SEISMIC SURVEY TO SEARCH NEW DEPTHS IN WESTERN VICTORIA
Distinctive trucks with vibrating metal plates are rolling out across western Victoria to obtain a snap-shot of the region's deep underground geology and provide new insights for mineral and geothermal explorers.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Distinctive trucks with vibrating metal plates are rolling out across western Victoria to obtain a snap-shot of the region’s deep underground geology and provide new insights for mineral and geothermal explorers.
Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor said the three Vibroseis trucks were being used to undertake a deep seismic survey, producing valuable data to give geologists a better understanding of how the area formed during the past 600 million years.
“We’re investing in our resource sector to create jobs and secure the future, with this study giving explorers a clearer picture of what’s below the earth’s surface,” Mr Batchelor said.
“The use of new technologies to discover and map Victoria’s resource potential will help to make Victoria more attractive as an investment location for resource companies, by reducing the exploration risk for explorers.”
Mr Batchelor said that previously geologists had only been able to map the land surface in Victoria and estimated what might be below, but this survey would allow them to directly image how faults behave deep in the earth’s crust.
“Heavy metal plates under the 23 tonne trucks vibrate on the earth’s surface, generating seismic waves, similar to sound waves,” he said.
“These waves travel to a depth of up to 30 kilometres and are reflected off layers of rock and faults in a similar way to ultrasounds used by doctors to look at internal structures of the body.
“The reflected waves are recorded by sensitive motion sensors and later processed to produce an image of the underground geology.
“Analysis of seismic data can be used to explore for petroleum, natural gas, coal, minerals and geothermal energy.”
Mr Batchelor said the seismic study would be focused along three fault lines totalling nearly 265 kilometres.
The lines span south-west Victoria and link into south-east South Australia, starting near Ararat and Horsham and finishing near Glenthompson, west of Naracoorte ( South Australia ) and south of Apsley.
The survey is a collaborative research project between AuScope ( an initiative under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy ), GeoScience Victoria ( a branch of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries ), Geoscience Australia and the South Australian Department of Primary Industries and Resources.
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