Tilt angle interpretation of dipping fault model

The interpretation of tilt angle transformed total magnetic intensity data for a dipping contact model is studied, where it is shown that if the trace of a dipping contact on a horizontal surface is determined then other source parameters, such as the dip and the depth of burial of the contact can be estimated using simple formulas. The trace of the dipping contact can be obtained from the location of the peak of a profile of the first order horizontal derivative of a tilt angle. The tilt angle response and its horizontal derivative are found to be sensitive to noise; however, it is shown that upward continuation operation which does not alter the location of the trace of the contact can improve the tilt angle interpretation for the measured noisy data. Use on synthetic model studies and subsequently on field examples on an aeromagnetic profile across the San Ysidro Fault in the Rio Grande Ridge, U.S.A., and also on an extracted profile from 2D ground magnetic data across Son-Narmada Fault in India demonstrates the applicability of the tilt angle interpretation to delineate the subsurface architecture.