Incorporating geological dip in formation into geophysical inversions

Geological bodies are often linear structures that have well-defined strike direction and dip angle. We develop a new model objective function that al lows this important information to be incorporated into geophysical inversi ons. A rotation matrix is applied to the horizontal and vertical derivative s of the model so that the derivative in an arbitrary direction is obtained . A model objective function that measures the flatness with respect to the rotated derivatives favors models that have elongated features with the sp ecified strike and dip angle. Formulations for both 2-D and 3-D cases are p resented, and they are illustrated using examples from de resistivity and i nduced polarization (IP) problems. Synthetic and held examples show that an inversion carried bur using known dip information produces a model that ha s higher resolution and provides a better representation of the true struct ure.