3D geophysical electromagnetic forward modeling of complex graphitic fault zones

Jones, Drew J. (2017) 3D geophysical electromagnetic forward modeling of complex graphitic fault zones. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (40MB)

Abstract

Uranium exploration in the Athabasca Basin, Canada, has been compared to finding a needle in a haystack as the typical targets are thin, near-vertical graphitic faults buried under thick sedimentary cover. Time domain electromagnetic (EM) exploration methods are commonly used in the detection of these conductive graphitic fault zones. A method of using many three-dimensional (3D) frequency-domain EM forward responses, computed over a wide range of frequencies, to construct an accurate 3D time-domain forward response is presented. The application of 3D forward modeling using unstructured tetrahedral meshes provides a more precise means of replicating EM responses of targets like those in the Athabasca Basin with complicated, challenging geometries. Results for synthetic and real-world scenarios demonstrate the ability of the approach in accurately modeling simple or complex conductors and sets of conductors in 3D. Results also demonstrate the application of the method to model realistic geologic situations with many individual model regions based on actual geologic data.

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