Upward continuation of total magnetic field intensity data over Sokoto basin, north-western Nigeria

Abstract

High-resolution aeromagnetic data covering the Sokoto basin, north-western Nigeria were acquired and analyzed using regional enhancement techniques, upward continuation and second order regional. The objective was to delineate major geological structures. The data, which are in form of a grid, were knitted using Oasis Montaj software to obtain the magnetic total field intensity map. The composite grid was reduced to a magnetic equator to align the peaks of magnetic anomalies over the center of their causative bodies. The reduced grid was continued at various planes of observation to understate anomalies due to shallow features. The planes were at 10 km, 20 km, 30 km, 40 km, 50 km, 70 km, and 100 km above the surface. Upward continuation maps produced greatly enhanced the long-wavelength (low wavenumber) anomalies associated with deeper subsurface regional structures. The continuation revealed a high magnetic intensity anomaly in western parts of the area and low magnetic intensity anomalies in the eastern parts. The low magnetic intensity in the eastern part is interpreted as a sedimentary deposit. The residual field was removed from the total magnetic field data using the second-order least square method to get the second-order regional field. The regional field analysis agrees with the upward continuation result.