Application of electrical resistivity method in sodium sulfate deposits exploration, case study: Garmab, Iran

Paper Details

Research Paper 01/02/2015
Views (462) Download (12)
current_issue_feature_image
publication_file

Application of electrical resistivity method in sodium sulfate deposits exploration, case study: Garmab, Iran

Kamran Mostafaie, Hamidreza Ramazi
J. Bio. Env. Sci.6( 2), 479-487, February 2015.
Certificate: JBES 2015 [Generate Certificate]

Abstract

This paper is devoted to application of resistivity method in sodium sulfate mineral bodies exploration. Garmab area in central of Iran was selected as a pilot area for this research. Geological studies and preliminary explorations indicate that there are potential anomalies of sodium sulfate in the studied area, and there are some outcrops include marl with sodium sulfate as inter-bed in the alluvial plain. Therefore, Geophysical surveying was carried out in two steps. The first step was considered as testing ability of the applied method in order to assess its ability to detect the sodium sulfate bodies, and the second step has been devoted to estimate resistivity properties to explore the hidden bodies. In the first step, three profiles were designed and surveyed, as testing profiles. These profiles were located on some outcrops and/or over some sulfide bodies detected in a few trenches. The testing data was processed and interpreted and the results have led to a very satisfying contrast between resistivity of the sodium sulfate bodies and the host rocks. In the second step, 12 profiles with different lengths were designed and surveyed in Garmab based on geological and topographical results. Geoelectrical, resistivity, surveying was performed with an innovative array so called CRSP (Combined Resistivity Sounding and Profiling). The obtained data was processed and interpreted and some locations were proposed for drilling based on the highlighted outlines. Drilling results confirmed the resistivity results as well as its efficiency to explore sodium sulfate deposits.

VIEWS 27

Aghanabati A, Hamedi AR. 1994. Geological map of Semnan, Geological Survey of Iran, WWW.GSI.IR.

Anthony J, Bideaux R, Bladh K, Nichols M. 1990. Handbook of Mineralogy Volume 1, Mineralogical Society of America.

Audra Ph, Nobécourt JC. 2013. Rare sulfates (mirabilite, eugsterite) in the dry microclimate of chamois cave (alpes-de-haute-provence, france), 2013 ICS Proceedings.

Chambers JE, Wilkinson PB, Wardrop D, Hameed A, Hill I, Jeffrey C, Loke MH, Meldrum PI, Kuras O, Cave M, Gunn DA. 2012. Bedrock detection beneath river terrace deposits using three-dimensional electrical resistivity tomography. Geomorphlogy: 177–178, 17–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.03.034.

Dahlin T. 2001. The development of DC resistivity imaging techniques, Computers & Geosciences 27, 1019–1029.

Gadallah MR, Fisher R. 2009. Exploration Geophysics. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Gautneb H, Tveten E. 2000. The geology, exploration and character-ization of graphite deposits in the Jennestad area, Vesteralen, northern Norway, Norges geologiske undersekelse Bulletin 436, 67-74.

Kearey Ph, Brooks M, Hill I. 2002. An Introduction to Geophysical Exploration ,Third edition, Blackwell Science.

Khalili M, Torabi H. 2003. the exploration of sodium-sulphate in aran playa,kashan,centraliran, Carbonates and Evaporites. 18, 120-124.

Legault JM, Carriere D , Petrie L. 2008. Synthetic model testing and distributed acquisition dc resistivity results over an unconformity uranium target from the Athabasca Basin, northern Saskatchewan. The Leading Edge 27, 46–51.

Loke MH, Barker RD. 1996b. Practical techniques for 3D resistivity surveys and data inversion techniques. Geophysical Prospecting, 44, 499–524.

Loke MH, Barker RD. 1996a. Rapid least-squares inversion of apparent resistivity pseudosections by a quasi Newton method. Geophysical Prospecting, 44, 131–152.

Magnusson M, Fernlund J, Dahlin T. 2010. Geoelectrical imaging for interpretation of geological conditions affecting quarry operations. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment 69, 465– 486.

McIlveen S, Cheek RL. 1994. Sodium sulfate resources. In D.D. Carr, Editor. Industrial minerals and rocks.6th edition. Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., Littleton, Colorado. pp. 959– 971.

Merry RH, Fitzpatrick RW. 2005. An Evaluation of the Soils of Tilley Swamp and Morella Basin, South Australia, crc leme open file report 195.

Milsom J. 2003. Field Geophysics third edition University College London, John Wiley, London.

Mohanty WK, Mandal A, Sharma SP, Gupta S, Misra S. 2011. Integrated geological and geophysical studies for delineation of chromite deposits: a case study from Tangarparha, Orissa, India. Geophysics 76, 173–185.

Murthy BVS, Madhusudan Rao B, Dubey AK, Srinivasulu. 2009. Geophysical exploration for manganese-somefirsthand examples from Keonjhar district, Orissa. The Journal of Indian Geophysical Union 13, 149–161.

Oldenburg DW, Li Y. 1999. Estimating depth of investigation in dc resistivity and IP surveys. Geophysics, 64, 403–416.

Ramazi H, Hosseinnejad M, Azizzad A. 2009. Application of Integrated Geoelectrical Methods in Khenadarreh (Arak, Iran) Graphite Deposit Exploration, journal geological society of india,74, 260-266.

Ramazi H, Jalali M. 2014. Contribution of geophysical inversion theory and geostatistical simulation to determine geoelectrical anomalies, Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica , DOI: 10.1007/s11200-013-0772-3.

Ramazi H, Mostafaie K. 2013. Application of integrated geoelectrical methods in Marand (Iran) manganese deposit exploration, Arabian Journal of Geoscience 6, 2961–2970.

Reynolds JM. 2011. An Introduction to Applied and Environmental Geophysics, 2ndedition. John Wiley & Sons, England.

Schlumberger C. 1920. Etude surla prospection electrique du soussol. Gauthier-Villars, Paris.

Singh KKK, Singh KB, Lokhande RD, Prakash A. 2004. Multielectrode resistivity imaging technique for the study of coal seam. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research 63, 927–930.

Vergouwen L. 1981. Eugsterite a new salt mineral, American Mineralogist, 66, 632-636.

Warren J. 1999. Evaporates, their evolution and economics. Blackwell Science, Australia.

White R, Collins S, Loke M. 2003. Resistivity and IP arrays, optimized for data collection and inversion. Exploration Geophysics 34, 229–232.