Analysis of Magnetotelluric Response Functions at the Cam Thuy Site, Northern Vietnam

Abstract—During the magnetotelluric studies in North Vietnam, simultaneous Phase Roll Out from Quadrant effect was detected in the behavior of impedance phases Z_xy and Z_yx at one of the sounding sites, CTH, in the Cam Thuy district, Thanh Hoa province. The investigation of this phenomenon has shown that it is accompanied by negative (directed upwards) components of the Umov–Poynting vector of electromagnetic energy flux in the entire range of the recorded periods of magnetotelluric variations. This energy flux direction remains unchanged when the initial coordinate system is rotated by angles of 45° and 60°. Another characteristic feature of this phenomenon is an unusual behavior of the apparent resistivity curves: the apparent resistivity magnitudes increase starting from a period of 200 s up to a period of 10⁴ s, and this increase occurs practically along the asymptote. The analysis of the magnetotelluric field polarization and phase tensor asymmetry parameter (skew angle) β has shown that the section is characterized by significant three-dimensional (3D) distortions which manifest themselves by β values ranging between 20° and 90°.