An alternative method for density variation modeling of the crust based on 3-D gravity inversion

In this paper we are proposing an alternative method for determination of density variations of the crust from constrained inversion of the terrestrial gravity data. The main features of the method can be summarized as follows: (i) Constructing a band-pass filter to remove the long and short wavelength signals from the terrestrial gravity data. (ii) Using an iterative method for stabilization and solution of the inverse problem. The mentioned regularization method is first validated by simulated gravity data and next the methodology is used for development of a new regional density variation model of the crust in three layers based on real gravity data in geographical area of Iran. Application of the band-pass filter to the latter data resulted the residual gravitation variations in the range of − 300 to 50 (mGal) which next based on the iterative method resulted following ranges for residual densities: −120 to 40 (kg/m3) in first layer, −40 to 40 (kg/m3) in second layer, and − 40 to 40 (kg/m3) in third layer.

► A Density variation model for the Earth's crust is determined via gravity inversion. ► Modeling is based on an iterative method to obtain regularized solution of the inversion problem. ► A band pass filter is applied to the gravity data before inversion.