Geophysical Prospecting for Resources

Abstract

The magnetic and gravity surveys were being used frequently in the early stage of oil explorations during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. Following this, the seismic reflection method became a powerful prospecting technique for buried and deep seated oil reservoirs. Recently new data acquisition system for precise data and data processing techniques using computer system permited the advances of geophysical prospectings and minimized the cost of development drilling. An important problem in resources today is utilization of subsurface space such as the stockpile of oil and the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in the geological formation. On the other hand, considerable effort has been expended on the vertical seismic profiling and the cross-hole tomography which are based on downhole measurement techniques, and the detail magnetotelluric survey on a profile line. These techniques are in attempts to obtain more information about subsuraface geophysical structure, and will be applied to the above problems of resources in future.