An Invitation To Geomathematics

The authors introduce geomathematics as an active research area to a wider audience. Chapter 1 presents an introduction to the Earth as a system to apply scientific methods. Emphasis is laid on transfers from virtual models to reality and vice versa. In the second chapter geomathematics is introduced as a new scientific area which nevertheless has its roots in antiquity. The modern conception of geomathematics is outlined from different points of view and its challenging nature is described as well as its interdisciplinarity. Geomathematics is shown as the bridge between the real world and the virtual world. The complex mathematical tools are shown from a variety of fields necessary to tackle geoscientific problems in the mathematical language. Chapter 3 contains some exemplary applications as novel exploration methods. Particular importance is laid on the change of language when it comes to translate measurements to mathematical models. New solution methods like the multiscale mollifier technique are presented. Further applications discussed are aspects of reflection seismics. Chapter 4 is devoted to the short description of recent activities in geomathematics. The Appendix (Chapter 5) is devoted to the GEM – International Journal on Geomathematics founded ten years ago. Besides a detailed structural analysis of the editorial goals an index of all papers published in former issues is given.

This monograph presents the geoscientific context arising in decorrelative gravitational exploration to determine the mass density distribution inside the Earth. First, an insight into the current state of research is given by reducing gravimetry to mathematically accessible, and thus calculable, decorrelated models. In this way, the various unresolved questions and problems of gravimetry are made available to a broad scientific audience and the exploration industry. New theoretical developments will be given, and innovative ways of modeling geologic layers and faults by mollifier regularization techniques are shown. This book is dedicated to surface as well as volume geology with potential data primarily of terrestrial origin. For deep geology, the geomathematical decorrelation methods are to be designed in such a way that depth information (e.g., in boreholes) may be canonically entered. Bridging several different geo-disciplines, this book leads in a cycle from the potential measurements made by geoengineers, to the cleansing of data by geophysicists and geoengineers, to the subsequent theory and model formation, computer-based implementation, and numerical calculation and simulations made by geomathematicians, to interpretation by geologists, and, if necessary, back. It therefore spans the spectrum from geoengineering, especially geodesy, via geophysics to geomathematics and geology, and back. Using the German Saarland area for methodological tests, important new fields of application are opened, particularly for regions with mining-related cavities or dense development in today's geo-exploration.

This monograph presents the geoscientific context arising in decorrelative geomagnetic exploration. First, an insight into the current state of research is given by reducing magnetometry to mathematically accessible, and thus calculable, decorrelated models. In this way, various questions and problems of magnetometry are made available to a broad scientific audience and the exploration industry. New stimuli are given, and innovative ways of modeling geologic strata by mollifier magnetometric techniques are shown. Potential data sets primarily of terrestrial origin constitute the main data basis in the book. For deep geology, the geomathematical decorrelation methods are designed in such a way that depth information (e.g., in boreholes) may be canonically entered. Overall, this book provides pioneering and ground-breaking innovative mathematical knowledge as a transfer methodology from the “reality space” of magnetometric measurements into the “virtual space” of mathematical-numerical modeling structures and mollifier solutions with novel geological application areas. It pursues a double goal: On the one hand, it represents a geoscientific set of rules for today's geoengineering, interested in the application of innovative modelling and simulation techniques to promising data sets and structures occurring in geomagnetics. On the other hand, the book serves as a collection of current material in Applied Mathematics to offer alternative methodologies in the theory of inverse problems.

The book provides the geoscientific context, that arises in gravimetric/magnetometric exploration. It essentially uses mathematics as a key technology for modeling issues on the basis of analysis and interpretation according to dense and precise gravitational/magnetic measurements. It is dedicated to surface and deep geology with potential data primarily of terrestrial origin. The book spans the interdisciplinary arc from geoengineering, especially geodesy, via geophysics to geomathematics and geology, and back again. It presents the recently published pioneering and groundbreaking multiscale mollifier methodologies realizing the bridging transfer from gravitational/magnetic measurements to approximative/numerical mollifier wavelet decorrelations with novel geologic prospects and layer-structure determination as outcome. Using the specific example of the German Saarland region, new important fields of application, especially for areas with mining-related cavities, will be opened up and subjected to an in-depth geologic detection.

Celebrating Frits Agterberg’s half-century of publication activity in geomathematics, this volume’s 28 timely papers, written by his friends and colleagues, treat a variety of subjects of current interest, many of them also studied by Frits, including: spatial analysis in mineral resource assessment, quantitative stratigraphy, nonlinear multifractal models, compositional data analysis, time series analysis, image analysis, and geostatistics. Professor Agterberg published his first paper as a graduate student in 1958 and has since produced (and continues to publish) a steady stream of research papers on a wide variety of subjects of interest to geomathematical practitioners. Most of the papers included here address methodology and feature practical case studies, so that the book likely has broad appeal to those interested in mathematical geosciences, both to academic researchers seeking a comprehensive overview and also to practitioners of geomathematical approaches in industry.

Recent Advances in Geomathematics - An International Symposium