Geophysics 223

Fall Semester: September - December 2006

Environmental Monitoring and Mining Exploration Techniques


Instructor: Assistant Professor Dr. Vadim A. Kravchinsky

Contacting Me
Office: Room 348-C, Physics Department (CEB building)
Office Phone: 492-5591
e-mail: vkrav@phys.ualberta.ca
Personal web site: http://www-geo.phys.ualberta.ca/~vkrav/

I am most easily contacted in the afternoons, but feel free to come by other time too. My office hours are from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and from 9:30 to 11:30 on Wednesday., if I am not in my office please send me an email message (preferred) or leave a voice mail message on my answering machine, a note on (under) my door, or and I will get back in touch with you as soon as I can.

Lab & Marking Assistant:

Lab: Soner Bekleric (email: sbekler@Phys.UAlberta.CA )
Office: CEB-450 (Physics Building)
Phone: 492-5034

Marking: Gomez-Perez, Natalia (email: ngomez@Phys.UAlberta.CA )
Office: CEB-452 (Physics Building)
Phone: 492-7835


Suggested Text:

 An Introduction to Applied and Environmental Geophysics   by John M. Reynolds. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

 An Introduction to Geophysical Exploration by P. Kearey, M. Brooks & I. Hill, 3d Edition, Blackwell Scientific Publications, 2002.

 Environmental and Engineering Geophysics by P. V. Sharma, Cambridge University Press, 2002.


I may add to a file of additional resources as we go through the course.  I will put as much as possible at the website.


Course Weights

Assignments (approx. every two weeks)

15%

Labs (approx. every week)

20%

Midterm Exam: Tuesday October 24 at 11 a.m. at the classroom

25%

Final Exam: Friday TBA.

40%

The assignments will consist of both essay and mathematical derivations. You may have to go to the scientific literature or websites to do some of this work.

Assignments are due at 5:00 p.m. on date that they are requested. A drop box for the assignments may be found on the main floor just in front of main entrance to the Physics Department building. Given the large class size, extensions can only be allowed for medical reasons.

Assignments will be provided on the web in the Assignment Box.

Solutions will be provided on the web at the same address.

Laboratory Outline

The students taking this class are primarily from Physics and EAS, I fully expect them to be web capable. If this is a problem please let me know. I will endeavor to put important figures at a point accessible to you via the web. If you aren't web capable - learn now!


OUTLINE

NOTE:

The links below are to the lecture notes used in class. These have not been optimized for printing in any way and printing of the entire set is not recommended. As well, the files are rather large which requires a lot of download time on a regular modem off campus.

NOTE:

Computers crash at inappropriate times (such as the night before a midterm or an exam). I cannot be responsible for crashes of the computers or networks - you should make use of these notes well in advance of any assignment due date or examination date.

 

Introduction

I. Gravity surveying

    1. Gravity force, potential fields
    2. Densities of rocks
    3. Acquisition and correction of gravity data
    4. Analysis and interpretation of gravity data
    5. Applications to environment and engineering studies

II. Magnetic surveying

A.        Magnetic units, magnetic potential and field
B.        Magnetic properties of rocks and soils
C.        Acquisition and correction of magnetic data
D.        Analysis and interpretation of magnetic data
E.         Environment and engineering applications

III. Seismic surveying

    1. Simple elastic theory and seismic waves
    2. Reflection seismology survey
    3. Refraction seismology survey
    4. Seismic surveying in environmental and exploration studies

IV. Resistivity and induced polarization surveys

    1. Current flow in the ground
    2. Different electrode array
    3. Interpretation of resistivity data
    4. Applications of resistivity surveys

V. Electromagnetic (EM) surveying

    1. Theory of propagation of EM fields
    2. Continuous wave field methods (frequency domain EM)
    3. Transient-field methods (time-domain EM)
    4. Interpretation of EM data