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Airborne EM an important exploration method for revealing geological insights into the subsurface

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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Airborne electromagnetics (AEM) is an important exploration method for revealing geological insights into the subsurface. AEM has proven to be particularly useful for mapping geological structures and has played a significant role in places such as the central parts of Africa, South America and Australia, where approximately 80% of the landscape is covered by regolith, the outcrop is rare and mineral deposits are hidden beneath barren cover. The method’s non-invasive nature and its extensive ground coverage make it a particularly powerful tool at the early stages of green-field exploration. AEM surveys commissioned by exploration companies for mineral exploration purposes are mostly perceived as 'anomaly detectors'. For further interpretation it is essential to comprehend the main local geological and survey specific factors that influence the electromagnetic response. The aim of any given observation is to understand the procedures and assumptions used to derive models of conductivity and depth from the measured data, and then develop processes to infer geology, lithology and other characteristics of the subsurface from the models which honour the data. Geophysicists assessing AEM models are often faced with the conundrum of determining how geologically sensible a proposed model is and how it compares too many other possible solutions. One way is to explore thousands of plausible models that fit the data through stochastic processes. The statistical analysis permits quantification of the degree of uncertainty and a probable distribution of conductivities at depth. To make the information translatable to other disciplines, it is necessary to processes AEM measurements and integrate them with ancillary information. The combination of data integration and AEM's extensive area coverage enables transfer of local geological understanding to a broader region. Previous work has demonstrated there also is great value in reprocessing legacy data that is often abandoned. Presented at the 2017 Exploration 17 - Integrating the Geosciences

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Field Value
Title Airborne EM an important exploration method for revealing geological insights into the subsurface
Language English
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/f27f1e0b-a748-4921-a4f3-7eb21e69a34c
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Airborne EM an important exploration method for revealing geological insights into the subsurface". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/airborne-em-an-important-exploration-method-for-revealing-geological-insights-into-the-subsurfa