Use of electrical geophysics to detect sources of groundwater contamination

Zonge, Kenneth L.; Figgins, Steven J.; Hughes, Larry J.

doi:10.1190/1.1892883

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Since its first commercial use in the late 1970s, CSAMT has been used in a variety of applications. These include the mapping of small-scale and large-scale structural features for petroleum exploration (Hughes 1984;Hughes et al 1984), mapping possible electrochemical alteration in the sediments above oilfields (Ostrander et al 1983;Hughes et al 1984), monitoring secondary oil recovery operations (Bartel & Wayland 1981;Wayland et al 1984;Wayland & Leighton 1985), mapping burn fronts in underground coal gasification projects (Bartel 1982), coal exploration (Bartel & Dobecki 1982), exploration for geothermal resources (Sandberg & Hohmann 1982;Bartel & Jacobson 1987;Yamashita et al 1985), mapping groundwater contamination (Fryberger & Tinlin 1984;Zonge et al 1985), and mapping conductive mineralization (Zonge et al 1980;Lakanen 1986;Hjelt et al 1987). The authors also have applied CSAMT for mapping structure related to occurrences of sulphur, uranium, precious metals, and coal, for monitoring reservoir fluids in geothermal fields, for mapping brine contamination of drinking water supplies from leaks in injection wells and pipelines, and for mapping spills of refined hydrocarbons.…”

Section: The Csamt Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

Structure mapping at Trap Spring Oilfield, Nevada, using controlled-source magnetotellurics

Hughes¹,

Carlson²

1987

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The seismic reflection method has been a highly successful tool in oil and gas exploration for half a century, and it presently accounts for about 98% of all geophysical expenditures worldwide. However, the relatively high cost of seismic exploration and its limitations in certain geologic environments are continuing problems. Some help has been provided by the magnetotelluric (MT) sounding technique, but the cost of MT is also quite high due to the low natural signal strengths being measured. The controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotellurics (CSAMT) technique is a shallower-penetrating variation of MT which uses an artificial signal source. This permits faster and more economical data acquisition. CSAMT has a penetration of about 2 km in typical petroliferous environments. CSAMT does not replace seismic but functions in three specific roles: (1) as a reconnaissance tool to help focus seismic coverage, or to help avoid 'no-record' zones; (2) to assist in static corrections and in interactive seismic interpretation; (3) as a primary tool in certain environments (volcanics, complex thrust areas) where seismic data acquisition is limited. An example of the application of CSAMT to structure mapping comes from data taken over Trap Spring Field, located in the frontier Great Basin of the western United States. The field produces oil from fractured volcanics at the edge of a major graben fault. The CSAMT data delineate the major subsurface faulting and stratigraphic relationships in the area. The resolution of the CSAMT survey is significantly better than previously obtained induced polarization (IP) data. Detailed comparisons with electric log, drill hole, and air-photo data show an excellent correlation between the CSAMT features and known geology. The work suggests that CSAMT could be used in this area for reconnaissance mapping to develop seismic prospects, at approximately one sixth the cost of seismic.

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Section: The Csamt Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

Structure mapping at Trap Spring Oilfield, Nevada, using controlled-source magnetotellurics

Hughes¹,

Carlson²

1987

First Break

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“…Electrical geophysical methods are most widely used. Some of them allow for clarifying the groundwater flow, often related to understanding the spatial distribution of contamination, sea water intrusion, or the impact of mining (see Zonge et al, 1985;Meiser, 1991;Buselli et al, 1998, Ustra et al, 2012. Such investigations have also been carried out in Bulgaria (Gyurov and Stoyanov, 2004;Stoyanov and Gyurov, 2004;Shanov et al, 2011;Dimovski et al, 2017Dimovski, 2018, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

4D investigation of water infiltration in waste dumps using electrical resistivity (Elatsite mine, Bulgaria)

Benderev

Mitev²,

Hlebarov³

et al. 2021

Geologica Balcanica

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The objective was to investigate how water infiltrated into waste dumps at a mine site. The electrical resistivity method of field geophysics was applied to produce 4D imaging of progressive water infiltration into the waste dump. The goal is to test a method for investigating how rain water infiltrates unconsolidated materials in mine waste dumps. This is an important problem when evaluating the water balance in waste dumps and understanding the conditions for contamination of the water flowing through the waste materials. The trial was carried out in one of the two large dumps at Elatsite mine, which are composed of rocks with various fragment size and diverse mineral composition. The investigation was undertaken by discharging salt solution into the waste dump and taking geophysical measurements on a rectangular electrode grid at certain time intervals. The grid consisted of 64 electrodes forming 10×5 m cells and covering a 70×35 m area. As a result, it was possible to record how the infiltration and dispersion of the salt solution developed in space and time. In the last one of the seven surveys, 40 hours after the start of the trial, it was established that the salt solution reached a depth of approximately 40 m. The results could be used for predicting the interaction between water and waste material.

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2.5‐D CSAMT Modeling with Finite Element Method Over 2‐D Complex Earth Media

Unsworth

Wang

2004

Chinese J of Geophysics

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This paper will discuss the characteristics of EM field for 2‐D complex earth media. Firstly we introduce the characteristics of electric field, magnetic field, apparent resistivity, and phase induced by a finite electrical dipole source over 100m homogeneous half‐space media. From this result we can know the field change behavior with the distance from transmitter to receiver, and also the result tells us we should use proper transmitting‐receiving mode. In wave number domain, the EM field shows that the field of low wave number contributes much more than the one of high wave number. And then we demonstrate the CSAMT forward modeling of apparent resistivity, phase pseudosections and frequency curves for two anomaly bodies, two slanting anomaly bodies and down faulted anomaly. Numerical modeling results show directly the anomaly characteristics, this is very helpful for understanding field data and data inversion and interpretation.

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Use of electrical geophysics to detect sources of groundwater contamination

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Structure mapping at Trap Spring Oilfield, Nevada, using controlled-source magnetotellurics

Structure mapping at Trap Spring Oilfield, Nevada, using controlled-source magnetotellurics

4D investigation of water infiltration in waste dumps using electrical resistivity (Elatsite mine, Bulgaria)

2.5‐D CSAMT Modeling with Finite Element Method Over 2‐D Complex Earth Media

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