Geological insights of Northern Australia’s AusAEM airborne EM survey

Summary

Airborne electromagnetic data generated by the AusAEM Survey are shown to map mineral deposit host rocks and regional geological features within the AusAEM Survey area. We have developed new functionality in Geoscience Australia’s sample-by-sample layered earth inversion algorithm, allowing inversion of the magnitude of the combined vector sum of the X- and Z-components of TEMPEST AEM data. This functionality improves the clarity of inverted interpretation products by reducing the degree of along-line incoherency inherent to stitched 1D inversions. The new inversion approach improves the interpretability of sub-horizontal conductors, allowing better mapping of geological features under cover.

Examples of geological mapping by the AusAEM survey highlight the utility of wide line spacing, regional AEM surveying to improve geological, mineral systems and groundwater resource understanding in the regions flanking outcropping mineral deposit host rocks in northern Australia.

• AusAEM
• TEMPEST
• airborne
• electromagnetic
• inversion
• AEM
• geological mapping