In the early 1920s, magnetic anomalies were thought to be caused by topographic relief at the base of the sedimentary section. The drilling of the Hobbs anomaly on the Central Basin Platform in West Texas was successful, but the anomaly, primarily intrabasement in origin, could not quantitatively be related to the structure that was found. Moreover the drilling of similar anomalies in the general area proved unsuccessful as far as oil and gas were concerned, so the method acquired a bad reputation rather quickly (Heiland, 1940).
