The Lembang fault located 15 Km north of Bandung City is one of the active faults situated on Java Island, Indonesia. The Lembang fault is an extension of the Cimandiri fault that can be one of the potential sources of earthquakes in Indonesia. In this study, the Magnetotelluric method was used to model the subsurface resistivity at the Lembang Fault area. The data acquisition was conducted in 8 points of measurement forming a line perpendicular to the Lembang Fault. The analysis was performed using 1D inversion of apparent resistivity and phase with the frequency range of 1 Hz to 320 Hz. The contrast apparent resistivity has observed in two sites around the fault. The inversion results show resistivity contrasts around the LMB02 point that is suspected to be the Lembang Fault. These results are consistent with geological data in the Lembang Fault area. Aside from the LMB02 point, there are also resistivity contrasts around the LMB05 point. However, from a geological perspective, it is not yet known whether the area around the LMB05 point represents a fault.

The Sumatran Fault runs from the southeast (SE) to the northwest (NW) of Sumatra Island, with the highest slip rates reaching about 3.0 cm per year in the northwestern part. There is a seismic gap along this fault, including the northern Aceh domain, which consists of the Aceh and Seulimeum fault segments. Previous studies have used various methods to investigate the Sumatran Fault system, including seismic, geoelectric, gravity anomaly, and magnetotellurics (MT). The MT method has proven advantageous as it can non-destructively image a wide range of depths. However, previous studies using the two-dimensional (2D) MT inversion did not represent realistic information of the subsurface conditions. Therefore, a three-dimensional (3D) MT data inversion was used in this study to obtain more realistic information about the resistivity structure of the Aceh and Seulimeum segments. The results confirmed that the Sumatran Fault is a strike-slip fault, with a relatively northwest (NW)–southeast (SE) direction of conductivity strike with an angle of S 71.61° E from Groom–Bailey decomposition of MT data. The 3D resistivity distribution model from 33 stations showed that the Aceh Fault Segment is 20–30 km away, while the Seulimeum Fault Segment is 55–60 km away based on the MT data. The results also indicated a creeping zone at a depth of 2 km beneath the Aceh Fault Segment. Different rock formations were identified beneath the fault system, with the western part of the Aceh Segment dominated by high-resistivity metamorphic rocks (150–1000 Ωm) from the Triassic–Cretaceous age. The zone between the Aceh and Seulimeum fault segments exhibited low resistivity, characterized by volcanic rocks (1–15 Ωm) from the Lam Teuba Volcanic Formation and the Indrapuri Formation. Beneath the eastern part of the Seulimeum Fault Segment was found to consist of low-resistivity quaternary volcanic rocks (1–15 Ωm) and high-resistivity andesite rocks (4.5 × 10⁴–1.7 × 10⁵ Ωm). These findings correlated well with the geological map.

The magnetotelluric method utilizes natural electromagnetic fields to calculate subsurface resistivity distribution. In reality, subsurface resistivity distribution is a three-dimensional structure that varies in the vertical and lateral directions. The presence of a localized three-dimensional conductive anomaly near the surface causes a distorted electromagnetic field response. In three-dimensional structures, the electromagnetic field cannot be separated into TE and TM modes, so the interpretation using 2D inversion can provide inaccurate information. This research was conducted by adopting the phase tensor and induction vector techniques to analyze the dimensionality of the measured data in the Tomori area and its surroundings. The MT data used is divided into five measurement profiles that intersect each other. The study results show that both 2D and 3D structures exist in the research area. Furthermore, based on the overall frequency data, the geoelectrical strike of regional structure for the five profiles generally show the dominance of trending southwest-northeast and northwest-southeast. Thus, these techniques can support and validate the interpretation of the complex geological structure.