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One hundred and twelve Schlumberger vertical culty in the interpretation of data where very large
electrical soundings were made as part of a hydro- receiver electrode (MN) spacings have been used
geological study in the Apodi Valley, Brazil. Most or where discontinuities have been introduced by
of the data have been interpreted using an auto- changing the MN spacing on a layered earth con-
matic ridge regression inversion algorithm in con- taining large resistivity contrasts.
junction with a fast digital filter forward al- The soundings were conducted primarily to
gorithm. As a result, the inversion costs are very map the thicknesses of a known alluvial aquifer
low. The increase in speed and accuracy in the and a potential sandstone aquifer. These thick-
evaluation of the forward problem has also al- nesses have been determined to within an error of
lowed calculation of the Schlumberger apparent 20 percent as estimated from analysis of the
resistivity from potential differences, instead of parameter standard deviations and comparison
the electric held. Consequently, there is no diffi- with available drill hole information.
Ilr;TRODC:CTION
There are at least two main approaches to com-
In February I97 I and February 1974 the Super- puterized interpretations of VES data. One ap-
intendencia do Desenvolvimento do Nordeste and proach (Zohdy, 1975) assumes that nothing is
the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco con- known about the number of subsurface layers,
ducted resistivity soundings during an in- their thicknesses, or resistivities. This approach
vestigation of the groundwater resources of the has advantages when a survey is being made in
Apodi Valley, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. A areas where absolutely no geologic information is
total of II2 Schlumberger vertical electrical available: no initial guess is required, and the
soundings (VES) were made with a maximum processing costs are very low (less than $1 per
electrode spacing (A B/2) ranging from I50 to 500 sounding). However, in most hydrogeological ap-
m. The objectives of the electrical survey were to plications, at least some rudimentary geologic in-
determine the thicknesses of the underlying allu- formation is available. This may only consist of a
vial and sandstone horizons and to determine the rough idea of the layering sequence: overlying
basement topography. Instead of using time-con- sediments, aquifer, and basement. Or, in areas
suming traditional methods of interpretation such where wells have been drilled, very detailed infor-
as auxiliary point techniques (Zohdy, 1965) and mation may exist regarding the number of distinct
curve-matching procedures using albums of theo- lithological units and their thicknesses. In these
retical curves (Compagnie general de Geophy- situations it is usually desirable to obtain an inter-
sique, 1973; Orellana and Mooney, 1966; Rijkwa- pretation which has the same number of layers as
terstaat, 1969) the data were automatically pro- there are distinct lithological units, as opposed to
cessed on a Univac 1108 computer at the Uni- the first approach where the number of layers is
versity of Utah. often equal to the number of input data points.
Presented at the 44th Annual International SEG Meeting, November 14, 1974 in Dallas. Manu\cript received by the
Editor June 30. 1976; revised manuscript received December IO, 1976.
* University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.
Umversidade Federal de Pernambuco. Recife. Brazil 50000.
E’
C 1977 Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.
811
812 Rijo et al
In view of the fact that considerable geologic Table I. Values of ABj2 and MN which were used during
the field survey.
information was available in our survey area, and
that the main objective of the survey was to map
spccificmhorizons, we decided to use in our inter-
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where
c/(r, p) = f& $ c, R(lnr - 7‘ ,. p), (5)
rl = A B/2 - MN/2, rz = A B/2 + MN/2,
I 1
where 9, are the abscissas of the stationary filter
and coefficients c,.
I
_----+-
I By dividing the transforms of carefully chosen
AM BM AN BN known input and output functions and inverse
transforming. Anderson (1973, 1975) has deter-
Equation (2) contains two integrals and thus is
mined impulse responses or filter coefficients for
more time-consuming to evaluate than the famil-
the evaluation of the integrals in both (I) and (3).
iar expression (Stefanesco et al, 1930) for Schlum-
In this paper we have used two of Anderson’s
berger resistivity
1,
digital filters: one defined by 61 points and the
0 = (X”Z)L!Z.
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AP = (A“A)- A“
‘ AG. (7) the estimated standard deviation for [PI, may be
obtained from [cov (P)]:{2. Here the advantage
where the superscripts T and - 1 denote transpose of using log parameters in the inversion is clearly
and inverse, respectively. Although (7) is ex- demonstrated. For example, if the resistivity of
ceedingly fast when it converges. it is unfortu- one layer is only poorly determined by the data,
nately highly unstable and usually diverges unless the analysis using log parameters may result in an
the data error is small and the initial guess is very estimate of log resistivity equal to 3.0 with a
accurate. standard deviation of 0.7. This is readily inter-
In order to ensure convergence from poor ini- preted as a best fil value of actual resistivity equal
tial guesses, we generally sacrifice some speed and to 1000 with an uncertainty amounting to a factor
modify (7) as follows, of 5: i.e., the resistivity could be as low as 200 and
AP = (A’rA + kI) A’
‘ AG, as high as 5000. Inversion using linear parameters,
(8)
however. would tend to give a much dill’erent
where I is the identity matrix and k is some posi- result. The best fit would again be 1000 but the
tive quantity (Levenberg, 1944: Foster, 1961; standard deviation would be about 4000. suggest-
Marquardt, 1963). If k is very large, (8) ap- ing that the resistivity might take on negative
proaches the gradient method (Bevington, 1969, values. Since this is obviously not possible, it is
p. 236), which is slow but always converges. At often necessary to construct solution spaces to
the other extreme, if k is very small (8) approaches determine the true confidence interval for the re-
(7) which is very fast but may diverge. The tech- sistivity. The entire problem of possible negative
nique of altering the value of k during the process resistivities and nonelliptical confidence regions,
of inversion in order to ensure stable, fast con- however. is largely avoided by merely inverting
vergence is known as ridge regression. As Inman with respect to log parameters.
(1975) points out, large values of k in the initial Another important statistical quantity which
iterations tend to damp out the small eigenvalues we will discuss here is the correlation matrix,
of A’rA so that only broad features in the data are whose elements are determined by normalizing
initially fitted. After each iteration the value of k the off-diagonal entries of cov (P).
is carefully modified such that the smaller eigen-
[cov (P)l!,.~
values in A”A may be allowed to fit more subtle
]cor (p)]U = [cov (P)];j2[cov (P)]:;*
features in the data, without causing divergence.
When the algorithm eventually converges, AP Often in VES inversion, a thin layer will pro-
+ 0 and we may obtain an estimate of the data duce a correlation very close to 1.0 between the
variance from the reduced chi-square (Bevington, layer thickness ! and layer resistivity p, This in-
1969; Smith, 1975) dicates that only the longitudinal conductance
AGTAG ,=’
.$?Z = ___
n-m’ P
where n - m is the expression for the degrees of is accurately known, Alternately, if the correla-
freedom (n being the number of data points and tion is close to ~ 1.O, only the transverse resistance
m the number of parameters). Since the inversion
T= pt
has been carried out in log apparent resistivity
space, we may obtain an estimate of the average is well determined.
percent data error c, from Perhaps one more subject regarding inversion
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FIG. I. Index map showing the survey area, location of electrical soundings(black dots), and water
wells A and B.
should be treated beforewe illustrate applications and A9u formations, and Quaternary alluvial de-
of the method. Glenn (1973) suggestedthat it is posits.The limestone of the Jandaira formation is
preferable to evaluate the derivative matrix from not of direct importance in this work, becausein
the analytical expression for each derivative. the Apodi Valley area the Quaternary deposits
While this approach may produce more accurate rest directly on the A9t.1formation or on the crys-
entries in A, it involves a considerableincreasein talline basement.
programming. In this paper we have found that The Quaternary alluvial depositsconsistof un-
transforming to log apparent resistivitiesand log consolidated dark organic soil, clay, sand, and
parametersresultsin sufficientlinearization of the gravel. Groundwater is stored in the sand and
problem such that the derivatives may be eval- gravel horizon, and the delineation of this aquifer
uated numerically, by taking the first forward dif- was the principal motivation for the resistivity
ference, with minimal loss in accuracy.As a con- survey.
sequence,it is not necessaryto provide additional The sandstone of the A9u formation is fine-
routines for evaluating the integrals encountered grained at the top but it becomescoarsetoward
in the analytical derivatives. the bottom of the formation. Since the hydro-
geological potential of the sandstone had never
GEOLOGY
been studied in detail in this area, a secondary
The Apodi Valley is a flat alluvial region ap- motivation for the resistivity survey was mapping
proximately 100 kma in area at an elevation of of the sandstonethickness.
about 40 m in the western part of the state of Rio Two deepwells located at VES 18B and 35 sites
Grande do Norte, Brazil (Figure I). It is bounded shown in Figure 1 provide information on the
on the east and westby a sandstoneplateau of the subsurface geology and furnish control for the
Acu formation. It extends northward into the geophysicalinterpretation.
limestone scarpsof the Jandaira formation (Poti-
guar basin) and southward into Precambrian GENERAL FEATURES OF THE SOUNDING
metamorphic rocks. CURVES
The general geology (Reboucas et al, 1967) is The I I2 VES which we have interpretedmay be
comprisedof fcur maIn units; gneiss-andmigma- divided into three main c!acms-correspondingtc
tites of Precambrian age, the CretaceousJandaira distinctly different electricaland geologicsections.
818 Rijo et al
Class I
The first group of soundings we will discuss
were those which were made in areas where the
basement was very shallow. As shown in Figure 2,
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AW2 METERS
AW2 METERS
FIG. 4. Ty ical VES curves showing the usual
sequence 0 P topsoil, clay, alluvial aquifer, poten-
FIG. 2. Typical VES curves obtained in areas tial sandstone aquifer and basement encountered
where the basement was very shallow. over most of the survey area.
resistivity Data from Apodi Valley 817
VES 25
The closeagreementbetweenthe widely spaced
soundings VES 35B and VES 18B suggeststhat
VES 30
FIG. 8. Six layer interpretation of VES 35B com- The last specific sounding curve we will discuss
pared with geological information from well B. is VES 30 shown in Figure IO. Since the alluvial
820 Rijo et al
xf= 1.41 Io-3(9.0%) sentially displays the estimated depth to the top of
r- ~- KY the alluvial aquifer. This depth reaches its max-
p^ h I
imum in close proximity to the Apodi River,
where recent unconsolidated sediments have been
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DISCL’SSION OF RESULTS
Based on the results of the VES interpretation,
three contour maps have been prepared. The
thickness values used in constructing the maps are
believed to be within about 20 percent of the
actual values: however, this belief relies on the
assumption that the resistivities of the alluvial t-
c
aquifer and sandstone layers are relatively con-
stant throughout the region.
The’map for overburden thickness in the survey
area is shown in Figure I I. The “overburden” is
tacitly assumed to include all top soil, clay, and
sandy superficial layers overlying the ground- FIG. I I. Map displaying estimate of overburden
water-bearing gravel horizon. Thus, the map es- thickness (depth to aquifer). Contours in meters.
Resistivity Data from Apodi Valley 821
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
grateful to the Superintendencia do Desenvolvi- estimation, hypothesis testing, and least squares: New
York, Ronald Press Co.
mento do Nordeste and the Universidade Federal
Inman, J. R., 1975, Resistivity inversion with ridge re-
de Pernambuco for permission to use the field gression: Geophysics, v. 40, p, 789-8 17.
data. Thanks are due to Paulo Pedrosa and Jose
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