Aeromagnetics of southern Alberta within areas of hydrocarbon accumulation

In this study the Cypress Hills aeromagnetic survey of southern Alberta has been used to deduce if any relationship exists between hydrocarbon pools a nd the observed total magnetic field. To examine this hypothesis it was nec essary first to eliminate a large percentage of the signal that is believed to have originated from other geological, cultural and instrumentation sou rces. Separation of individual source contributions was defined on the basi s of amplitude and wave number. The result is a magnetic image where the fe atures of interest have amplitudes that are predominantly in the single dig it to sub-nanoTesla range. Several features of the resulting residual magne tic field seem to be common to a majority of the hydrocarbon pools. These c ommonalities are: (1) the long axis of the pool appears to be coincident wi th the strike of the basement-sourced magnetic signal. (2) Hydrocarbon pool s encompass areas of broad low amplitude magnetic anomalies.(3) Cross-cutti ng fractures or faulting systems are located within areas of a majority of hydrocarbon pools. (4) Pools are associated with linear and/or curvilinear magnetic lineaments a great number of which have topographic expression.