TY - JOUR

T1 - Surface NMR sounding and inversion to detect groundwater in key aquifers in England : comparisons with VES-TEM methods.

AU - Meju, Max A.

AU - Denton, Paul

AU - Fenning, Peter

PY - 2002/5

Y1 - 2002/5

N2 - This paper describes pilot experiments to assess the potential of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) sounding and inversion for detecting groundwater at several sites in built-up, industrial and intensively cultivated regions in England where it is difficult to deploy large transmitter loops. The targets represent near-surface (ca. 1 m below the surface) and deep (>30 m) aquiferous (chalk, sand and gravel) deposits. The NUMIS field system was used in all the experiments and has infield processing and regularised one-dimensional (1D) inversion capabilities. All the sites were characterised by high noise levels and NMR depth soundings could only be effected using a small figure-of-eight loop for which the maximum depth of investigation was approximately 40–50 m. For comparison, conventional inductive and galvanic resistivity depth soundings were performed at these sites and the data have been inverted to yield the respective subsurface resistivity distributions. At two sites with shallow water levels, the location of the water deduced from inversion of NMR data corresponded with the water level measured in the nearby boreholes. For the site where the data quality is highest, the inverted profile of decay constants also corresponded with the known geology and the geoelectrical model. The NMR data from the other five sites are noisy and it is difficult to ascertain what aspects of the inversion models are correlatable to geoelectrical and geological data. The geoelectrical inversion results correlate with lithological and fluid content variations in the subsurface. It would appear that surface NMR (SNMR) sounding with figure-of-eight loop may be effective only when the ambient noise is less than 900 nV in the UK setting.

AB - This paper describes pilot experiments to assess the potential of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) sounding and inversion for detecting groundwater at several sites in built-up, industrial and intensively cultivated regions in England where it is difficult to deploy large transmitter loops. The targets represent near-surface (ca. 1 m below the surface) and deep (>30 m) aquiferous (chalk, sand and gravel) deposits. The NUMIS field system was used in all the experiments and has infield processing and regularised one-dimensional (1D) inversion capabilities. All the sites were characterised by high noise levels and NMR depth soundings could only be effected using a small figure-of-eight loop for which the maximum depth of investigation was approximately 40–50 m. For comparison, conventional inductive and galvanic resistivity depth soundings were performed at these sites and the data have been inverted to yield the respective subsurface resistivity distributions. At two sites with shallow water levels, the location of the water deduced from inversion of NMR data corresponded with the water level measured in the nearby boreholes. For the site where the data quality is highest, the inverted profile of decay constants also corresponded with the known geology and the geoelectrical model. The NMR data from the other five sites are noisy and it is difficult to ascertain what aspects of the inversion models are correlatable to geoelectrical and geological data. The geoelectrical inversion results correlate with lithological and fluid content variations in the subsurface. It would appear that surface NMR (SNMR) sounding with figure-of-eight loop may be effective only when the ambient noise is less than 900 nV in the UK setting.

KW - Nuclear magnetic resonance

KW - Regularised inversion

KW - Geoelectrical methods

KW - Groundwater prospecting

U2 - 10.1016/S0926-9851(02)00132-5

DO - 10.1016/S0926-9851(02)00132-5

M3 - Journal article

VL - 50

SP - 95

EP - 112

JO - Journal of Applied Geophysics

JF - Journal of Applied Geophysics

SN - 0926-9851

IS - 1-2

ER -