Editorial
21 February 2023
10.3389/feart.2023.1165877
TYPE
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Jeroen Van Hunen,
Durham University, United Kingdom
*CORRESPONDENCE
Mourad Bezzeghoud,
mourad@uevora.pt
SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to Solid Earth
Geophysics,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Earth Science
14 February 2023
ACCEPTED 16 February 2023
PUBLISHED 21 February 2023
RECEIVED
Editorial: Geoscientific
visualization in solid earth
geophysics
Mourad Bezzeghoud 1,2,3* and Nibir Mandal 4
1
Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal, 2Physics Department, University of Évora,
Évora, Portugal, 3Earth and Remote Sensing Laboratory (EARSLab), University of Évora, Évora, Portugal,
4
Department of Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
KEYWORDS
pore network geometry, geoscientific visualization, gravity Imager, inversion of potential
fields, seismic tomography, geothermal prospect, geophysics, submarine
morphotectonic analysis
CITATION
Bezzeghoud M and Mandal N (2023),
Editorial: Geoscientific visualization in
solid earth geophysics.
Front. Earth Sci. 11:1165877.
doi: 10.3389/feart.2023.1165877
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© 2023 Bezzeghoud and Mandal. This is
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Editorial on the Research Topic
Geoscientific visualization in solid earth geophysics
Geoscientific visualization has become a prominent aspect of research result
representation and a tool that enables researchers to enhance their knowledge in the
course of their research investigation as well as divulge this information in a compact,
easily understandable way as part of scientific communications and educational purposes.
Understanding how the planet Earth changes, transforms, and evolves with time, is one of
the major challenges in studying the physics of Earth’s interior, a subject called “Solid Earth
Geophysics”.
Geological and geophysical activities occur because our planet is in a dynamic state. Two
planetary scale processes are at the origin of the Earth’s dynamics. The first process is the
convection in the Earth’s liquid-iron outer core that powers the geomagnetic field. The
second process is the Earth’s cooling through mantle convection, characterized by the
inducing currents of cold sinking and hot rising materials. At the earth surface, plate
tectonics is strongly marked by crustal deformation, seismic and volcanic activities. In
present day, all these activities are now easily observable and measurable with the advent of
various modern methods and techniques.
Solid Earth Geophysics research is fundamentally multidisciplinary in its constitution. A
large variety of observational, experimental, and theoretical approaches is used to investigate
the structure and dynamics of the Earth. This Research Topic, Geoscientific visualization in
solid earth geophysics, covers high-quality original research contributions concerning
innovative methods, techniques and their applications to actual geological and
geophysical systems. Its main purpose is to solve the key problems related to theories/
methods and prospective technologies from different areas, which can be helpful for
improving the developments of accurate exploration methods.
The eight papers collected mainly cover the following subtopics:
• Image Segmentation and Analysis of Pore Network Geometry in Two Natural
Sandstones.
• Well-Posed Geoscientific Visualization Through Interactive Color Mapping.
• The NEWTON-g Gravity Imager: Toward New Paradigms for Terrain Gravimetry.
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Bezzeghoud and Mandal
10.3389/feart.2023.1165877
well as the interrelation of various intrusions in the basement of
this area.
Muttaqy et al. determine a 3-D seismic velocity structure of the
crust and upper mantle using 1,488 seismic events. Consequently,
their study reveals the occurrence of the subducted slab, volcanic
sources, and seismogenic features in the Central and East Java region
(Sunda Arc). Moreover, other interesting results are presented as the
rising fluids that feed the volcanoes of the studied region (MerapiMerbabu, Wilis, Pandan, Semeru, Bromo and Ijen), the relocation of
the hypocenter of the Malang earthquake of 2021 (Mw6.1) as well as
the tsunamigenic origin of the earthquake that occurred in
Banyuwangi in 1994 (Mw7.8).
Seismic tomography and earthquake relocation in north China
craton from 2008 to 2017 has been studied by Wu et al. Using a
double-difference tomography (tomoDD) method, they have
established a new 3-D seismic lithospheric structure consolidated
by high-precision earthquake relocations in North China. Their
analysis shows that the majority of earthquakes in North China
occurred at the junction of the low-velocity zone and the highvelocity zone. The joint inversion results demonstrates that there is a
narrow low-velocity anomaly perpendicular to the surface at
20–25 km in the Tangshan area and there are no earthquakes in
this anomaly area. The authors hypothesize that this anomaly will
continue to erode the Tangshan subsurface structure and may cause
strong earthquakes in the future. This study provides the
groundwork for future earthquake prevention and mitigation in
North China.
Oliveira et al. investigate the variation, in particular the lack,
of perceptibility in geophysical data. In this work, the authors
showed that the fusion of the data makes it possible to provide a
source of much improved information concerning the structures
buried in the ground. They developed a strategy by integrating
ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic data collected at
the Roman Villa of Pisões (Beja, Portugal). Their study aims to
create an image of better quality, with the fusion of data allowing
a better understanding of the object of concern. The images
produced by the proposed data fusion approach suggest that the
perceptibility has increased, leading to conclusions to be drawn
about the existence of buried structures. In this article, the
authors demonstrate that the geophysical data fusion approach
is effective in obtaining an improved image with increased
perceptibility that gives a clear picture about the existence of
buried structures.
Finally, the 2003 Mw6.8 Boumerdès event has been studied by
several authors. In this article Déverchère et al. explore where,
how and when the tectonic inversion of the margin off
Boumerdès has left witnesses in the seafloor morphology and
whether the observed submarine deformation correlates with the
2003 coseismic rupture zone and with the Plio-Quaternary
sedimentation pattern. The authors’ aims are: 1) to clarify the
debate on the Boumerdès fault outcrop at the seafloor, 2) to reveal
the potential of virtual reality applied to the visualization of
submarine structures and 3) to discuss the consistency of strain
indicators.
• 3D Convolution Conjugate Gradient Inversion of Potential
Fields in Acoculco Geothermal Prospect, Mexico.
• Seismic Imaging of Lithospheric Structure Beneath CentralEast Java Region, Indonesia: Relation to Recent Earthquakes.
• Seismic Tomography and Earthquake Relocation in North
China Craton From 2008 to 2017.
• Geophysical data fusion of ground-penetrating radar and
magnetic datasets using 2D wavelet transform and singular
value decomposition.
• A submarine morphotectonic analysis combining GIS-based
methods and virtual reality: Case study of the low-rate active
thrust faulting off Boumerdès (Algeria).
Thomson et al., report the results of a pore-network analysis of.
high-resolution synchrotron microtomographic images of
Fontainebleau and Berea Sandstones. The authors analyse the
relationship between the porosity and the number of pores, their
median coordination number, and fraction of connected pore space.
Their fluid flow simulation results highlight anisotropic
permeability, which is probably due to heterogeneity in the
sample, rather than that caused by the variation in orientation of
grains and pores in each direction.
The contribution of Morse et al. focuses on Geoscientific
visualization through Interactive Color Mapping, based on a
suite of newly developed computer applications, which enable
them to display spatially varying data in a performant graphics
environment. The authors produce color-mapping that
accommodate the non-uniformity of human color perception,
thus producing an image where genuine features are observed.
This study will lead to wider usage of informed color-mapping in
the field of geosciences.
Through the NEWTON-g project, Carbone et al. propose a
gravity imager based on a field-compatible measuring system, able
to real-time monitor the evolution of the subsurface mass change.
This innovative tool can be used to resolve important societal
Research Topic as sustainable management of energy resources (e.
g., hydrocarbons and geothermal energy), management of water
resources, and assessment of hazard (e.g., volcanic eruptions). In
fact, most geophysical phenomena underlying the dynamics of
hydrological, volcanic, hydrothermal and petroleum systems
involve underground mass transport and can induce changes in
the gravity field measurable at the surface. In this study, the
authors show that the gravimetry, using the proposed gravity
imager, is thus an important geophysical method, able to
provide unique insight into natural phenomena that have
strong societal implications.
Calderón and Gallardo have developed a convolution-based
conjugate gradient 3-D inversion algorithm of joint gravity and
magnetic data for a geothermal prospect in the Acoculco caldera in
Mexico. The results show an intrusive bodies play an important
role either as a low-permeability host of the heated fluid or as the
heat source for the potential development of an enhanced
geothermal system. A 3D model has been presented that clearly
show the distribution of the existing volcanic infill in the caldera as
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10.3389/feart.2023.1165877
Author contributions
Conflict of interest
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and
intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for
publication.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
Publisher’s note
We thank all authors for their valuable contributions to this
Research Topic, the reviewers who shared their precious time to
improve the manuscripts and the members of the Frontiers Team
their help at different stages of preparing this Research Topic of
papers.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations,
or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product
that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its
manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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