| Abstract: | When an electric current is introduced to the earth, it sets up a distribution of charges both on and beneath the earth's surface. These charges give rise to the anomalous potential measured in the d. c. resistivity experiment. We investigate different aspects of charge accumulation and its fundamental role in d. c. experiments. The basic equations and boundary conditions for the d. c. problem are first presented with emphasis on the terms involving accumulated charges which occur wherever there is a non-zero component of electric field parallel to the gradient of conductivity. In the case of a polarizable medium, the polarization charges are also present due to the applied electric field, yet they do not change the final field distribution. We investigate the precise role of the permittivity of the medium. The charge buildup alters the electric fields and causes the refraction of current lines; this results in the well-known phenomenon of current channelling. We demonstrate this by using charge density to derive the refraction formula at a boundary. An integral equation for charge density is presented for whole-space models where the upper half-space is treated as an in-homogeneity with zero conductivity. The integral equation provides a tool with which the charge accumulation can be examined quantitatively and employed in the practical forward modelling. With the aid of this equation, we investigate the effect of accumulated charges on the earth's surface and show the equivalence between the half-space and whole-space formulations of the problem. Two analytic examples are presented to illustrate the charge accumulation and its role in the d. c. problem. We investigate the relationship between the solution for the potential via the image method and via the charge density. We show that the essence of the image method solution to the potential problem is to derive a set of fictitious sources which produce the same potential as does the true charge distribution. It follows that the image method is viable only when the conductivity structure is such that the effect of the accumulated charge can be represented by a set of point images. As numerical examples, we evaluate quantitatively the charge density on the earth's surface that arises because of topography and the charge density on a buried conductive prism. By these means, we demonstrate the use of the boundary element technique and charge density in d. c. forward modelling problems. |
