Airborne Electromagnetics
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Airborne Electromagnetic data are being acquired by Geoscience Australia in areas considered to have potential for uranium or thorium mineralisation under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP). The surveys have been managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation project. In contrast to industry style deposit scale investigations, these surveys are designed to reveal new geological information at regional scale. The Frome Embayment AEM survey was acquired using the TEMPESTTM AEM system by Fugro Airborne Surveys under contract to GA. The survey covers a total of 32 300 line km and an area of 95 450 km2, the largest AEM survey by area ever flown in Australia. This data release contains the Phase-1 data, that is, contractor quality-controlled and quality-assessed data fas well as the Phase-2 data, that is Geoscience Australia layered earth inversion (GA-LEI) data and derived products for the Callabonna Uranium Infill Area. The data and products described in this report are available from the GA AEM website.
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Between the 31st of March 2013 and the 15th of May 2013, Fugro Airborne Surveys Pty. Ltd., (FAS, now known as CGG Aviation (Australia) Pty Ltd) undertook a TEMPEST® airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey over the South West Coastal Plain and the South Coast areas of Western Australia. There were four separate project areas: (1) Swan Coastal Plain, (2) Scott Coastal Plain, (3) Albany, (4) Esperance. The survey is designed to map groundwater resources and assess aquifer sustainability in four separate areas of southern WA. The survey areas are located in: 1. Esperance: Traverses spaced 300 & 600 metres apart in a north-south direction at 120 metres above ground level totalling 1,133 line km. 2. Albany: Traverses spaced 300 & 600 metres apart in a north-south direction at 120 metres above ground level totalling 2,163 line km. 3. Scott Coastal Plain: Traverses spaced 600 metres apart in a ne-sw direction at 120 metres above ground level totalling 2,980 line km. 4. Swan Coastal Plain: Traverses spaced 600 metres apart in a nw-se direction at 120 metres above ground level totalling 2,303 line km. The total coverage of the survey amounted to 8,579 line kilometres. The survey was flown using a Shorts Skyvan (SC3-200) aircraft, registration VH-WGT, owned and operated by FAS. The survey was commissioned by the Western Australia Department of Water, and was managed by Geoscience Australia. The Survey received funding from the WA Government's Royalties for Regions program to assess, plan and investigate regional water availability in Western Australia. The data release includes the final contractor supplied datasets. The data are available from Geoscience Australia's web site free of charge. Each data package includes: 1. Point-located electromagnetic data with associated position, altimeter, orientation, magnetic, and derived ground elevation data. These data are in ASCII column format with associated ASEG-GDF2 header files. 2. Point-located conductivity estimates derived using the EM Flow® conductivity depth imaging (CDI) algorithm with associated position, altimeter, magnetic, and derived ground elevation data. Data include the conductivity estimate for each 5 m interval and selected depth slices. These data are in ASCII column format with associated ASEG-GDF2 header files. 3. Gridded data, at 60 or 120 m cell size, for the conductivity depth slices derived from the EM Flow® CDI data, magnetics and elevation data in ER Mapper® binary raster grid format with associated header files. 4. Graphical multiplots, in PDF format, for each flight line showing EM Flow® CDI sections and profiles of electromagnetic data, magnetics, monitors, height and orientation data. 5. Operations Report. 6. Metadata and License files.
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Identification of groundwater-dependent (terrestrial) vegetation, and assessment of the relative importance of different water sources to vegetation dynamics commonly involves detailed ecophysiological studies over a number of seasons or years. However, even when groundwater dependence can be quantified, results are often difficult to upscale beyond the plot scale. Consequently, quicker, more regional mapping approaches have been developed. These new approaches utilise advances in computation geoscience, and remote sensing and airborne geophysical technologies. The Darling River Floodplain, western New South Wales, Australia, was selected as the case study area. This semi-arid landscape is subject to long periods of drought followed by extensive flooding. Despite the episodic availability of surface water resources, two native Eucalyptus species, E. camaldulensis (River Red Gum) and E. largiflorens (Black Box) continue to survive in these conditions. Both species have recognised adaptations, include the ability to utilise groundwater resources at depth. A remote sensing methodology was developed to identify those communities potentially dependent on groundwater resources during the recent millennium drought in Australia.
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During 2008 and 2009, and under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Initiative, Geoscience Australia acquired airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data over the Pine Creek Orogen of the Northern Territory. The survey area was split into three areas for acquisition. VTEM data was acquired in the Kombolgie area east of Kakadu National Park (this data set) between August and November 2008. TEMPEST data was acquired west of Kakadu National Park with the area split in two to facilitate the use of two aircraft: the Woolner Granite area in the north was acquired between October and December 2008; and the Rum Jungle area adjoining to the south, was acquired between October 2008 and May 2009. The main purpose of the surveys was to provide additional geophysical/geological context for unconformity style uranium mineral systems and thereby promote related exploration. The survey data will also provide information on depth to Proterozoic/Archean basement, which is of general interest to explorers, and will be used as an input into ground water studies in the region. This dataset includes the subscriber company data K1 K2 and K3.
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Broken Hill Managed Aquifer Recharge Project, Phase 2; REPORT ON AEM SYSTEM ASSESSMENT AND SELECTION
Conceptual MAR targets in the Broken Hill region were identified in previous investigations (Lewis et al., 2008; Lawrie et al., 2009a). In the BHMAR Phase 2 study, the project team is required to make recommendations on the presence and suitability of potential MAR sites with an 80% confidence level. While this will be attempted through a combination of AEM, borehole analysis and seismic reflection data acquisition, AEM is the prime dataset required to map the aquifer targets in 3D.
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During 2008 and 2009, and under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Initiative, Geoscience Australia acquired airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data over the Pine Creek Orogen of the Northern Territory. The survey area was split into three areas for acquisition. VTEM data was acquired in the Kombolgie area east of Kakadu National Park between August and November 2008. TEMPEST data was acquired west of Kakadu National Park with the area split in two to facilitate the use of two aircraft: the Woolner Granite area in the north (this data set) was acquired between October and December 2008; and the Rum Jungle area adjoining to the south, was acquired between October 2008 and May 2009. The main purpose of the surveys was to provide additional geophysical/geological context for unconformity style uranium mineral systems and thereby promote related exploration. The survey data will also provide information on depth to Proterozoic/Archean basement, which is of general interest to explorers, and will be used as an input into ground water studues in the region.
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Data acquired as part of the Kombolgie VTEMTM Airborne Electromagnetic Survey have been inverted using a layered earth inversion algorithm. Interpretation products have been derived from the inversion results. The inversion results and derived products have been released by Geoscience Australia as a digital data package. The survey was funded under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program, and was managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation Project. The Kombolgie survey area, in the Pine Creek Orogen of the Northern Territory, covered sections of the Cobourg Peninsula, Junction Bay, Alligator River, Milingimbi, Mount Evelyn, Katherine, and Urapunga 1:250 000 map sheets. It covered a total of 8 800 line km and an area of 32 000 km2. The data were acquired under contract by Geotech Airborne Pty. Ltd. using its VTEMTM helicopter-borne electromagnetic system. The inversions were carried out using the GA-LEI layered-earth inversion software developed at Geoscience Australia. Products include the layer conductivities, depth and elevation slices, and sections. The products are in digital form in both point-located and gridded formats. They are available for download from the Geoscience Australia website.
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Pine Creek TEMPEST AEM Survey, Northern Territory, 2010 Final Inversion Data and Conductivity Models
Airborne Electromagnetic data are being acquired by Geoscience Australia in areas considered to have potential for uranium or thorium mineralisation under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP). The surveys have been managed and interpreted by Geoscience Australia's Airborne Electromagnetic Acquisition and Interpretation project. In contrast to industry style deposit scale investigations, these surveys are designed to reveal new geological information at regional scale. The Pine Creek airborne electromagnetic survey comprised of three survey areas Woolner Granite, Rum Jungle and Kombolgie. Tempest data were acquired for Woolner Granite and Rum Jungle survey areas and are included in this report. Woolner Granite and Rum Jungle survey areas cover a total of 21 100 line km and an area of 43 200 km2. Phase-1 data, that is, contractor quality-controlled and quality-assessed data for Woolner Granite, Rum Jungle and Kombolgie, were released during 2009. Phase-2 data, that is Geoscience Australia layered earth inversion (GA-LEI) data and derived products for Woolner Granite and Rum Jungle, are included in this data release. The data and products described in this report are contained on the accompanying DVD. The Kombolgie survey data were acquired with VTEM. The VTEM Kombolgie inversion data and report will be included in a separate data release. The main products from the AEM surveys are conductivity depth slices and sections, conductance grids and an AEM Depth of Investigation grid. The data is provided in formats which can be viewed on most computers systems. They include, JPEG (.jpg) with associated world files for easy use in geographic information system (GIS) packages, ER Mapper grids (.ers), ESRI shape files (.shp) of the flight path, and point-located ASCII data with relevant metadata for derived products.
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The continuing world demand for potash (potassium salts) is driving a new exploration boom in the Australian minerals industry for this valuable resource, listed by Geoscience Australia (GA) as a strategic commodity (Mernagh 2013). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) predicts a rising demand for fertilizers, with potash demand increasing at 3.7% per annum (FAO 2012), and Rabobank predicts that demand will exceed supply by up to 100% by 2020 (Rabobank 2012). This demand is driving the application of airborne electromagnetics (AEM) to map salinity as a proxy for potential potash resources in salt lakes. This short paper describes a few of the applications and is written in response to an industry request to GA for information on how AEM might be used to explore for potash.
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A brief summary fo the highlights of the Paterson AEM survey and planned future work of Geoscience Australia's Airborne EM Project.