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Magnetotelluric Soundings on a Stratified Earth with Two Transitional Layers

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Abstract

Theoretical magnetotelluric (MT) soundings are investigated for a stratified (five-layered) Earth model consisting of two transitional layers with conductivity varying linearly with depth, and three homogeneous layers with constant conductivity. The analytical expressions for the tangential electric and magnetic fields as well as the surface impedance are derived in terms of Airy functions. The effect of the thicknesses of the two transitional layers and the interlayer between them on the MT responses (apparent resistivity and impedance phase) is examined in detail.

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Acknowledgements

Dr. Kerry Key is greatly appreciated for making his computer code Occam1DCSEM publicly available. The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Michael Commer (Editor) and Dr. Colin Farquharson (reviewer) and the other anonymous reviewer for their thorough reading of the manuscript and for their insightful questions and constructive comments which certainly improved the quality of this paper. This work was partly funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 41776079, 41890811, 41474054 and 40774035).

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Correspondence to Linjiang Qin.

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Qin, L., Yang, C. Magnetotelluric Soundings on a Stratified Earth with Two Transitional Layers. Pure Appl. Geophys. 177, 5263–5274 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-020-02571-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-020-02571-4

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