A simple inversion of induced-polarization data collected in the Haenam area of Korea

We develop a two-stage method to invert induced polarization (IP) data. First, DC resistivity data are inverted to recover a background resistivity that is used to generate a sensitivity matrix for the IP inversion. The second stage accepts the background resistivity as the true resistivity of the medium and attempts to find a polarizability that satisfies the IP data. This is done by linearizing the equations for the background resistivity to produce a linear inverse problem that can be solved for the distribution of the subsurface polarizability. Smoothness and base-model constraints are used to stabilize the IP inversion process. These regularization methods are validated by inverting both synthetic and field data obtained in the Haenam epithermal mineralized area, Korea. As a result, the IP anomaly recovered from the base-model constraint indicates that fine-grained pyrite is disseminated in a shallow zone beneath the ridge of this site, which is confirmed by core samples. (paper)