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We present a new method for interpreting isolated potential‐field (gravity and magnetic) anomaly data. A linear equation, involving a symmetric anomalous field and its horizontal gradient, is derived to provide both the depth and nature of the buried sources. In many currently available methods, either higher order derivatives or postprocessing is necessary to extract both pieces of information; therefore, data must be of very high quality. In contrast, for gravity work with our method, only a first‐order horizontal derivative is needed and the traditional data quality is sufficient. Our proposed method is similar to the Euler technique; it uses a shape factor instead of a structural index to characterize the buried sources. The method is tested using theoretical anomaly data with and without random noise. In all cases, the method adequately estimates the location and the approximate shape of the source. The practical utility of …