Joint Inversion of Gravity Gradient Tensor at Vredefort Impact Crater

A study on the Vredefort Dome, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Earth's largest preserved impact craters, reveals that gravity gradient tensor (GGT) data significantly enhances the inversion quality for geological modeling compared to traditional gravity field data alone. Researchers found that while algebraic ambiguity and signal-to-noise ratio are critical factors, the choice of GGT components is less influential when ambiguity is minimized. Gradiometer measurements at Vredefort demonstrated that GGT data provides a more efficient and effective approach to improving inversion quality, offering faster and clearer reconstructions of subsurface structures.

Paoletti, V., Fedi, M., & Italiano, F. (2015). Joint Inversion of Gravity Gradient Tensor at Vredefort Impact Crater. Near Surface Geoscience 2015 - 21st European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics. https://doi.org/10.3997/2214-4609.201413798