The Sixth International Comparison of Absolute Gravimeters was held from 5 June to 28 August 2001 at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Sèvres. Seventeen absolute gravimeters were used to make measurements at five sites of the BIPM gravity network. The vertical gravity gradients at the sites and the ties between them were also measured using seventeen relative gravimeters. For the first time the ties were also measured using absolute gravimeters. Various methods of processing the absolute and relative data were tested to calculate the results. The final results of ICAG-2001 are presented. The acceleration due to gravity at a height of 0.90 m is given as (980 925 701.2 ± 5.5) µGal* and (980 928 018.8 ± 5.5) µGal for sites A and B, respectively,

A new method has been developed for the automatic and general interpretation of gravity and magnetic data. This technique, based on the analysis of 3-D analytic signal derivatives, involves as few assumptions as possible on the magnetization or density properties and on the geometry of the structures. It is therefore particularly well suited to preliminary interpretation and model initialization. Processing the derivatives of the analytic signal amplitude, instead of the original analytic signal amplitude, gives a more efficient separation of anomalies caused by close structures. Moreover, gravity and magnetic data can be taken into account by the same procedure merely through using the gravity vertical gradient. The main advantage of derivatives, however, is

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An integrated geophysical approach to detecting and characterizing karst structures in an urban environment was applied experimentally to partially explored karst conduits located in Orléans, France. Microgravity was performed to detect voids, in conjunction with multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) for the purpose of identifying areas of mechanical weakness. Microgravity detected negative anomalies corresponding to known conduits and succeeded in identifying the probable extensions of this network in unexplored areas. Control boreholes located on these extensions encountered several levels of water‐saturated voids, probably belonging to the shallowest part of the karst system, overlying the main conduits. Buried urban networks, accurately located by ground‐penetrating radar (GPR), were shown to have no significant gravity effect. Simulations using the compact inversion approach to characterize the size and density of environmental disturbances confirmed this conclusion. In this context, the gravity method has been shown to be suitable for detecting near‐surface (<25 m deep) karst features. The MASW method, which analyses Rayleigh‐wave propagation, can determine the mechanical behaviour of superficial formations and serve as an indicator for subsurface heterogeneities such as voids or fractures. At the Orléans site, MASW provided evidence of perturbed zones superimposed on gravity anomalies, characterized by the appearance of several dispersion modes, velocity inversions and the attenuation of seismic markers. One of these features was characterized by low velocities and was interpreted as an area of mechanical weakness, confirmed by pressure measurements in the boreholes. Repeated gravity measurements, or time‐lapse microgravity, were conducted on the anomalous areas to ascertain gravity reproducibility and detect possible temporal variations due to subsurface mass redistribution that may indicate site instability. A two‐year experiment revealed low‐amplitude gravity changes that were recorded in the two sensitive zones. However, their significance is still unclear and these changes need to be validated by further repeat experiments.