With technological advanced that have been undertaken by man since 1930s, lots of advancements have been made in ways of doing geophysical surveys. This development moved surveys from the traditional method whereby a sample of mineral had to be found in an area for the area to be considered a possible mine. This has been changed by the new methods especially the electrical resistivity survey . This method is however no used only by mineral explorers. The method can be used in different field that deal with composition of subsurface soil. These range from doing environmental audits to doing site assessments. Those people doing water management and even geological mapping can also use this method. The method mainly relies on how the ground on study resists the flow of electricity subjected to it. The amount of resistance is then analyzed to tell more about soil type, contaminants in the area, bedrock layers and also water content. This information is very critical to the researcher. After analyzing the data, it can either be expressed either as a three dimensional graph or a two dimensional graph depending on the need of the explorer. The method can be used to determine the depth from the surface of water table in an area, locate exact locations of fractures or faults that occur within the subsurface and also identify unstable ground that can be used as mine shift during mining. Dam builder can also use this technology to establish if a certain area will be strong enough to support a damn. The basic advantage of this process is that it is very accurate in obtaining data. The device is also simple to collect data with. However, since it involves inserting of probes into the ground in a predetermined pattern, it is slower compared to a method like the electromagnetic conductivity.
Related Articles -
resistivity, survey,
|