Continental Geophysics Project
Project description
Airborne geophysical survey
aircraft
© Geoscience Australia
Geoscience Australia's Continental Geophysics project is an active concentration of specialists engaged in the acquisition, processing, archiving, enhancement, presentation and interpretation in the fields of airborne geophysics and gravity. The team also is involved in the development of new computational methods which can be applied to geophysical data. The project's products and services are used by:
- other projects in Geoscience Australia engaged in studies of mineral systems, geological mapping, mineral province studies, sedimentary basin studies and definition of the geoid, as well as land use and environmental projects
- exploration companies
- organisations involved in the identification of areas at risk of salinity and its management
- agricultural and environmental organisations
- organisations developing infrastructure projects
- educational and research institutions
- other government departments.
Geoscience Australia is the custodian of the most comprehensive publicly available Australian airborne magnetic, gamma-ray, elevation model and electromagnetic database and gravity database. The airborne geophysics database contains approximately 32.8 million line kilometres of data, which, at current prices, would cost approximately $197 million to acquire. The gravity database contains more than 1.57 million reliable onshore stations gathered during more than 1800 surveys. All the products and research results from the Continental Geophysics project are publicly available for use by other government agencies, industry and research and educational institutions. Data from the project is available also for inter-governmental and private sector cooperative acquisition, interpretation, research and training projects.
Project outcome
- New insights into Australia's onshore energy and mineral potential.
- Enhanced exploration strategies, promotion of mineral exploration opportunities and improved environmental management in Australia.
Project deliverables 2011-12
- Updates to National Geophysical Databases and maps
- New geophysical datasets
- Updates to the Australian Fundamental Gravity Network (AFGN)
- National Geoscience Agreement (NGA) geophysical data acquisition project management
- Development of a Rock Properties Database
- Frome South Australia Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) interpretation report
- Research on geophysical processing and interpretation methods
- Support for Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre (DETCRC) Data Integration and Mineralisation Targeting Project (P2.3).
Topic contact: minerals@ga.gov.au Last updated: June 26, 2012
