Study of North West Sedimentary Basin of Iran by 3D Modeling of Gravity Data

Inversion of the gravity data is one of the most interesting numerical tools for obtaining three dimensional geological images. In this paper 3D nonlinear inversion of the gravity data is used to determine the basement topography. The basement was juxtaposed with the regular array of rectangular prisms in which the thickness of each prism is determined by the inversion procedures. Prepared algorithm is based on singular value decomposition (SVD) method which ca modify the initial model by comparing observed and estimated gravity data. The SVD method is very popular with geophysical data analysts because it is mathematically robust and numerically stable. To illustrate effectiveness of the prepared codes and algorithm related to 3D inversion of gravity data, both synthetic and real data were tested by the mentioned algorithm. The real data were part of the gravity data which were acquired in Moghan area (located in the north-west of Iran). Because of being near to the Baku oil-rich regions and thick sedimentary rocks, the Moghan sedimentary basin is an interesting area from hydrocarbon exploration point of view. Determination of the sedimentary rocks thickness is an important factor in oil and gas exploration issues. The main goal of 3D inversion of the gravity data in the study area is to determine basement the sedimentary rocks thicknesses or the boundary of Ojagh-Gheslagh Formation and its volcanic basement. The modeled boundary of Ojagh-Gheshlagh Formation and its volcanic basement which is obtained by the inversion of gravity data, was previously confirmed by interpretation of seismic data.