Development and Prospects of Continental-Scale Resistivity Surveying for
Orogenic Processes and Resource Controls
Abstract
At regional scales, electrical resistivity illuminates Earth processes
involving fluid evolution and transport, temperature contrasts, and
fault characteristics and behavior. It also clarifies continental
terrane assembly and event sequencing through electronic mineral
markers. Magnetotellurics (MT) is sensitive over such scales, but faces
high property contrasts, small signals, 3-D complexity, discontinuous
fields, and ill-posed inversion. So-called wideband
(~0.003 – 500 s wave period) MT recording constrains
crustal structure, and high fidelity through its central dead band is
routinely achieved now via distant remote referencing, continuous
streaming, and outlier removal. To resolve across the upper mantle, long
period data must be of high quality through 10,000 s. Electronics
modifications now permit good quality MT data over polar ice-covered
regions, and non plane wave outliers appear largely avoidable.
Regularized 3D non-linear inversion using simulation equations that
recognize a spatially discontinuous electric field has become common
practice and lends essential credibility to interpretations. However,
resistivity model non-uniqueness is seldom tested enough, and assuming
isotropic resistivity can lead to artifacts. Fluids interpreted to cause
low resistivity in ductile deep crust should be at lithostatic pressures
and have compositions compatible with ambient temperature and
metamorphic grade. Vertical current channeling enhances resolution of
large-scale fault zones connecting deep and shallow structures.
Stabilized terranes can exhibit strong, quasi-linear conductors marking
belts of graphite or sulfides deposited in sediment-starved foredeeps or
rift margin basins, with a particular concentration in the Proterozoic
corresponding to atmospheric oxygenation events. An exciting recent
avenue is estimating H2O content of nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs)
in the upper mantle, which strongly affects electrical conductivity but
not seismic velocity. The large bandwidth of MT data affords a
broad-scale, unified view of Earth processes from mantle level sources
through crustal storage and evolution to near-surface deposition.
Support has been from U.S. Dept of Energy contract DE-0006732 and
National Science Foundation grant OPP-1443532, and numerous prior.