Assessing the presence of hard rock along a gas pipeline alignment with airborne EM

Summary

Over the past decades, airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys have mostly been used in connection with mineral exploration and a variety of issues in hydrogeophysical mapping. However, increasingly, AEM is used for a wide range of geotechnical purposes: pollution mapping, geotechnical assessment on road and freeway alignments, bathymetry, and depth to bedrock.

We present an investigation using a helicopterborne transient electromagnetic system along the planned trace of a gas pipeline. Oil and gas pipelines are often buried at a depth of a few meters and the cost of construction depends critically on whether the subsurface is composed of soft sediments that can be easily excavated or hard rock formations that require much heavier equipment and possibly have to be blasted. The aim of the AEM survey was to distinguish between the soft, relatively conductive sediments and the hard, relatively resistive bedrock in the upper few meters of the subsurface.

Data were collected with a rather small transmitter moment, but a high repetition frequency that simultaneously allowed high acquisition speed, and reliable data quality. Measurements were inverted with 1D models with both vertical and lateral constraints to produce model sections along flight lines. A novel method of statistical analysis of the set of equivalent models for each inverted model, calibrated against boreholes, improved the estimates of the presence of hard rock along the flight lines.