Probabilistic inference of subsurface heterogeneity and interface geometry using geophysical data ...

• Main Authors: De Pasquale, Giulia, Linde, Niklas, Doetsch, Joseph, Holbrook, W.S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2019
• Subjects: Electrical resistivity tomography ERT; Inverse theory; Probabilistic distributions; Tomography; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000338541; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/338541

Geophysical methods provide remotely sensed data that are sensitive to subsurface properties and interfaces. Knowledge about discontinuities is important throughout the Earth sciences: for example, the saltwater/freshwater interface in coastal areas drive mixing processes; the temporal development of the discontinuity between frozen and unfrozen ground is indicative of permafrost development; and the regolith-bedrock interface often plays a predominant role in both landslide and critical-zone investigations. Accurate detection of subsurface boundaries and their geometry is challenging when using common inversion routines that rely on smoothness constraints that smear out any naturally occurring interfaces. Moreover, uncertainty quantification of interface geometry based on such inversions is very difficult. In this paper, we present a probabilistic formulation and solution to the geophysical inverse problem of inferring interfaces in the presence of significant subsurface heterogeneity. We implement an ... : Geophysical Journal International, 217 (2) ...