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Processing and analysis of seismic reflection and transient electromagnetic data for kimberlite exploration in the Mackenzie Valley, NT

University of British Columbia

The Lena West property near Lac des Bois, NT, held by Diamondex Resources Ltd., is an area of interest for exploration for kimberlitic features. In 2005, Frontier Geosciences Inc. was contracted to carry out seismic reflection and time-domain transient electromagnetic (TEM) surveys to investigate the possibility of kimberlite pipes being the cause of total magnetic intensity (TMI) anomalies previously identified on the property. One small part of the property, Area 1915, was surveyed with two perpendicular seismic reflection lines 1550 m and 1790 m long and three TEM lines consisting of six or seven individual soundings each with a 200 m transmitter loop. The results generated by Frontier Geosciences did not indicate any obvious vertical features that correlated with the TMI anomaly. The purpose of this study is to reprocess the seismic reflection data using different approaches than those of Frontier Geosciences and to invert the TEM data using a 1-D inversion code, EM1DTM recently developed by the UBC Geophysical Inversion Facility, to improve upon previous results and enhance the interpretation. A secondary objective is to test the robustness of EM1DTM when applied to observed TEM data, since prior to this study it had only been applied to synthetic data. Selective bandpass filtering, refraction and residual statics and f-x deconvolution procedures contributed to improved seismic images to the recorded two-way traveltime of 511.5 ms (approximately 1100 m depth). The TEM data were successfully inverted and converted to pseudo 2-D recovered resistivity sections that showed similar results to those from Frontier Geosciences. On the final seismic reflection sections, several strong reflectors are identified and the base of the overlying sedimentary layers is interpreted at a depth of ~600 m. The TEM results show consistent vertical structure with minimum horizontal variation across all lines to a valid depth of ~150 m. However, neither TEM nor seismic reflection results provide any information that correlates well with the observed TMI anomaly.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-02-25

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/5027

Geophysics

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/