Comparison of gravity interpretation methods

Applicability of the weighting function method to gravity problems is discussed as compared with the exact method. The merits of the weighting function method are its simplicity and rapidity of computation, particularly in three-dimensional problems. For local geological problems, the weighting function method can be used for the gravity calculation with sufficient accuracy when the structure is appropriately approximated by surface density distributions. The gravity inversion by use of the weighting function method is outlined and illustrated for the water layer correction of gravity. The method is useful in relating the gravity data, without introducing detailed structures, to other geophysical data such as seismic and heat flow data.