Earth exploration
Earth exploration, the investigation of the surface of the Earth and of its interior.
By the beginning of the 20th century most of the Earth’s surface had been explored, at least superficially, except for the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Today the last of the unmarked areas on land maps have been filled in by radar and photographic mapping from aircraft and satellites. One of the last areas to be mapped was the Darién peninsula between the Panama Canal and Colombia. Heavy clouds, steady rain, and dense jungle vegetation made its exploration difficult, but airborne radar was able to penetrate the cloud cover to produce reliable, detailed maps of the area. In recent years data returned by Earth satellites have led to several notable discoveries, as, for example, drainage patterns in the Sahara, which are relics of a period when this region was not arid.
Historically, exploration of the Earth’s interior was confined to the near surface, and this was largely a matter of following downward those discoveries made at the surface. Most present-day scientific knowledge of the subject has been obtained through geophysical research conducted since World War II, and the deep Earth remains a major frontier in the 21st century.
Exploration of space and the ocean depths has been facilitated by the placement of sensors and related devices in these regions. Only a very limited portion of the subsurface regions of the Earth, however, can be studied in this way. Investigators can drill into only the uppermost crust, and the high cost severely limits the number of holes that can be drilled. The deepest borehole so far drilled extends only to a depth of about 10 kilometres (6 miles). Because direct exploration is so restricted, investigators are forced to rely extensively on geophysical measurements (see below Methodology and instrumentation).
Primary objectives and accomplishments
Scientific curiosity, the desire to understand better the nature of the Earth, is a major motive for exploring its surface and subsurface regions. Another key motive is the prospect of economic profit. Improved standards of living have increased the demand for water, fuel, and other materials, creating economic incentives. Pure knowledge has often been a by-product of profit-motivated exploration; by the same token, substantial economic benefits have resulted from the quest for scientific knowledge.
Many surface and subsurface exploratory projects are undertaken with the aim of locating: (1) oil, natural gas, and coal; (2) concentrations of commercially important minerals (for example, ores of iron, copper, and uranium) and deposits of building materials (sand, gravel, etc.); (3) recoverable groundwater; (4) various rock types at different depths for engineering planning; (5) geothermal reserves for heating and electricity; and (6) archaeological features.
Concern for safety has prompted extensive searches for possible hazards before major construction projects are undertaken. Sites for dams, power plants, nuclear reactors, factories, tunnels, roads, hazardous waste depositories, and so forth need to be stable and provide assurance that underlying formations will not shift or slide from the weight of the construction, move along a fault during an earthquake, or permit the seepage of water or wastes. Accordingly, prediction and control of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are major fields of research in the United States and Japan, countries susceptible to such hazards. Geophysical surveys furnish a more complete picture than test boreholes alone, although some boreholes are usually drilled to verify the geophysical interpretation.
Methodology and instrumentation
Geophysical techniques involve measuring reflectivity, magnetism, gravity, acoustic or elastic waves, radioactivity, heat flow, electricity, and electromagnetism. Most measurements are made on the surface of the land or sea, but some are taken from aircraft or satellites, and still others are made underground in boreholes or mines and at ocean depths.
Geophysical mapping depends on the existence of a difference in physical properties of adjacent bodies of rock—i.e., between whatever is being sought and those of the surroundings. Often the difference is provided by something associated with but other than what is being sought. Examples include a configuration of sedimentary layers that form a trap for oil accumulation, a drainage pattern that might affect groundwater flow, or a dike or host rock where minerals may be concentrated. Different methods depend on different physical properties. Which particular method is used is determined by what is being sought. In most cases, however, data from a combination of methods rather than from simply one method yield a much clearer picture.
Remote sensing
This comprises measurements of electromagnetic radiation from the ground, usually of reflected energy in various spectral ranges measured from aircraft or satellites. Remote sensing encompasses aerial photography and other kinds of measurements that are generally displayed in the form of photograph-like images. Its applications involve a broad range of studies, including cartographic, botanical, geological, and military investigations.
Remote-sensing techniques involve using combinations of images. Images from different flight paths can be combined to allow an interpreter to perceive features in three dimensions, while those in different spectral bands may identify specific types of rock, soil, vegetation, and other entities, where species have distinctive reflectance values in different spectral regions (i.e., tone signatures). Images taken at intervals make it possible to observe changes that occur over time, such as the seasonal growth of a crop or changes wrought by a storm or flood. Those taken at different times of the day or at different sun angles may reveal quite distinct features; for example, seafloor features in relatively shallow water in a calm sea can be mapped when the Sun is high. Radar radiation penetrates clouds and thus permits mapping from above them. Side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) is sensitive to changes in land slope and surface roughness. By registering images from adjacent flight paths, synthetic stereo pairs may give ground elevations.
Thermal infrared energy is detected by an optical-mechanical scanner. The detector is cooled by a liquid-nitrogen (or liquid-helium) jacket that encloses it, making the instrument sensitive at long wavelengths and isolating it from heat radiation from the immediate surroundings. A rotating mirror directs radiation coming from various directions onto the sensor. An image can be created by displaying the output in a form synchronized with the direction of the beam (as with a cathode-ray tube). Infrared radiation permits mapping surface temperatures to a precision of less than a degree and thus shows the effects of phenomena that produce temperature variations, such as groundwater movement.
Landsat images are among the most commonly used. They are produced with data obtained from a multispectral scanner carried aboard certain U.S. Landsat satellites orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 900 kilometres. Images covering an area of 185 kilometres square are available for every segment of the Earth’s surface. Scanner measurements are made in four spectral bands: green and red in the visible portion of the spectrum, and two infrared bands. The data are usually displayed by arbitrarily assigning different colours to the bands and then superimposing these to make “false-colour” images.
In geology, Landsat images are used to delineate landforms, rock outcrops and surface lithology, structural features, hydrothermal areas, and sites of mineral resources. Changes in vegetation revealed in the images may distinguish different soil types, subtle elevation differences, subsurface water distribution, subcropping rocks, and trace element distribution, among other things. Lineations of features may distinguish folded-rock strata or fault ruptures even where the primary features are not evident.
Magnetic methods
Measurements can be made of the Earth’s total magnetic field or of components of the field in various directions. The oldest magnetic prospecting instrument is the magnetic compass, which measures the field direction. Other instruments include magnetic balances and fluxgate magnetometers. Most magnetic surveys are made with proton-precession or optical-pumping magnetometers, which are appreciably more accurate. The proton magnetometer measures a radio-frequency voltage induced in a coil by the reorientation (precession) of magnetically polarized protons in a container of ordinary water. The optical-pumping magnetometer makes use of the principles of nuclear resonance and cesium or rubidium vapour. It can detect minute magnetic fluctuations by measuring the effects of light-induced (optically pumped) transitions between atomic energy levels that are dependent on magnetic field strength.
Magnetic surveys are usually made with magnetometers borne by aircraft flying in parallel lines spaced two to four kilometres apart at an elevation of about 500 metres (one metre = 3.28 feet) when exploring for petroleum deposits and in lines 0.5 to one kilometre apart roughly 200 metres above the ground when searching for mineral concentrations. Ground surveys are conducted to follow up magnetic anomaly discoveries made from the air. Such surveys may involve stations spaced only 50 metres apart. Magnetometers also are towed by research vessels. In some cases, two or more magnetometers displaced a few metres from each other are used in a gradiometer arrangement; differences between their readings indicate the magnetic field gradient. A ground monitor is usually used to measure the natural fluctuations of the Earth’s field over time so that corrections can be made. Surveying is generally suspended during periods of large magnetic fluctuation (magnetic storms).
Magnetic effects result primarily from the magnetization induced in susceptible rocks by the Earth’s magnetic field. Most sedimentary rocks have very low susceptibility and thus are nearly transparent to magnetism. Accordingly, in petroleum exploration magnetics are used negatively: magnetic anomalies indicate the absence of explorable sedimentary rocks. Magnetics are used for mapping features in igneous and metamorphic rocks, possibly faults, dikes, or other features that are associated with mineral concentrations. Data are usually displayed in the form of a contour map of the magnetic field, but interpretation is often made on profiles.
Rocks cannot retain magnetism when the temperature is above the Curie point (about 500° C for most magnetic materials), and this restricts magnetic rocks to the upper 40 kilometres of the Earth’s interior. The source of the geomagnetic field must be deeper than this, and it is now believed that convection currents of conducting material in the outer core generate the field. These currents couple to the Earth’s spin, so that the magnetic field—when averaged over time—is oriented along the planet’s axis. The currents gradually change with time in a somewhat erratic manner and their aggregate effect sometimes reverses, which explains the time changes in the Earth’s field. This is the crux of the magnetohydrodynamic theory of the geomagnetic field (see also Earth: Sources of the steady magnetic field).
Gravity methods
The gravity field of the Earth can be measured by timing the free fall of an object in a vacuum, by measuring the period of a pendulum, or in various other ways. Today almost all gravity surveying is done with gravimeters. Such an instrument typically consists of a weight attached to a spring that stretches or contracts corresponding to an increase or decrease in gravity. It is designed to measure differences in gravity accelerations rather than absolute magnitudes. Gravimeters used in geophysical surveys have an accuracy of about 0.01 milligal (mgal; 1 mgal = 0.001 centimetre per second per second). That is to say, they are capable of detecting differences in the Earth’s gravitational field as small as one part in 100,000,000.
Gravity differences occur because of local density differences. Anomalies of exploration interest are often about 0.2 mgal. Data have to be corrected for variations due to elevation (one metre is equivalent to about 0.2 mgal), latitude (100 metres are equivalent to about 0.08 mgal), and other factors. Gravity surveys on land often involve meter readings every kilometre along traverse loops a few kilometres across. It takes only a few minutes to read a gravimeter, but determining location and elevation accurately requires much effort. Inertial navigation is sometimes used for determining elevation and location when helicopters are employed to transport gravimeters. Marine gravimeters are mounted on inertial platforms when used on surface vessels. A ship’s speed and direction affect gravimeter readings and limit survey accuracy. Aircraft undergo too many accelerations to permit gravity measurements except for regional studies.
In most cases, the density of sedimentary rocks increases with depth because the increased pressure results in a loss of porosity. Uplifts usually bring denser rocks nearer the surface and thereby create positive gravity anomalies. Faults that displace rocks of different densities also can cause gravity anomalies. Salt domes generally produce negative anomalies because salt is less dense than the surrounding rocks. Such folds, faults, and salt domes trap oil, and so the detection of gravity anomalies associated with them is crucial in petroleum exploration. Moreover, gravity measurements are occasionally used to evaluate the amount of high-density mineral present in an ore body. They also provide a means of locating hidden caverns, old mine workings, and other subterranean cavities.
