The inability of magnetotelluric off-diagonal impedance tensor elements to sense oblique conductors in three-dimensional inversion

In this paper, we use synthetic data sets from a profile to demonstrate the importance of aligning the 3-D mesh and data coordinate system with the dominant geo-electrical strike direction in 3-D inverse modelling. The resistivity model investigated consists of a regional, elongated 2-D conductive structure at 45° to the profile. We compare the results of full impedance tensor inversion with the results from inversion of only off-diagonal components of the magnetotelluric impedance tensor. The 3-D inversion result obtained with the complete tensor elements yields the subsurface model closest to the original model, whereas the result of inverting only off-diagonal components is the poor imaging of the continuity of the conductive 2-D body. However, the conductor can be correctly recovered using only the offdiagonal components if the model mesh and the data are aligned with quasi-2-D geo-electrical strike.