Aeromagnetic Study of Tke Huichapan Caldera; Central Volcanic Belt

Analysis of the aeromagnetic anomalies over the central sector of the Mexican Volcanic Belt sheds new light on the structure of the Huichapan Caldera. This volcanic center located 100 Km to the north- northwest of Mexico City is approximately 10 km in diameter and related to an ignimbrite sequence. Milan et al, (1993) and. Aguirre-Diaz and Lopez-Martinez (2009) mapped Huichapan area and described the geology and petrology of the erupted products in the region. Aguirre-Diaz and Lopez-Martinez (2009) suggest the idea of two overlapping calderas related to an ignimbrite sequence. The analyzed region is a rectangular area, approximately from 20.25 N to 20.42 N and between 99.42 W and 99.6 W. The total field aeromagnetic data was obtained with a Geometrics G-803 proton magnetometer at a flight altitude of 300 m above ground level. For the analysis of the anomalies, the data was further smoothed to construct a 1 km regularly spaced grid. The anomaly map was compared with the surface geology and larger anomalies were correlated with major volcanic features. Since our main interest was in mapping the subsurface intrusive and volcanic bodies, the total field magnetic anomalies were reduced to the pole by using the double integral Fourier method. The reduced to the pole anomaly map results in a simplified pattern of isolated positive and negative anomalies, which show an improved correlation with all major volcanic structures. For the analysis and interpretation of the anomalies, the reduced to the pole anomalies were continued upward at various reference levels. These operations result in smoothing of the anomaly field by the filtering of high frequency anomalies that may be related to shallow sources. Two profiles were selected that cross the major anomalies on the Huichapan Caldera. The Talwani algorithm for 2-D polygonal bodies has been used for calculating the theoretical anomalies.