Collaborative Research: Development of Automated Quality Control and Processing for Earthscope Magnetotelluric Data

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

The magnetotelluric method measures naturally varying electric and magnetic fields in order to determine subsurface electrical conductivity. Bulk electrical conductivity of rocks depends mostly on small fractions of highly conductive materials such as partial melt, aqueous fluids, metallic conductors, and graphite. Fluid and partial melt distributions are key components to understanding the structure and physical state of the Earth's interior, so Earthscope has a plan to acquire MT data across the United States. Such a large volume of data requires automated real time management and quality control and processing tools for optimal final estimates of MT transfer functions that will be used by others to develop conductivity models. We are developing the software for these two tasks.