News Room

Gravity Survey Wraps Up for Central Australia

[ 29/08/2008 ]

Exploration companies in central Australia now have access to new information about their tenements thanks to a very extensive regional gravity survey in the region.

The helicopter-based survey was conducted by Atlas Geophysics for the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS), which is a division of the Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry Fisheries and Resources (RDPIFR).

“The 3 month survey covered 150,000 square kilometres from the Queensland border to the Tanami track and from Alice Springs north to Barrow Creek, with 12,000 gravity meter readings being made up to 4 kilometres apart,” Northern Territory Geological Survey geophysicist, Clarke Petrick said.

“The gravity meter measures minor changes in the Earth’s gravity caused by the density of the rock formations at the surface and underground.

“The greater the density a rock type is, the higher the gravity response will be, so the variation in gravity readings records the underlying rock types of the survey area.

“This survey is part of the Territory Government’s $14.4 million Bringing Forward Discovery initiative that aims to foster exploration in new areas.

“Already companies in central Australia have been able to follow the progress of the survey on the RDPIFR website as new gravity image data is uploaded, looking at the data over their respective tenements.

“The final data will be distributed to exploration companies, which can be used to develop new geological models to locate targets for further exploration and investigation.

“Additional gravity surveys will be undertaken in other parts of the Northern Territory over the coming months”, Mr Petrick said.

To view the gravity survey data visit: www.dme.nt.gov.au/ecw/central_arunta.htm