journal article·2025-12-01Open access

Deep Learning-Based Gravity Inversion Integrating Physical Equations and Multiple Constraints

Wenxuan Shi, Jiapei Wang, Chongyang Shen, Shuai Zhang, Minghui Zhang, Hongbo Tan, Guangliang Yang

Applied Sciences· Volume 15· Issue 23

Abstract

Three-dimensional gravity inversion technology involves inferring the underground density structure based on observed gravity anomaly data. In addition to gravity inversion based on physics-driven methods, deep learning, as a purely data-driven technique, is increasingly gaining attention in geophysical inversion problems. However, purely data-driven methods rely on the implicit relationships within the data during the inversion process, which results in a lack of clear physical significance. This study proposes a three-dimensional gravity inversion method that integrates physical equations with deep learning. Based on the U-Net architecture, the gravity forward equation is incorporated as a physical constraint term, and a composite loss function—comprising three-dimensional mean squared error, a depth-weighting function, and three-dimensional intersection-over-union loss—is constructed to enhance inversion accuracy. Numerical experiments indicate that this method outperforms traditional algorithms in terms of density recovery accuracy and boundary clarity. When applied to gravity anomaly data from the Tangshan earthquake region in China, this method successfully inverted the three-dimensional subsurface density structure, revealing a high-density anomaly beneath the seismic source area, which provides important evidence for understanding the regional earthquake generation mechanism.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Geophysical and Geoelectrical Methods · Seismic Waves and Analysis · Seismic Imaging and Inversion Techniques

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Key Laboratory of Earthquake Geodesy, Institute of Seismology, China Earthquake Administration, Wuhan 430071, China

Gravitation and Earth Tide, National Observation and Research Station, Wuhan 430071, China

School of Mathematics and Computer Science, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430071, China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation · Research Fund of the Institute of Earthquake Research of the China Earthquake Administration

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