Chapter 28 28

Bouguer and Isostatic Maps of the Central Andes

Sabine Schmidt · Hans-Jürgen Götze

28.1 Introduction 28.2.1 Database

This volume and accompanying DVD contain the results Prior to the SFB 267, the gravity research group began
of twenty years of gravity research in the Central Andes working in 1982 on a long-term gravity project in close
(18–44° S). Our research was concentrated on two re- cooperation with the Universidad Católica del Norte
gions: the central and south-Central Andes, located be- (G. Chong, Antofagasta, Chile), the Universidad de Chile
tween 20 and 26° S and 37 and 42° S, respectively. The (M. Araneda, Santiago, Chile) and the Universidad Nacio-
authors are of the opinion that a set of maps covering nál de Salta (J. Viramonte and R. Ornarini, Salta, Argen-
these two segments would be a useful accompaniment tina), with additional support from governmental insti-
to this final volume. These gravity maps not only pro- tutions and the Chilean and Argentinean oil and mining
vide a better understanding of those papers dealing with industries: We were aiming to construct a new gravity data
the two regions, but also bridge the gap between surface base in the Andes for the area covering Northern Chile,
geology and the lithospheric structures evidenced by north-western Argentina, Southern Chile and Northern
these maps. Patagonia by collecting and updating already existing
During the early research activities of the SFB 267, measurements and completing them by additional field
an initial set of gravity maps were compiled at a scale measurements.
of 1 : 1 000 000 (Reutter and Götze 1994). These maps From 1982 to 2002, some 15 000 gravity measurements
played an important role in interdisciplinary inter- were made and with all the reprocessed, older industry data
pretation when the first results of geophysical field- included, there is now a database of about 220 000 gravity
work became available. Maps and cross sections con- values available, with satellite altimetry gravity extra to
taining both geological and geophysical data were drawn this. The usual spacing of the stations was approximately
to common scales so that the results of the different 5 km along all passable tracks, although there is consid-
disciplines within the research group could be directly erably higher station density in some local areas. The data
compared. sources used, besides our own measurements, are:
These early gravity maps were completed and up-
dated for publication in this volume. The resolution
Universidad de Chile/Servicios Geofísicos En Ingeniería
of the data sets enables both general overviews and (SEGMI), M. Araneda, Santiago, Chile
more detailed maps of regional anomalies. It also
Instituto Geográfico Militar (IGM), La Paz, (Bolivia)
provides sufficient insight into important local fea-
Geodetic Institute of the University of Buenos Aires
tures at a practical map size. The original (non-confi-
REPSOL-YPF, Buenos Aires (National Oil Company of
dential) and gridded data sets used for the gravity Argentina)
maps are included among the data files of the accompa-
YPFB, Santa Cruz (National Oil Company of Bolivia)
nying DVD.
Empresa Nacional de Petróleo (ENAP), Santiago, Chile

Corporación Nacional del Cobre (Codelco), Santiago,
Chile
28.2 The Gravity Maps of the Central Andes
Shipborne data from offshore Chile (SPOC and CINCA
(18–44°S) experiments)

Satellite altimetry (Danish National Geodetic Centre,
We provide station-complete, Bouguer gravity- and formerly KMS)
isostatic-anomaly maps (Vening-Meinesz model of
Copenhagen, Denmark (Andersen and Knudsen 1998);
isostasy). http://manicoral.kms.dk/GRAVITY/)
556 Sabine Schmidt · Hans-Jürgen Götze

All observations are linked to the IGSN71 gravity where:

datum using all available, local, official base stations.
In the early years of the research, tidal corrections
gabs absolute gravity at station (measured)
were neglected in the coastal area because of its small
δgh normal gravity at station level h (calculated)
effect compared to the pronounced gravity anomalies
dgtop topographic correction (density: 2.67 Mg m–3)
observed; later, all stations were usually corrected using up to 167 km
the in-house JAVA program DbGrav (Schmidt, pers.
δgBPL Bouguer slab correction (density: 2.67 Mg m–3)
comm.). up to 167 km
Logistical problems and the large research area did not
γ normal gravity
always allow us to repeat measurements at each station,
which would, thus, determine the drift of the gravime- The normal gravity was calculated according to
ters. However, even when poor tracks were driven, the IGSN71 using the International Gravity Formula of 1967.
drift of the LaCoste & Romberg instruments (models D) For topographic reduction, a method developed for grav-
rarely exceeded 0.1 × 10–5 m s–2 per day. It was also im- ity investigations in the European Alps was used (Ehris-
possible to reliably determine geographic coordinates in mann et al. 1966), after adapting it to the special con-
all places, particularly between 1982 and 1992, as maps of ditions of the Central Andes. Calculations of topo-
sufficient resolution (e.g., 1 : 50000 scale) did not yet ex-
ist for the entire area. At worst, the imprecise latitude has
caused positioning errors amounting to approximately
0.5 km, which correspond to an error in the gravity anomaly
of about 0.25 × 10–5 m s–2.
Of greater concern was the difficulty of height deter-
mination at each station. Only 37% of stations could be
directly related to benchmarks such as leveling lines, trigo-
nometric heights, height points of water pipes, railways
and spot heights. Until 1992, when we first used a hand-
held geographical positioning system (GPS) to locate sta-
tion coordinates directly in the field, stations had to be
determined with barometers using available benchmarks
as base stations. To improve the quality of the barometric
measurements, time-dependent drift corrections were cal-
culated in the manner usually employed for gravity mea-
surements, using as many benchmarks and repeated mea-
surements as possible. Moreover, the profiles of several
days were combined in order to eliminate systematic er-
rors. Altimeter types Wallace & Tiernan FA181 and
Thommen 384.01.2 were used and the scales of these in-
struments were calibrated on leveling lines with an alti-
tude difference of about 2 0 00 m. Error estimations
showed that even in the worst case the accuracy was bet-
ter than 20 m, giving an error in the Bouguer anomaly of
about 4 × 10–5 m s–2, which is less than 1% of the regional
anomaly. Later, from 1999 onwards, differential GPS pro-
vided both heights and horizontal coordinates more ac-
curately.

28.2.2 Correction of Observed Data

The calculation of the gravity anomaly values was based

on the following equations:

Bouguer anomaly: BA = gabs + δgh + dgtop + δgBPL – γ

Free-air anomaly: FA = gabs + δgh – γ Fig. 28.1. Bouguer anomaly onshore and free-air anomaly offshore
 Chapter 28 · Bouguer and Isostatic Maps of the Central Andes 557

graphic correction were based on the USGS digital el- anomaly offshore has been replaced by the Bouguer
evation model gtopo30 (http://lpdaac.usgs.gov/gtopo30/ anomaly.
gtopo30.asp).

28.2.4 Isostatic Anomaly

28.2.3 Bouguer Anomaly
The effect of isostatic compensation on topography was
Figure 28.1 shows the calculated Bouguer anomaly map. calculated using the regional compensation model of
As usual, in the offshore area, the Bouguer anomaly is Vening-Meinesz with the following parameters: crustal
replaced by the free-air anomaly. Therefore, a high cor- density = 2.67 Mg m–3, mantle density = 3.2 Mg m–3, wa-
relation between trench topography and the gravity field ter density = 1.03 Mg m–3, crustal thickness at sea level
is evident. Onshore, the gravity field decreases to a re- = 35 km, and crustal rigidity = 1.e23 Nm. The gravity ef-
gional minimum of less than –400 × 10–5 m s–2 in the Cen- fect of this model was calculated by using fast Fourier tech-
tral Andes, mostly related to crustal thickening caused niques and then subtracting the Bouguer anomaly (on-
by isostatic compensation and tectonic processes. Fig- and offshore) at station level. The resulting anomaly is
ure 28.2 shows a similar map, but here the free-air the isostatic residual field shown in Fig. 28.3.

Fig. 28.2. Bouguer anomaly on- and offshore Fig. 28.3. Isostatic residual anomaly
558 Sabine Schmidt · Hans-Jürgen Götze

implemented by Briggs (1974). Please note that the grid

28.2.5 Data Files and Maps
values are based on the complete data set, which also in-
cludes confidential data.
The data files provided on the DVD consist of only non- The gridded data are provided in three different files:
confidential data.
File grav_onshore.dat contains 27 511 onshore stations 1. File bafa.xyz (bafa.ps) contains the Bouguer anomaly
with the following columns: onshore and the free-air anomaly offshore with the
following columns:

Station ID – Longitude (degree)

Longitude (degree) – Latitude (degree)

Latitude (degree) – Anomaly (10–5 m s–2, mGal)

Elevation (m) 1. File baba.xyz (baba.ps) contains the Bouguer anomaly

Observed gravity (10–5 m s–2, mGal) on- and offshore with the following columns:

Topographic correction, onshore areas (10–5 m s–2, mGal), – Longitude (degree)
density = 2.67 Mg m–3 – Latitude (degree)

Topographic correction, offshore areas (10–5 m s–2, mGal), – Anomaly (10–5 m s–2, mGal)
density = 1.64 Mg m–3 1. File ia.xyz (ia.ps) contains the isostatic residual

Free-air (10–5 m s–2, mGal) anomaly on- and offshore with the following columns:

Bouguer (10–5 m s–2, mGal) – Longitude (degree)
– Latitude (degree)
File grav_offshore.dat contains 236 718 offshore sta- – Anomaly (10–5 m s–2, mGal)
tions with the following columns:

Longitude (degree) References

Latitude (degree)

Bathymetry (m) Andersen OB, Knudsen P (1998) Global marine gravity field from
the ERS-1 and GEOSAT geodetic mission altimetry. J Geophys

Free-air (10–5 m s–2, mGal) Res 103(C4):8129–8137

Bouguer (10–5 m s–2, mGal) Briggs IC (1974) Machine contouring using minimum curvature.
Geophysics 39(1):39–48
The coordinates are geographical and owing to the Ehrismann W, Müller G, Rosenbach O, Sperlich N (1966) Topographic
high content of old data – the ellipsoid used is mostly reduction of gravity measurements by the aid of digital comput-
ers. Boll Geofisica teorica ed applicata 8(29)
unknown – are inconsistent.
Reutter K-J, Götze H-J (1994) Comments on the geological and geo-
Both the Bouguer/free-air gravity and the isostatic re- physical maps. In: Reutter K-J, Scheuber E, Wigger P (eds) Tec-
sidual anomaly were interpolated onto a 0.05 × 0.05° grid tonics of the Southern Central Andes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
(approx. 5 × 5 km) using the “Minimum Curvature Method” Heidelberg New York, pp 329–333