APPROXIMATION OF GRAVITY ANOMALIES BY THE LEAST SQUARE METHOD.
SOME POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS

by RADU BOTEZATU
Institute for Oil, Gas and Geology, Bucharest, Romania

An analytical expression of a gravity curve can be obtained using the least squares method, as an n-degree polynomial of the distances x. Such a mathematical relation can then be treated in many ways, in view of obtaining supplementary information on the anomalous sources of gravity anomalies. This method is valuable for determining the regional anomalies, and for the treatment of local ones as well. Two fundamental types of gravity anomalies are studies in this paper: the "bell-type" and the "step-type".
The use of the classical form of the least squares method applied to polynomials up to degree 6 does not give good results to approximate the gravity anomalies and it is necessary to enlarge by far the number of polynomial terms to obtain a valuable solution.
Using some special initial conditions, only restricting the generality, the least squares method can be applied in a simplified form on a polynomial of degree 5 or 6 with good results. This practical procedure, elaborated by the author, is presented in this paper and its possibilities and limitations are discussed.
An example of practical application on a real gravity anomaly mapped in Romania is given in the last section of the paper, to test the validity of the proposed procedure.