Yellowstone National Park hosts over 10,000 thermal features (e.g. geysers, fumaroles, mud pots, and hot springs), yet little is known about the circulation depth of meteoric water feeding these features, the pathways that guide deep, hot fluids to the surface, or the separation depth of the steam that sources vapor-dominated systems. Previous near-surface geophysical studies have been effective in imaging shallow hydrothermal pathways in some areas of the park, but these methods are difficult to conduct over the large areas needed to characterize entire hydrothermal systems. Transient electromagnetic (TEM) soundings and 2D direct current (DC) resistivity profiles show that hydrothermal fluids at active sites have a higher electrical conductivity than the surrounding hydrothermally inactive areas. For that reason, airborne TEM should be an effective method to characterize large areas and identify hydrothermally active and inactive zones using electrical conductivity.Here we present preliminary results from an airborne transient electromagnetic (TEM) and magnetic survey acquired jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Wyoming (UW) in November 2016. At the time of this writing, the survey is planned to cover 2600 line-km of data at two scales: regional surveys with lines spaced 450 apart and two smaller, high-resolution surveys with line spacing of 150 m. The regional survey will cover northern Yellowstone Lake, the Norris-Mammoth corridor, and the Upper Geyser basin. The high-resolution surveys focus on the Upper Geyser Basin (including Old Faithful) and the Norris Geyser Basin. Data will be acquired with the SkyTEM 312, with a magnetic moment of 0.5 M A-m2. We will present preliminary inversions using the Aarhus Workbench software, with particular focus on the depths of vapor phase separation and the connectivity of pathways of meteoric water recharge.
AbstractThe source of adequate groundwater resources to support community and industry (pastoral and mining) in the arid APY Lands of northern South Australia has been the subject of considerable concern since the establishment of cattle stations and community centres in the early 1900's. Although small, locally confined fractured rock aquifer systems have been defined, finding large sustainable sedimentary alluvial aquifers has been problematic despite numerous drilling campaigns over 60+ years. Challenges to their identification include a complex, apparently compartmentalised sedimentary (regolith) cover sequence, highly varying alluvial aquifer thicknesses, and the paucity of spatial information. The low sporadic rainfall/recharge and high average annual evaporation results in a highly variable groundwater quality adding to the complexity of resource determination.The role of geophysical data in addressing these shortcomings has been the subject of more recent investigation. Local scale exploration airborne EM data sets have highlighted the spatial complexity of the alluvial aquifers in the region. Airborne magnetic data, also acquired...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.