3D multinary inversion of controlled-source electromagnetic data based on the finite-element method with unstructured mesh

Abstract

In controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) inversion with conventional regularization, the reconstructed conductivity image is usually blurry and only has limited resolution. To effectively obtain more compact conductivity models, we apply the concept of multinary transformation to CSEM inversion based on the finite-element method with an unstructured tetrahedral mesh. Within the framework of multinary inversion, the model conductivities are allowed to be clustered only within the designed values, which are usually obtained from other a priori information or from conventional inversion. Synthetic studies show that multinary inversion produces conductivity images with clearer model boundaries compared to the maximum smoothness inversion and the focusing inversion for realistic geoelectric models. We further apply the developed method to a land CSEM survey for mineral exploration. The multinary inversion results are closer to the ground truth compared to the conventional maximum smoothness inversion and the focusing inversion. The developed method and the numerical algorithm provide a new approach and workflow for CSEM inversion when the models need to have clear boundaries and clustering model values. Such geoelectric models could be very useful for geologic interpretation in oil and mineral exploration when a priori information (such as the estimated conductivity values) of the exploration targets is known.