Geophysical Modelling of a Sedimentary Portion of the White Volta Basin (Ghana)

Giulio Vignoli, Elikplim Abla Dzikunoo, Flemming Jørgensen, Sandow Mark Yidana, Bruce Banoeng-Yakubo, Peng Bai

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

This research deals with the essential steps carried out during the processing and inversion of the airborne time-domain electromagnetic (TEM) data used within the framework of the GhanAqua project – aiming at the groundwater development for sustainable agriculture in the White Volta basin in Ghana. The processing of pre-existing airborne TEM data has been performed with the state-of-the-art methodologies. In this respect, (1) the minimum possible gate-dependent lateral stacking between adjacent soundings has been performed for the preparation of the data; (2) a 1D nonlinear forward modelling has been used for the inversion of the stacked data; (3) even if the forward modelling was 1D, the data have been inverted by spatially constraining the adjacent models (in a pseudo-2/3D fashion). We adopted an iterative approach in which the processing and inversion parameters, and the type of stabilizer utilized, have been decided after an a-posteriori analysis. Hence, after every inversion, the results have been discussed with the geologists (1) to assess, at least qualitatively, the uncertainty of the solution features and (2) to, as much as possible, include prior geological knowledge into the geophysical analysis. The new geophysical insights detected geological features that might be interpreted as glacial paleovalleys. If confirmed, those structures can have a significant impact in terms of their socio-economic relevance (i.e. as groundwater reservoirs); as well as from a scientific point of view (as they would require rethinking the stratigraphy of the area). In addition, these kind of Sturtian glacial evidences in West Africa could support the Snowball Earth hypothesis.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComputational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2020 - 20th International Conference, Proceedings
EditorsOsvaldo Gervasi, Beniamino Murgante, Sanjay Misra, Chiara Garau, Ivan Blecic, David Taniar, Bernady O. Apduhan, Ana Maria A.C. Rocha, Eufemia Tarantino, Carmelo Maria Torre, Yeliz Karaca
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages891-902
Number of pages12
ISBN (Print)9783030588199
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Event20th International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2020 - Cagliari
Duration: 1 Jul 20204 Jul 2020

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12255 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference20th International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2020
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityCagliari
Period1/07/204/07/20

Keywords

  • Airborne transient electromagnetics
  • Conductivity depth image
  • Paleovalleys
  • Snowball earth
  • Sparse regularization

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