Item

Abstract

Multiple data sets are typically collected in an airborne survey. The standard way of interpreting multiple airborne data sets is to invert them separately to obtain a set of physical property models, e.g., a density contrast and a susceptibility model. There are two issues with this approach. First, it does not make use of the complementary information contained in different data sets. Secondly, it is not straightforward to interpret multiple physical property models in terms of geological structures and compositions. We propose a new workflow to integrate the information from multiple geophysical data sets and prior geology information, if available, into a 3D quasi-geology model. This new workflow has two components: mixed Lp norm joint inversion and geology differentiation. Joint inversion allows for the reconstruction of structurally consistent physical property models. Geology differentiation is a process of classifying the recovered physical property values into distinct classes, each of which is characterized by a unique range of physical property values and can be interpreted as an individual geological unit. We have applied this workflow to a set of airborne geophysical data over the Decorah area in northeast Iowa, USA, and successfully created a probabilistic quasi-geology model that informs the geological structures and compositions in this area. The workflow has also been applied to the multiple airborne data sets collected over the QUEST project area in British Columbia, Canada, to help map prospective areas of mineral resources.