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I
f there are other methods
available for exploration that
can enhance the explorers
mission at less cost, why are
we not incorporating this as part
of our standard procedures for
pre-exploration surveys? Why are
we sending people and high cost
equipment into the unknown?
This is what the modern day
explorer is doing. Why is there a high
percentage of dry holes being drilled?
There has to be a reason.
In Indonesia, it is claimed that
they have a certain reserve of various
resources, but are these resource
locations known exactly? In the
writer’s opinion, if they were known,
why is so much costly and time
consuming exploration being carried
out? Why do many exploration
programs come up blank? Why do
license owners complain they have
lost millions of dollars and they
have found nothing? It’s because the
methods of exploration being used
today are not suitable for advanced
exploration, the methods used
today have not really advanced over
the past sixty years or more when
seismic became the main tool for
exploration and real geology took a
back seat.
Is it easy to detect sources under
the earth’s surface from the ground?
When we want to see further than we
can by standing on the ground, what
do we do? We climb to a higher point
in order that we can see beyond the
ground level horizon.
Therefore, it stands to reason that
airborne or satellite eyes in the sky
can see further, faster and cover more
area in a shorter amount of time than
a person can on a camel or any other
mode of transport that you want to
imagine.
Airborne topographic, magnetic
and gravity surveys have become
widely accepted. In the case of air
magnetics and gravity observations,
they can detect anomalies, which are
low value, high-risk anomalies.
Ever since the first satellite was
launched on Oct. 4, 1957, which
was Sputnik 1 from the Tyuratam
spaceport in the Kazakh Republic,
the human race has been able to see
more of the earth’s surface than was
previously possible.
When the first commercial
color television transmission was
broadcast on June 25, 1951 by CBS,
people started to believe that what
they had been watching in black and
white must be true, as it was now
being shown in color. Unfortunately,
very few people could watch it on
their black-and-white televisions at
that time. This is a similar scenario
to what we have at this time for
advanced technology for exploration.
The world we live in today is
very advanced technically compared
to when the above happened, after
all, where would we be without our
mobile phones, Facebook, Whatsapp,
the internet and others?
Technology has advanced, the art
of exploration has not kept pace and
advanced along the lines that many
other things in our daily life’s have,
why is this?
Since the first satellites were
launched, observations have been
carried out over the earth’s surface,
how do we know about such things
as the ozone layer, or the destruction
of our forests or the discovery of
unknown features?
Ground stations have been
measuring ozone levels for most of
the last century until today. In 1924,
the Dobson spectrophotometer
was the earliest instrument used to
measure ozone; modern versions
continue to provide data. Extremely
low ozone levels were first observed
from Faraday Base, Antarctica. They
provide long-term data of both total
column ozone and ozone distribution
with altitude, but only over a small
area. Instruments that are commonly
used to measure atmospheric ozone
from the ground (not surface ozone)
are the Dobson spectrophotometer
and Light Detection and Ranging
(LIDAR).
Satellites measure ozone over
the entire globe every day, providing
comprehensive data. In orbit,
satellites are capable of observing the
atmosphere in all types of weather,
and over the most remote regions on
OPINION
Advanced technology for
exploration is the future
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Earth. They are capable of measuring
total ozone levels, ozone profiles, and
elements of atmospheric chemistry.
In the mid-1980s wide-ranging ozone
depletion over the Antarctic was first
recognized from satellite data.
Observing information from space
gives people on the ground a far
better picture of what is happening
on or with the earth than can be
observed from the earth’s surface.
Since the launch of the first
Landsat Satellite in 1972, imaging
sensor technology has undergone
rapid advancements that have
enabled explorers to collect
increasingly more useful data. When
the technology was in its primitive
stages, geologists used the sensors to
collect simple data, such as surface
features, and used this data to
provide clues to a potential mineral
deposit beneath the surface. This
surface data was also used as a tool
in mapping. Now, satellites fitted
with “more advanced” sensors use
the spectral properties of materials
(what wavelengths of materials
they absorb/reflect) to identify the
materials without having to view
them “in person.” Sensors mounted
on aircraft and/or satellites can
collect this spectral data, and these
sensors use infrared, near infrared,
thermal infrared and short-wave
technology to collect the data.
What do satellites do? They listen,
observe, record, and transmit.
Depending on the job that they
have to do, we put satellites into
different orbits, some orbit the sun,
most orbit the earth. Two very useful
types of orbits are a Geostationary
orbit (GEO) and a Low Earth orbit
(LEO).
George Barber
Marketing Partner Terra Energy & Resource Technologies Plc.
Geostationary Orbit (GEO)
These satellites are in a circular
orbit 35,786 kilometres above the
Earth’s equator and follow the
direction of the Earth’s rotation. An
object in such an orbit has an orbital
period equal to the Earth’s rotational
period and appears motionless to
ground observers. They are used
for telecommunication, television
transmission and for navigation.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
A satellite is a LEO when it
orbits somewhere between 160 and
2,000 Km above the Earth’s surface.
Satellites in LEO speed along at
27,359 kilometres per hour. They
can circle Earth in about 90 minutes
(Dependant on height). They are
ideal for making observations of the
Earth’s resources!
Elevation images
Collection of the data is relatively
easy, various methods of collecting
information in the form of images
and acoustic noise has been carried
out for many years, although the full
benefits of satellite observations of
the Earth are only realized when
the essential infrastructure, such
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OPINION
as models, computing facilities,
ground networks, and trained
personnel, are in place. Without
these items in place, the information
gathered is worthless.
So why, when we come to satellite
derived data for exploration do
people call this “Black Box Magic”?
What is Black Box Magic?
In the writer’s humble opinion,
nearly everything we use today
could be put into the Black Box Magic
bucket. For sure, I do not understand
a modern car engine, where in my
younger days, I could strip down a
petrol engine and put it back together
with a few parts missing and it would
run. I also do not fully understand
how a modern television works;
when it was a value set, I did and
could even repair it. Some mobile
phones, you cannot replace anything;
you have to take it to the dealer to
change the battery or buy a new
phone, its probably cheaper.
There is nothing about advanced
technology for exploration that is
“Black Box Magic”. Some of these
programs have been developed over
many, many years by highly skilled
and professional people. Therefore
anyone who calls their work “Black
Box Magic” is being unreasonable.
Credit should be given to these
companies and people that had the
foresight and patience to understand
that the world is not the same from
the ground as it is from space. They
understand what they have done,
we should try to understand and not
ridicule this.
The world has advanced
tremendously; it is arguable that
not all advances are for the better,
although if they are used in the right
context, they can be useful.
Now let’s us move on to the
title, Advanced Technology for
Exploration is the Future.
Where are the majority of
hydrocarbons, minerals, and
geothermal resources to be found?
The answer to that is clear, beneath
the earth’s surface mainly.
Is it easy to detect these under
the earth’s surface from the ground?
The answer to this is no. If it was,
we would be doing it. I would
expect that investors, concession
owners, contractors, governments
would be happy to use advanced
technologies that save time and
money, although I do expect that
drilling company’s would prefer
to drill 10 holes instead of one and
seismic company’s would prefer to
run lines of seismic in areas that are
not prospective.
Changes on the earth’s surface
Why is there reluctance by certain
people to use advanced technology
for exploration? Why is it hard to
convince people of the importance
of pre-exploration information?
After all, advanced technology
enhances what the geologist does, it
takes nothing away from anyone, it
enhances, and it allows a company to
explore in a high prospect area and
not in a high-risk area.
As a hydrographic surveyor by
background, I would not mobilise an
offshore survey team if I did not know
what existing data was available; this
is called a “Desk Study” so useful, it
saves time and it saves money.
This also applies to land surveys
and river surveys, both of these I have
done in abundance. If the data were
available to carry out a desk study of
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the surrounding area we would use
it to enhance our knowledge before
mobilization of expensive equipment
and people. The use of modern
equipment allows us to collect more
detailed information than the early
explorers were able to collect, due
to the instruments available at the
time, not due to the capabilities of
the people! The early explorers were
the heroes; they did not have the
information and technology that is
available to us today.
This leaves us with one question.
Why are our modern day explorers
not using the technology that is
available to them?
One of the main reasons behind
this is that geology as a field wants
(and maybe needs) to prove its right
of existence, with the occasional
fear that the work of geologists is
being taken over by something’s
that are unknown to them and
believing that their very existence is
in question and would make highly
educated professionals obsolete.
This statement is totally untrue.
Anything that can help an exploration
company, anything that can help an
investor to save time and money has
to be used. Anything that can help the
non-destruction of the environment
on land or in the sea has to be used in
this modern era.
Another and more justified fear is
that the world around us is making
mistakes in obtaining, analyzing
and interpreting seismic data, and
trained geologists do not point out
these mistakes, (not because they
hide something, but because they do
not have the tools) which leads to,
guess work, wrongly placed drilling
rigs, and way too much seismic work
being carried out in areas that do not
contain prospective or economical
reserves.
In conclusion, the latest
technology has to be used and
incorporated as part of any
exploration company’s operating
procedures before committing to
explore an area that very little is
known about, or committing to bid
for a license area. Why take the risk?
If the money being spent on
exploration was your own money,
would you not want to take every
precaution possible to protect your
money? I know the answer to that
question, as I am sure you all know
the answer.
Open Minds, Receptive
Attitudes: Above all, it is important
to be willing to think in new ways,
propose new combinations, and to
challenge the status quo.
Mr. George Barber
Email: George@iiesp.com
HP: +62 812 111 0118
CourtesyofSKKMIGAS
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