Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Arkansas Geological Survey (AGS) are partnering to image geology using airborne technology as part of the USGS Earth Mapping Resource Initiative (Earth MRI) project and the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP).
The USGS is contracting with EON Geosciences to conduct the survey, which will fly over all or parts of six counties in western Arkansas including Yell, Poe, Johnson, Logan, Scott and Perry counties. The planes and crew will be based out of the Branson Airport in Hollister, Mo. Weather permitting, the survey will begin in mid-March and conclude in June.
A Piper Cheyenne airplane will be mounted with passive sensors that measure variations in the Earth’s natural magnetic field. These variations are created by different rock types up to several miles beneath the surface. The magnetic sensor will be mounted on a tail stinger off the back of the aircraft. Each plane will also include sensors inside the aircraft that measure soil and rock chemistry at the surface. None of the instruments carried on the aircraft pose a health risk to people or animals. The aircraft will be flown by experienced pilots that are specially trained and approved for low-level flying. All flights are coordinated with the FAA to ensure flights are in accordance with U.S. law.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.
A Piper Cheyenne airplane with tail stinger magnetometer. Credit: Courtesy EON Geosciences, Inc.
The western Arkansas survey will be flown at elevations approximately 80 to 300 meters, or about 260 to 1,000 feet, above ground in a grid pattern along north-south flight lines spaced approximately 300 meters, or 984 feet, apart. East-west flight lines will be spaced 3,000 meters, or 9,800 feet, apart. All survey flights will occur during daylight hours.
Data collected for this survey is part of a national-scale effort to acquire modern, high-resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric data. The survey will replace existing lower-quality geophysical data, collected mostly in the 1980s, that is of limited use for geologic mapping. The new geophysical survey will use the latest technological developments that will allow the USGS to create high-resolution 3D representations of geology to depths several miles below the surface. The 3D models and maps produced from the survey will help understand the distribution of groundwater, mineral and energy resources as well as the potential for natural hazards. Data collected as part of the Arkansas survey will be made public and used by USGS and AGS scientists to guide more detailed geologic mapping at local scales.
Earth MRI is a cooperative effort between the USGS, the Association of American State Geologists and other federal, state and private sector organizations to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework in the U.S. The NCGMP provides accurate geologic maps to help sustain and improve the quality of life and economic vitality of the nation.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
Flight area map for western Arkansas low-level flight. Survey will occur in western portion of state over parts of six counties. Area to be flown indicated by red box. Public domain
NMT gets $5M software donation
NMT Receives Donation of $5 Million Industrial Software Packages
AUGUST 20, 2020
PetEx selects NMT for academic award of powerful modeling modules for geology and petroleum
SOCORRO, N.M. – The Earth and Environmental Science and the Petroleum Engineering Department and the Petroleum Research Recovery Center (PRRC) at New Mexico Tech are the recipients of a generous donation of imaging software suites.
Petroleum Experts Limited, or PetEx, recently donated 10 copies of 10 different software packages that relate to 2D and 3D modeling of the Earth’s subsurface. The commercial value of the donation is more than $5 million. The Scotland-based company specializes in petroleum engineering software products for the oil industry. They offer educational licenses to a limited number of accredited universities that offer graduate programs in geology and petroleum engineering. The company's Houston office, Petroleum Experts Inc., facilitated the donation.
Petroleum engineering professor Dr. Tan Nguyen said the PetEx software packages will provide valuable learning tools to NMT students interested in modeling and structural analysis.
Brandon Lutz, Ph.D. student in geology, continues to use this software for his dissertation work. Lutz and recently-retired geology professor Dr. Gary Axen are using the Move software for an NSF-funded project to make a 3D model of a large region between Las Vegas, Nevada, and the southern Sierra Nevada in California, including the famous Death Valley area.
“Thanks to this generous donation from PetEx, our students and scientists will have greater opportunities to use this leading edge technology to better understand the subsurface and gain experience in modeling,” Nguyen said.
Lutz said he’s been using the software modules for several years to great depth.
He's been using it for a range of different research tasks on his NSF-funding project. He’s developing structural models of the fault systems of the Basin and Range region of the western U.S.
“Fault blocks get separated, and, with this software, you can put them back together,” Lutz said. “You can simulate all sorts of structural deformation in the Earth. You can do 2D and 3D models on just about anything – rock layers, fault systems, fracture mechanics. I’ve used it to build a 3D reconstruction of the Death Valley area.”
‘This is state-of-the-art mining and petroleum software,” Lutz said. “It’s very powerful and you can do really intricate modeling with it. I could go on and on about it.”
The company donated the following modules: PROSPER, GAP, PVTP, MBAL, REVEAL, RESOLVE, MOVE, 2D Kinematic Modelling, 3D Kinematic Modelling, Geomechanical Modelling, Fracture Modelling, Fault Response Modelling, Fault Analysis, Stress Analysis, MOVE Link for Petrel, MOVE Link for OpenWorks, and MOVE Link for GST.
The MOVE suite is marketed as the most complete structural modelling and analysis toolkit available. It provides a full digital environment for best practice structural modelling to reduce risk and uncertainty in geological models.
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NMT receives $2M software for modeling
Software Company Donates $2.1 Million Modeling Suite to NMT
JANUARY 14, 2019
Modeling suite will benefit graduate students and faculty in geology and petroleum engineering
SOCORRO, N.M. – The Earth and Environmental Science Department at New Mexico Tech is the recipient of a generous donation of imaging software suites.
Petroleum Experts Limited, or PetEx, recently donated 10 copies of 11 different software packages that relate to 2D and 3D modeling of the Earth’s subsurface. The commercial value of the donation is $2.18 million. PetEx is headquartered in Scotland. The company's Houston office, Petroleum Experts Inc., facilitated the donation. PetEx specializes in petroleum engineering software products for the oil industry. They offer educational licenses to a limited number of accredited universities that offer graduate programs in geology and petroleum engineering.
Geology professor Dr. Gary Axen said the PetEx software packages will provide valuable learning tools to NMT students interested in modeling and structural analysis.
“Thanks to this generous donation from PetEx, our students will have greater opportunities to use this leading edge technology to better understand the subsurface and gain experience in modeling,” Axen said.
“The Move software suite was developed mainly for petroleum exploration, but has many other potential applications in Earth science and petroleum engineering,” Axen said. “Move allows one to ‘build’ 2D and 3D models of subsurface geology based upon a variety of input data types, and to reconstruct such models to times earlier in their geological evolution, in a geometrically rigorous fashion. It also has modules that allow one to understand the slip tendency of faults in a given stress field, and other useful computer tools.”
Brandon Lutz, Ph.D. student in geology, plans on putting this software to use immediately for his dissertation work. Lutz and Axen are using the Move software for an NSF-funded project to make a 3D model of a large region between Las Vegas, Nev., and the southern Sierra Nevada in California, including the classic Death Valley area.
Axen said, “This will be reconstructed in 1 to 2 million year time steps back to about 12 million years ago, when large magnitude tectonic extension of the region began. These geometric snapshots will then be used to constrain forward models of surface erosion and sediment deposition and of surface and groundwater flow under changing climate scenarios.
“In turn, this will foster understanding of the effects that tectonics has on those processes,” Axen said. “Ultimately, the forward models will be "tested" against a large database of spring activity, spring water chemistry and endemic spring species distributions (and their genetic clocks), with the goal of predicting spring resilience in arid climates undergoing climate change.”
Faculty members and students will have access to 10 copies each of these software packages:
MOVE
2D Kinematic Modelling
3D Kinematic Modelling
Geomechanical Modelling
Fracture Modelling
Fault Response Modelling
Fault Analysis
Stress Analysis
MOVE Link for Petrel
MOVE Link for OpenWorks
MOVE Link for GST
The MOVE suite is marketed as the most complete structural modelling and analysis toolkit available. It provides a full digital environment for best practice structural modelling to reduce risk and uncertainty in geological models.
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