Special Issue: Applications and Interpretation of Modern Magnetic Surveys
- Article
- Open access
- Published:
A predictive penetrative fracture mapping method from regional potential field and geologic datasets, southwest Colorado Plateau, U.S.A.
Earth, Planets and Space volume 57, pages 701–715 (2005)
Abstract
Some aquifers of the southwest Colorado Plateau, U.S.A., are deeply buried and overlain by several impermeable units, and thus recharge to the aquifer is probably mainly by seepage down penetrative fracture systems. This purpose of this study was to develop a method to map the location of candidate deep penetrative fractures over a 120,000 km2 area using gravity and aeromagnetic anomaly data together with surficial fracture data. The resulting database constitutes a spatially registered estimate of recharge location. Candidate deep fractures were obtained by spatial correlation of horizontal gradient and analytic signal maxima of gravity and magnetic anomalies vertically with major surficial lineaments obtained from geologic, topographic, side-looking airborne radar, and satellite imagery. The maps define a sub-set of possible penetrative fractures because of limitations of data coverage and the analysis technique. The data and techniques employed do not yield any indication as to whether fractures are open or closed. Correlations were carried out using image processing software in such a way that every pixel on the resulting grids was coded to uniquely identify which datasets correlated. The technique correctly identified known deep fracture systems and many new ones. Maps of the correlations also define in detail the tectonic fabrics of the southwestern Colorado Plateau.
References
ARIA, Arizona Regional Image Archive, University of Arizona on-line resource, http://aria.arizona.edu/, 1998.
Arizona Geologic Survey and Bureau of Land Management, Arizona geologic map, scale 1:100,000, Arizona Geological Survey Map 26, Arizona Geologic Survey, Tucson, AZ, 1993.
Babcock, R. S., Precambrian crystalline core, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, pp. 11–28, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Beus, S. S. and M. Morales, Introducing the Grand Canyon, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, Oxford University Press, pp. 1–10, 1990.
Billingsley, G. H., Geologic map of the Grand Canyon 30′ × 60′ quadrangle, Coconino and Mohave Counties, northwestern Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series I-2688, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, 2000.
Blakely, R. J., Potential Theory in Gravity and Magnetic Applications, Cambridge University Press, 441 pp., 1995.
Blakely, R. J. and R. W. Simpson, Approximating edges of source bodies from magnetic or gravity anomalies, Geophysics, 51, 1494–1498, 1986.
Blank, H. R., W. C. Butler, and R. W. Saltus, Neogene uplift and radial collapse of the Colorado Plateau-regional implications of gravity and aeromagnetic data, Laccolith Complexes of Southeastern Utah, Time of Emplacement and Tectonic Setting—Workshop Proceedings, J. C. Friedman and A. C. Huffman, coordinators, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin, 2158, 9–32, 1997.
Dickinson, W. R., Tectonic setting of Arizona through geologic time, in Geologic Evolution of Arizona, edited by J. P. Jenny and S. J. Reynolds, Arizona Geological Society Digest 17, Tucson, Arizona, pp. 1–16, 1989.
EROS Data Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, http://edc.usgs.gov/, 2001.
Force, E. R., Geology and Mineral Resources of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Southeastern Arizona: A Cross-Sectional Approach, University of Arizona Center for Mineral Resource, University of Arizona Press, 135 pp., 1997.
Ford, T. D., Grand Canyon Supergroup: Nankoweap Formation, Chuar Group, and Sixtymile Formation, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, pp. 49–70, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Gettings, M. E., Some structural features along the Tucson-Mogollon Corridor inferred from gravity and magnetic anomaly data, USGS Circular 1103-A (Program and abstracts for 1994 McKelvey Forum), pp. 38–39, 1994.
Gettings, M. E., Aeromagnetic, radiometric, and gravity data for Coronado National Forest, in Mineral resource potential and geology of Coronado National Forest, Southeastern Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico, edited by E. A. du Bray, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin, 2083-D, 70–101, 1996.
Gettings, M., An objective method of delineating trends in potential field data: International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy IAGA-IASPEI Joint Assembly Abstracts, August 19–31, 2001, Hanoi, Vietnam, p. 251, 2001.
Gettings, M. E., Identification of possible deep penetrative fractures on the southwestern Colorado Plateau, U.S.A.: International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics XXIII General Assembly, IUGG 2003 Scientific Program and Abstracts, June 30–July 11, 2003, Sapporo, Japan, p. B257, 2003.
Gettings, M. E., A method of delineating deep penetrative fractures in thick sedimentary rock sequences, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics XXIII General Assembly, IUGG 2003 Scientific Program and Abstracts, June 30–July 11, 2003, Sapporo, Japan, p. B259, 2003a.
Gettings, M. E. and M. W. Bultman, Candidate penetrative fracture mapping of the Grand Canyon area, Arizona, from spatial correlation of deep geophysical features with surface lineaments, U.S. Geological Survey Data Series DS-121, 1 DVD disk, 2005.
Grauch, V. J. S., Statistical evaluation of linear trends in a compilation of aeromagnetic data from the southwestern U.S., G. S. A. Abstracts with Programs, 20(7), A327, 1988.
Hancock, P., Fracture patterns in the Cotswold Hills, Proceedings Geological Association, 80, 1969.
Hendricks, J. D. and G. M. Stevenson, Grand Canyon Supergroup: Unkar Group, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, pp. 29–48, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Hereford, R. and P. W. Huntoon, Rock movement and mass wastage in the Grand Canyon, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, pp. 443–460, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Hirschberg, D. M. and G. S. Pitts, Digital geologic map of Arizona: a digital database derived from the 1983 printing of the Wilson, Moore, and Cooper 1:500,000-scale map, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00-409, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, 2000.
Huntoon, P. W., Phanerozoic structural geology of the Grand Canyon, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, pp. 261–309, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Jaeger, J. C. and N. G. W. Cook, Fundamentals of Rock Mechanics, Halsted Press, London, 585 pp., 1976.
Kandel, Abraham, Chapter 2: The algebra of inexactness, in Fuzzy Techniques in Pattern Recognition, pp. 22–90, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., U.S.A., 1982.
Kidwell, K. B., Global Vegetation Index User’s Guide, U.S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service/National Climatic Data Center/Satellite Data Services Division, 1990.
Morales, M., Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata of the Colorado Plateau near the Grand Canyon, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, pp. 247–260, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Nabighian, M. N., The analytic signal of two-dimensional magnetic bodies with polygonal cross-section. Its properties and use for automated anomaly interpretation, Geophysics, 37, 507–517, 1972.
NASA, Landsat7, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/, accessed December, 2004, National Air and Space Administration, Washington, D.C, 2004.
Odling, N. E., P. Gillespie, B. Bourgine, C. Castaing, J.-P. Chiles, N. P. Christensen, E. Fillion, A. Genter, C. Olsen, L. Thrane, R. Trice, E. Aarseth, J. J. Walsh, and J. Watterson, Variations in fracture system geometry and their implications for fluid flow in fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs, Petroleum Geoscience, 5, 373–384, 1999.
Potochnick, A. R. and S. J. Reynolds, Side Canyons of the Colorado River, Grand Canyon, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, pp. 461–481, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Price, N. J., Fault and Joint Development in Brittle and Semi-brittle Rock, Oxford, Pergamon, 1966.
Price, N. J., The development of stress systems and fracture patterns in undeformed sediments, Proc. Third Congress of the International Society for Rock Mechanics, Denver, in Advances in Rock Mechanics, Vol. 1, Part A, 487–496, National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C, 1974.
Richard, S. M., S. J. Reynolds, J. E. Spencer, and P. A. Pearthree, Geologic map of Arizona, scale 1:1,000,000, Arizona Geological Survey, Tucson, Arizona, 2000.
Robson, S. G. and E. R. Banta, Ground water atlas of the United States, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, HA 730-C, Colorado Plateau Aquifers, U.S. Geological Survey print publication, online version at http://capp.water.usgs.gov/gwa/index.html, 1995.
Sears, J. W., Geologic structure of the the Grand Canyon Supergroup, in Grand Canyon Geology, edited by S. S. Beus and M. Morales, pp. 71–82, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Sumner, J. S., Crustal geology of Arizona as interpreted from magnetic, gravity, and geologic data, in The Utility of Regional Gravity and Magnetic Anomaly Maps, edited by W. J. Hinze, pp. 164–180, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1985.
Sweeney, R. E. and P. L. Hill, Arizona Aeromagnetic and Gravity Maps and Data, A Web Site for Distribution of Data, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 01-0081, Version 1.0, http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-0081/, 2001.
Thomas, R. W. and R. J. Huggett, Modelling in Geography, A Mathematical Approach, Barnes and Noble Books, Totowa, N.J., 338 pp., 1980.
USGS, National Elevation Dataset, http://ned.usgs.gov/, accessed December, 2004, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, 2004.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Gettings, M.E., Bultman, M.W. A predictive penetrative fracture mapping method from regional potential field and geologic datasets, southwest Colorado Plateau, U.S.A.. Earth Planet Sp 57, 701–715 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351850
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351850