Sunday, November 6, 2016

The Mystery Of A Ground Magnetic Survey Company Revealed

By Jennifer Roberts


These are processes and procedures that are meant to measure rock magnetism. Although this is their primary functions, they can aid find minerals that are not magnetic in nature notably gold. Over the years, they have been used in areas prospected to have iron ore thus bumping into gold was initially a mere coincidence. This what you need to know about a ground magnetic survey company.

Following magnetism principles, ground surveys are useful in mapping the magnetism of underneath rocks. In most cases in a bid to identify the most common rocks hat are capable to attract magnet such as iron sulfide and magnetite. When these two metals are found in their pure form, and in large quantities, the location is marked as an iron ore deposit. There are certain iron sulfides that have high chances of containing gold. Thus positively identifying them may reveal unexpected tons of gold which is by far more valuable through a non-magnetic mineral.

These ground magnetic surveys are also used in the comprehension of the underlying rock structures as well as in the identification of folds and faults hidden under rocks and checking out the demagnetized areas linked to hydrothermal activity.

Magnetic rocks are destroyed by hydrothermal activities. As time passes by, ordinary rocks that are capable to attract magnet are demagnetized by heat. In case of this occurrence, rocks in demagnetized regions are not recognized using the ordinary magnet-attraction-ability survey. This will require a regional level aeromagnetic survey. The good thing about this procedure is that it is sophisticated which enables it to recognize deposits of gold.

The survey using magnetism is usually done by two operators. They virtually walk across the study area. Therefore, for this task fitness is paramount. The objective is walking across the landscape in a straight line amidst some obstacles. Bigger obstructions can happen in areas having big vegetation and other risks like scorpions and snakes. In these landscapes, the operators should walk slowly and pay close attention and concentrate more. This job gets easier in the level grounds since the operators can even walk to fifteen kilometers per day.

Technology plays its part as each operator walks across the area of interest armed with a magnetometer and GPS. Any changes on the earths field that able to attract magnet are recorded along the extended side of each line that an operator has walked along. The GPS readings are also recorded keenly and the plotted area marked as accurately as possible. The few obstructions are negligible and do not affect the results.

Each operator marks the paths walked in a different color. The recorded changes of magnetic field deviations along the paths of each operator will help in analyzing the field accurately. Where the landscape is significantly changing and elevating is recorded by the GPS. This raw data is eventually fed into computer software to develop a 3D model of the surveyed terrain. For every survey, an operation station is established from where daily variations of the fields filled with magnetism are recorded.

After the fieldwork, the collected data will be interpreted by a geophysicist. This expert separates artifacts brought by past human activities and studies the natural phenomenon. This interpretation is both artistic and scientific for there are certain filters to identify the various aspects of magnetic gradients to reveal structures associated with the mineral occurrence.




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