Recent Advances in Surface and Borehole Geophysics for Geological Engineering and Mineral Exploration

Friday November 30 at 3:30 pm in rm 155 Geology, presented by Dr. Dennis Woods, President and Chief Geophysicist, Discovery International Geophysics Inc:

Recent Advances in Surface and Borehole Geophysics for Geological Engineering and Mineral Exploration

Major advancements have been made with ground and borehole geophysics for engineering and mineral exploration over the past decade with instrumentation, survey procedures, and interpretation by modeling and inversion. The goal of all of these advancements has been to increase the resolution and investigation depth of geophysical results in order to provide better understanding of the geology of the subsurface. The key to success in geological engineering and mineral exploration is a detailed and accurate knowledge of the relevant earth properties in the region of engineering interest, or the area where mineral resources are suspected or already identified from previous drilling and surface geological investigations. To obtain a more detailed and clearer understanding of the geology of the subsurface in the area of interest requires increased amounts and quality of geophysical data. Hence, the ever-advancing sophistication and perfection of geophysical instrumentation (e.g. increased signal-to-noise); complexity of survey procedures (e.g. three component and three dimensional data acquisition); and higher density 3D modeling and inversion tied to known or inferred physical properties of the subsurface. This presentation focuses on two aspects of these advancements over the past decade: the increase in signal-to-noise of non-seismic instrumentation, and of final results; and the continuing efforts to achieve a 3D understanding of geology by 3D geophysical data acquisition and interpretation procedures, illustrated by some recent surveys using a range of state-of-the-art non-seismic borehole and surface methods.

Please note: there will be a social gathering after this lecture at Louis’ Loft.