Integrated application of gravity and seismic methods for determining the dip angle of a fault plane: Case of Mahjouba fault (Central Tunisian Atlas Province, North Africa)

Abstract

A procedure for a dip angle determination of a fault plane from gravity field data is presented to constrain a seismic profile interpretation. This procedure is applied on Mahjouba normal fault at the western border of Kalaa Khesba graben (Central Tunisian Atlas Province, North Africa). Seismic and detailed gravity data, in this region, were analyzed to provide more constraints on the geometry of the fault dip angle. The Mahjouba fault is mapped as three major parallel lineaments extended for 2 km with a NW-SE to N-S trend. The dip of the Mahjouba fault is estimated from the gravity modeling data to be 45°E. This study reveals that integrating gravity and seismic data provides accurate mapping of faults geometry and such result provides useful information and constraints on the exploration of natural resources.