T
k
C
1
d
J
k
is the M M
model-space cross-product matrix.
The key point of the inversion subroutine of WSINV3DMT
is implementing a series of matrix transforms to equation (4)
and to obtain a new iterative expression:
m
k+1
() = C
m
J
T
k

k+1
X
k
+m
0
. (5)
Here
k+1
= [C
d
+
n
k
]
1
,
n
k
= J
k
C
m
J
T
k
is the N N
data-space cross-product matrix.
The main difference between equations (4) and (5) is that
the dimension of the system of equations to be solved changes
greatly, the number of equations decreases from M M to
N N. In many practical cases, N will be much less than
M, hence, this transformation to data space results in a great
saving on computational costs of both memory and central
processing unit (CPU) time (Siripunvaraporn et al. 2005a).
In 3D magnetotelluric finite difference approximations, ei-
ther the electric fields or the magnetic fields can be solved first,
the former is referred to as FDE, while the latter is referred
to as FDH. Mackie, Smith and Madden (1994) used FDH
for 3D MT modelling, while Smith (1996) and Alumbaugh
et al. (1996) used FDE. Siripunvaraporn et al. (2002) pointed
out that the solutions obtained by FDE are less sensitive to
grid resolution than those obtained by FDH and compared
the 3D numerical solutions with the analytic solutions of a
half-space model and a 1D layered model under different grid
resolutions.
Siripunvaraporn et al. (2005a,b) inverted synthetic data sets
both along a single profile and on a plane with WSINV3DMT,
obtaining reasonable results. Miensopust, Mart and Jones
(2007) also tested the inversion codes using different grids
and data sets from simple synthetic models in order to un-
derstand how different parameters and mesh sizing affect
the resulting models. While Heise et al. (2008) obtained the
Figure 2 XY and YX apparent resistivity (a) and phase () curves of magnetotelluric sites in the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining area. Solid circles: XY
component; empty circles: YX component. The phase values are adjusted to the first quadrant. The 5-channel sites are 1, 5, 6, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19.
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resistivity structure of the Rotokawa geothermal system,
Ingham et al. (2009) studied the deep resistivity struc-
ture of the Mount Ruapehu volcano in New Zealand with
WSINV3DMT.
FI ELD DATA I NVERSI ON
The Tulargen mining area lies 200 km to the east of Hami,
Xinjiang, China. The main strata in the mining area are
volcanic-sedimentary rocks of Carboniferous age and volcanic
clastic rocks of the Wutongwo group (San et al. 2007). At the
south side and middle-east section of the mining area, there is a
large range of Proterozoic deep metamorphic rock covered un-
comfortably by the Carboniferous volcanic-sedimentary rock.
At the northern side of the mining area, namely, north of the
Kangguer fault, the welded volcanic-agglomerate including
schist-bearing and gneiss-bearing breccias of Devonian system
outcrop. Besides, the granite (porphyry) and basic-ultrabasic
complex of the Hercynian period are well developed in the
mining area. The Tulargen Cu-Ni deposit is of whole-rock
mineralization and ultrabasic rock-type. The geological map
of the mining area (Fig. 1) shows that the known ore-bearing
magmatic body extends in the northeast-east direction, about
700 min length and 5070 min width (Fig. 1). A local drilling
hole displays that the ore-bearing magmatic body dips south
steeply and extends more than 150 m in depth (San et al.
2007).
In 2003, we carried out an audio-magnetotelluric work in
the Tulargen mining area along two profiles AA
and BB
shown in Fig. 1. There are 19 magnetotelluric sites in total;

the general site space is from100300 mwith locally densified
site distribution. The field data were obtained with GMS06
MT measuring systems by Metronix. In the field work, we
used two standard five-channel systems (which record both
electric and magnetic fields) and some two-channel systems
Figure 3 XX and YY apparent resistivity (a) and phase () curves of magnetotelluric sites in the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining area. Solid circles:
XX component; empty circles: YY component. The phase values are adjusted to the first quadrant.
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(which only record local electric fields) working together. The
detailed layout of the five-channel MT system followed the
general convention: Hx in south-north direction, Hy in east-
west direction, Hz to the ground surface, Ex in south-north
direction and Ey in east-west direction. The layout of the elec-
tric channels of the two-channel systems is the same as those
of the five-channel systems. Both the two-channel systems and
five-channel systems were recording synchronously controlled
by GPS antennas, so that the two-channel systems can share
the magnetic fields recorded by the five-channel systems. After
processing, we obtained the impedance tensors fromwhich we
calculated apparent resistivities and phase data in a frequency
range of 0.37348000Hz, which corresponds to a depth range
that allows detecting the unknown shallow orebodies.
Figure 2 shows the XY and YX apparent resistivity and
phase curves of the 19 MT sites in the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining
area. Although there exist few outliers at some frequencies
at a few sites because of disturbance (for example, the high
frequency of sites 1 and 3), the general shape of the curves is
smooth and can be used for inversion. The amplitudes of the
XY apparent resistivity are relatively unstable, for example,
the XY apparent resistivity curves of sites 3, 21, 9, 11 and
Figure 4 Phase tensor skew angles () at f = 3318.56 Hz, 765.68 Hz, 176.66 Hz, 40.76 Hz. The skew angle is defined by the direction of the
main axis of the phase tensor ellipse (the red solid line) and the direction of the strike axis (or its normal, showed as the blue solid line).
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16 are lower than the others, which indicates the conductivity
contrasts existing around these sites. At sites 7, 8, 10, 18
and 19, the XY and YX apparent resistivity curves depart
from each other, while the phase curves are the same at high
frequencies, which may be caused by a static shift because
of near-surface inhomogenities under the MT sites. Figure 3
shows the XX and YY apparent resistivity and phase curves
of the 19 MT sites, with many more outliers and the curves
more scattered than those of XY and YX. The amplitudes of
XX and YY apparent resistivity at most sites except sites 21,
9 and 11 are greater than 10 m, which indicate the survey
coordinate systemis deviating fromregional 2Delectrical axes
(if these exist).
Data dimensionality analysis
Phase tensor (Caldwell, Bibby and Brown 2004) is a useful
method to assess the dimensionality of the data and is espe-
cially meaningful in complicated 3D situations. It is indepen-
dent of distortion and can be presented as an ellipse using
the maximum tensor value (
max
), the minimum tensor value
(
min
) and the skew angle (). As shown in Fig. 4, we present
Figure 5 Phase tensor ellipses superimposed by the magnetic induction vectors of five-channel MTsites at f =3318.56 Hz, 765.68 Hz, 176.66 Hz,
40.76 Hz. The red arrows show the imaginary part of the magnetic induction vectors, while the blue arrows show the real part of the magnetic
induction vectors.
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the phase tensor ellipses together with their main axes and
skew angles at four different frequencies. The main axes of
phase tensor ellipses at high frequencies (as f = 3318.56Hz,
765.68Hz) are more unstable than those at relatively low fre-
quency (as f = 40.76Hz), the skew angles of sites 2, 3, 5, 21,
6 are more than 3 at frequencies 3318.56Hz and 176.66Hz.
In general, the conductivity structure under sites 2, 3, 5, 21, 6
close to 3D, the conductivity structure of sites 17 and 19 are
also complex at f = 3318.56Hz.
Magnetic induction vectors are also indicators for the geo-
electric strike and dimensionality of the region (Parkinson
1959; Schmucker 1970; Siemon 1997). The real parts of
the induction vectors are orthogonal to the geoelectric strike
(Padilha et al. 2006). Their magnitudes can imply the inho-
mogeneity of buried media. We obtained induction vectors at
each of the five-channel MT sites in the mining area, as shown
in Fig. 5, both the directions and magnitudes of the vectors
change greatly from high frequency to low frequency. For ex-
ample, at f = 3318.56Hz, the real vectors (as at sites 11, 9, 6,
5, 1, 19) imply a nearly EW regional strike, then the arrows
rotate counter-clockwise at f = 765.68 and 176.66Hz and
at f = 40.76Hz, they imply a northwest-southeast regional
strike (as at sites 5, 6, 14, 16, 19). The variety in the di-
rections of the induction vectors at different frequencies may
indicate complex geoelectric structures underground.
3D initial model description
In the 3D MT inversion code WSINV3DMT, the model direc-
tions are defined as follows: x in the NS direction with north
positive; y in the EWdirection with east positive and z positive
downwards. In the plane view, the centre point of the model
is the origin of the models coordinate system, the distances
from the model boundaries to the origin are equal. We con-
structed the 3D initial model of the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining
area as a homogeneous half-space of 100 m. The horizon-
tal grid and vertical layers of the core section are shown in
Fig. 6, the number of grids from south to north is 35, from
west to east 35 and the number of vertical layers is 30 (with-
out air layers), so the total number of model cells is M =
35 35 30 = 36750.
Input data description and 3D inversion
In the 3D MT inversion code WSINV3DMT, the basic el-
ements forming input data are real and imaginary parts of
Figure 6 Plane grids (left) of the core section in the 3D initial model and vertical grids (right) from surface down (the solid points in the plane
grids displaying MT survey sites).
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impedance tensor (Z), we can either use the sub-diagonal
data (Z
xy
.real, Z
xy
.imag, Z
yx
.real, Z
yx
.imag) or the full
impedance tensor (Z
xx
.real, Z
xx
.imag, Z
xy
.real, Z
xy
.imag,
Z
yx
.real, Z
yx
.imag, Z
yy
.real, Z
yy
.imag). As shown in Figs 2
and 3, the errors existing in the observed data are very
large at some frequencies and these large errors will not
only make a very small rms (root-mean-square, rms =
((Obs d Rsp d)/err d)

2
/N, where Obs_d are the ob-
served data, Rsp_d are the model responses, err d are the
errors of observed data and N is the total number of observed
data) at the beginning of the 3D inversion but also produce
models with little change of the initial model. According to
these reasons, we set the error scale of the observed impedance
tensor as 5% to ensure the model responses fit well with the
observed data. The outliers in the observed data are excluded
by changing their error scales to as large as 999 times 5%.
The total number of data N is determined by the number
of sites, frequency number and number of impedance ten-
sor elements. In the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining area, we used
all of the 19 MT sites, selected 18 frequencies in the range
0.37348000Hz and adopted all the eight impedance ten-
sor elements. Hence, the total number of data was N =
19 18 8 = 2736.
After constructing the initial model and the input data, we
should confirmthat the 3Dinversion can be carried out in our
PC. For the 3D MT inversion code WSINV3DMT, the RAM
cost is about 1.2 (8N
2
+8NM), in the Tulargen Cu-Ni min-
ing area, it needs 989.1 Mb RAMto run the 3DMT inversion.
Figure 7 Plots of model norm (upper), rms (middle) and (bottom) for each iteration of the 3D MT inversion.
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In fact, the 3D inversion is feasible on a PC configured with 1
GB RAM.
The WSINV3DMT inherits the basic idea of Occam, in
each iteration of WSINV3DMT inversion, the first stage tries
to bring the data misfit to the target level, once the misfit
reaches the desired level, the next stage begins by keeping
the misfit at the desired level, varying Lagrange multiplier
to seek the model of the smallest norm. In applying the
WSINV3DMT inversion the default values were 5, 0.1, 0.1
0.1 for the spatial smoothing parameters ( and
x
,
y
,
z
) and
different Lagrange multipliers (initial = 2.0, 5.0, 10.0 with
1.0 and 0.5 step respectively) were used to find a reasonable
model. It cost about 6 hours for one iteration on an Inter-
core Quad Processer (2.83 GHz) PC. Figure 7 displays the
inversion parameters of the 3D inversion in the Tulargen Cu-
Ni mining area, which shows that small steps for makes the
change of rms and model norm gentle. As the rms misfit is
inconsistent with the corresponding model norm, a small rms
misfit may produce a rough model, so we selected the third
model produced with an initial = 5.0 and 0.5 step from the
3D inversions results. The rms for the selected model is 2.266
and the model norm is 1.62 10
4
, the low rms indicates that
the model can reflect the information contained in observed
data to a great extent.
Results and discussion
Figure 8 shows the 3D model response curves of the XY and
YX components together with the corresponding observed
data. All the XY phase curves fit well with the corresponding
observed data, as well as the YX phase curves, except sites 21
and 6. Generally, the XY component of apparent resistivity
response curves fit better with the observed data than the YX
component of apparent resistivity. The possible static shifts in
Figure 8 Comparison of the 3D model response and observed data. The solid circles show observed apparent resistivity and phase data of XY,
the empty circles show the observed YX, the solid lines show the 3D responses of XY, the dash lines show the 3D responses of YX.
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the observed apparent resistivity data of sites 7, 8, 10, 18, and
19 are compensated to some extent, which indicates that the
initial model is fine at shallowlevel to incorporate near-surface
structure in the inversion (Sasaki 2004). Figure 9 shows the 3D
model response curves of XX and YY components together
with the corresponding observed data, though most of the
model response curves shift or part from the observed data,
the response curves are smooth and following up the shapes
of the observed data to some extent.
With the selected 3D model, a series of plane slices of re-
sistivity in the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining area were obtained.
Figure 10 shows the resistivity slices at different depths, the
low resistivity areas (with logarithm value less than 1.5) are
isolated at shallowlevel. At depth from2040 m, the lowresis-
tivity areas below sites 21, 9, 11 and 16 appear (Fig. 10b) and
the isolated low resistivity areas extend vertically (Fig. 10ce).
The characteristic is consistent with the relatively low appar-
ent resistivity of these sites in Fig. 2. The low resistivity areas
below sites 21 and 16 are not connected to form an anoma-
lous zone as the known ore-bearing magmatic body in Fig. 1,
though the low resistivity area below site 16 offsets a little to-
ward site 21 at depth 140220 m(Fig. 10f), they are extending
vertically as a whole and in isolated shape at depth less than
220 m. At the depth of 220320 m, the low resistivity areas
below sites 9, 21, 16 begin to fade, while the low resistivity
area below site 3 appears and extends towards site 2 and site
16 (Fig. 10g). There exist low resistivity areas away from MT
sites, such as the area south-west of site 1 (Fig. 10di), the
area north of site 19 (Fig. 10gi) and the area east of site 15
(Fig. 10fh). The low resistivity area north of site 11 is stable
and clear, it shifts towards south-east and enlarges at depth.
At the depth of 520620 m (Fig. 10j), the low resistivity areas
Figure 9 Comparison of the 3D model response and observed data. The solid circles show observed apparent resistivity and phase data of XX,
the empty circles show the observed YY, the solid lines show the 3D responses of XX, the dash lines show the 3D responses of YY.
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Figure 10 The resistivity slices at different depth in the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining area. The crosses show the locations of MT sites.
begin to fade. At depths greater than 820 m (Fig. 10l), all the
low resistivity anomalies vanish.
Figure 11 shows the 3D Iso-surface (called as Iso-0) of re-
sistivity value 1.5 (logarithmic value), the image gives the out-
line of the low resistivity areas, just as analysed from the
plane slices. The large low resistivity centres are located in
the northern part of the mining area, the low resistivity areas
below sites 21 and 16 are not connected to form a zone as
shown in Fig. 1. The low resistivity areas marked as A, B and
C are not controlled by MT sites. As the distance between the
two MT profiles is about 500 m, which is greater than the
distances between MT sites, we first made a modified model
of Iso-0 (called Iso-1) with the low resistivity areas below sites
21 and 16 being connected and calculated the responses. The
total rms for Iso-1 is 2.525. We made another modified model
of Iso-0 (called Iso-2) by replacing the values of the low re-
sistivity areas as A, B and C in Iso-0 with their surrounding
resistivity. The total rms for Iso-2 is 2.286. Figure 12 shows
the 3D Iso-surface of Iso-1 and the comparison of model re-
sponses and observed data, it shows that the connected low
resistivity zone has little influence on sites 15 and 16 but has
certain influence on sites 21 and 6, which coincides with the
rms of each site in Fig. 13. It indicates that the known ore-
bearing magmatic body is not a fully connected low resistivity
zone. In Fig. 14, the calculated XY and YX apparent resistiv-
ity and phase curves of Iso-2 can fit well with the observed
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Figure 11 3D Iso-surface of resistivity at value 1.5 in logarithm in
the Tulargen Cu-Ni mining area. Solid points show the MT sites, the
dashed ellipses enclose the low resistivity areas not controlled by MT
sites.
data as those of Iso-0, the calculated XX and YY apparent re-
sistivity and phase curves change slightly from the responses
of Iso-0, the detail rms of each site in Fig. 13 shows that only
the rms of the sub-diagonal elements of site 19 and the rms
of the diagonal elements of site 1 have a small increase. It
seems that the low resistivity areas A, B and C are tedious
structures.
CONCLUSI ONS
We applied the 3D MT inversion code WSINV3DMT in the
Tulargen Cu-Ni mining area on a single PC machine. When
applying WSINV3DMT to observed data, large errors in the
data will result in a small starting rms and therefore the models
will only change slightly compared to the initial model. Setting
the error of the impedance tensor to 5% resulted in a better
fitting of the observed data.
The inversions started with a 100 m half-space model and
default values were used for the spatial smoothing parameters,
the rms misfit can reach a minimum with several iterations.
To ensure a reasonable model, we compared the model norm,
fitting RMS versus Lagrange multiplier with different initial
and steps based on the same half-space model. In this appli-
cation, we selected a model with a relatively small rms and a
model norm as the final model.
The Kangguer fault is the boundary between the strata of
Devonian and the strata of Carboniferous. In the resistivity
slices, it is also displayed as an electrical boundary. The strata
of Devonian show relative low resistivity, while the strata of
Carboniferous show relative high resistivity. The low resistiv-
ity areas in the electrical model can be divided into four types:
the low resistivity areas below sites 21 and 16 consistent with
the known ore-bearing magmatic body but they are isolated at
depth less than 220 m, further forward modelling shows that
they are not in full connectivity so as to form a low resistivity
zone. The lowresistivity areas marked as A, B and Cin Fig. 11
may be considered as tedious structures because they embody
little information of the observed data from the results of for-
ward modelling. The low resistivity area north-east of site 11
is very large but it should be treated carefully considering the
effect of the regional Kangguer fault to the north of site 9. The
low resistivity areas below sites 3 and 9 are isolated and exist
only at a limited level, they are comparable with the low re-
sistivity areas below sites 21 and 16 and should be paid more
attention to.
In our application, the WSINV3DMT program fits the ob-
served data of XY and YX components very well and follows
up the shapes of XXand YYcomponents to a great extent. On
the one hand, it seems to be a good choice in geological com-
plex regions where the 2D MT inversion methods are limited;
on the other hand, there is a trade-off between data fitting
and model norm, sometimes, sensitivity tests are needed to
determine the final 3D model.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research has been supported by the Director Foundation
of the Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration
(Grant No. DF-IGCEA-0608216) and the National Natu-
ral Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 40974042 and
40534023). Mr Siripunvaraporn and Mr Egbert are acknowl-
edged for providing their MT inversion programs for both 2D
and 3D. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and editors
for their comments that led to significant improvements in
this paper. Finally, we are grateful for the help provided by
704 Party, Xinjiang Bureau of Nonferrous Metals Geological
Exploration.
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Application of The 3D Magnetotelluric Inversion Code in A Geologically Complex Area

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Geophysical Prospecting, 2010, 58, 11771192 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2478.2010.00896.

shown in Fig. 1. There are 19 magnetotelluric sites in total;

((Obs d Rsp d)/err d)

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