Enhancing geological interpretation with gravity; appplication to Permo-Carboniferous graben in Switzerland

Abstract

Understanding the geology is the first objective in exploration, either for geothermal or oil and gas projects. In Switzerland, the identification and characterization of Permo-­?carboniferous grabens represent an important exploration challenge. Reflection seismic often doesn’t provide suitable imaging of the basement and reveals few places where these structures could be partially imaged. In this study, the application of high accuracy gravity forward modeling using finite element meshing and post-­?processing, mainly filtering of Bouguer anomaly, shows to be a robust technique to help understanding deep basement structures. To achieve this goal, two steps are taken: 1) identification of the gravity signature that would be arising from Permo-­?carboniferous grabens, 2) validation of the 3-­?D geological model based on geological and reflection seismic data. As a result, the geological model is modified to match the observation data.