The global coverage of a satellite allows us to investigate areas that are difficult to access due to remoteness or ruggedness. We intend to use the GOCE gradiometric observations to detect unknown tectonic features. At the present stage of the GOCE mission we take the error levels of the observations to estimate the resolution of known density discontinuities of the Earth crust: the crust-mantle and sediment-basement transition. The spherical harmonic expansion of mass distributions is compared with the estimated degree error curves of the gravity field. We find that the GOCE data will contribute to a better resolution of these discontinuities by one order of magnitude for degree between 52 and 200 compared to the EGM2008 gravity field model. The geodynamic context affects the resolution as it controls the average Moho depth, shallower levels being better resolved. For the basement the dominant resolution parameter is the density contrast across the interface.
