A new approach to semi-infinite thin slab depth determination from second moving average residual gravity anomalies

In this paper, we have developed a new least- squares minimisation approach to determine the depth of a buried faultedstructureapproximatedbya2Dsemi-infinitehorizontalslabfromsecondmovingaverageresidualgravityanomalies. Theproblemofdepthdeterminationhasbeentransformedintoaproblemof findingthesolutiontoanonlinearequationofthe formz =f (z).Themethodcanbeappliednotonlytoresidualsbutalsotoobserveddata.Themethodovercomestheproblems associated with determining the depth from successive horizontal derivative anomalies obtained from 2D gravity data using filtersofsuccessivegraticulespacings.Themethodisappliedtotheoreticaldatawithandwithoutrandomerrorsandistested on a field example from Egypt. In all cases, the depth solution obtained is in good agreement with the actual depth.