Determination of subsurface lineaments in the Hoang Sa islands using enhanced methods of gravity total horizontal gradient

Luan Thanh Pham L. T. P., ÖKSÜM E., KAFADAR Ö., Phan Trong Trinh P. T. T., Dat Viet Nguyen D. V. N., Quynh Thanh Vo Q. T. V., ...More

VIETNAM JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES, vol.44, no.3, pp.395-409, 2022 (ESCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 44 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2022
  • Doi Number: 10.15625/2615-9783/17013
  • Journal Name: VIETNAM JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.395-409
  • Keywords: Gravity, enhanced total horizontal gradient methods, Hoang Sa islands, SOUTH CHINA SEA, MAGNETIC-ANOMALIES, EDGE-DETECTION, VIETNAM, TOPOGRAPHY, BOUNDARIES, CURVATURE, TECTONICS, THICKNESS, SYSTEMS
  • Süleyman Demirel University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The Hoang Sa islands, located in the northern part of the East Vietnam Sea, lack information on geological structural boundaries. The gravity data from the global marine gravity model were analyzed using the enhanced total horizontal gradient methods to delineate geological structures that appear as lineaments on the transformed gravity anomaly maps of the area. Before applying the techniques to gravity data of the Hoang Sa islands, their effectiveness was demonstrated by comparing them with the results from the total horizontal gradient method for a synthetic model. Applying the enhanced horizontal gradient methods shows that most of the lineaments identified in the Hoang Sa islands are trending in the WSW-ENE, NE-SW, E-W, WNW-ESE and NNW-SSE directions. These results provide a better understanding of the subsurface structural features of the islands.