← Intelligent Geophysical Exploration College

Gravity & Magnetic Methods Department

The Gravity & Magnetic Methods Department builds students' ability to interpret regional-scale geological structures using potential-field theory. Students practice acquiring gravity and magnetic survey data and applying advanced inversion techniques, working through projects on basin-geometry analysis, salt-dome detection, basement-structure interpretation, and mineral-deposit identification. Graduates can independently perform inversion-based structural interpretation for resource exploration projects.

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Seismic Exploration & Imaging Department Gravity & Magnetic Methods Department Electromagnetic Methods Department Earthquake Seismology Department Integrated Geophysics & Interpretation Department Inversion & Modeling Department Well Logging & Petrophysics Department

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⭐ Bouguer

Chair

💡 Gravity Survey & Potential Field Theory

Researchers (real GeoVerse Lab members) 12

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1887–1966

Felix Andries Vening Meinesz

Researcher

💡 Developed the submarine gravimeter and conducted the first successful gravity measurements from a submerged submarine, founding marine gravity surveying

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1848–1919

Loránd Eötvös

Researcher

💡 Invented the Eötvös torsion balance (1890s), the first instrument capable of measuring gravity gradients, founding gravity gradiometry

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1901–1990

Sigmund Hammer

Researcher

💡 Developed the standard terrain-correction templates and tables for gravimeter station data reduction (1939), used worldwide in gravity exploration

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1919–2008

J. Lamar Worzel

Researcher

💡 Achieved precise measurement of Earth's gravity field from surface ships despite platform instability, advancing shipboard gravimetry at Lamont Geological Observatory

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1926–2000

William M. Kaula

Researcher

💡 Pioneered satellite geodesy, using tracking data from artificial satellites to determine Earth's gravity field and geoid shape

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1933–2023

Norman F. Ness

Researcher

💡 Designed high-precision magnetometer instrumentation for spacecraft and geophysical survey, discovering the magnetic fields of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune

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1931–1997

Drummond Matthews

Researcher

💡 Co-proposed the Vine-Matthews hypothesis (1963), explaining seafloor magnetic stripes as evidence for seafloor spreading

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1922–1995

Keith Runcorn

Researcher

💡 Pioneered paleomagnetism and used polar wander curves from rock magnetism to provide key early evidence for continental drift

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1919–2013

Isidore Zietz

Researcher

💡 Produced foundational aeromagnetic maps of the United States and advanced systematic reduction-to-pole and depth-estimation interpretation methods at the USGS

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1933–2023

Manik Talwani

Researcher

💡 Developed (with Worzel and Landisman, 1959) the standard 2D/3D gravity forward-modeling algorithm, and (with Heirtzler, 1964) the corresponding magnetic modeling method

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1895–1971

Veikko Aleksanteri Heiskanen

Researcher

💡 Founded the Finnish Geodetic Institute and co-authored the standard reference textbook 'Physical Geodesy', a major authority on isostasy and Earth's figure

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1908–1979

George P. Woollard

Researcher

💡 Established continental-scale gravity base-station networks and developed Airy-Woollard isostasy, a variable-crustal-density refinement of classical isostatic theory