Weird Helecopter Criss Crosses Wyoming (Tin Hat Time?)
Let's say you look up and see a helicopter flying low over Wyoming, and it seems to have something strange hanging from beneath it.
DO NOT PANIC!
It's not weird.
You DO NOT need your tin hat.
Low-level helicopter flights are planned over areas of Wyoming and northern Colorado to image geology using airborne geophysical technology.
Data collection for this survey area will be conducted starting in February 2025 for approximately three months, weather and flight restrictions permitting. Surveying is expected to be completed by the summer of 2025.
Flights will cover areas within Albany, Carbon, Converse, Laramie, and Platte counties in Wyoming as well as Jackson, Larimer, and Routt counties in Colorado.
A map of Wyoming and Colorado with a blue survey footprint outlined across the border.
The flights will be based out of various Wyoming airports. Flights and landing areas could shift with little to no warning to other parts of the survey area as necessary to minimize ferrying distances and avoid adverse flying conditions.
The purpose of the airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey is to provide images of subsurface electrical resistivity that expand the fundamental knowledge of geology underpinning an area from the Cheyenne Belt in Wyoming through to the Black Hills in South Dakota. These flights are a part of a two-year airborne data collection project, expected to finish in 2026.
As for that weird thing hanging below the chopper, it's a sensor that resembles a large hula-hoop that will be towed beneath to measure small electromagnetic signals that can be used to map geologic features.
It is measuring electromagnetic signals, not putting them out.
So, again, no tin hat is required.
The survey is funded by the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative and is designed to meet needs related to mineral resource assessments, regional geologic framework and mapping studies, as well as water resource investigations and surficial mapping studies. The AEM survey is focused on characterizing several major mineral systems, including critical minerals associated with mafic magmatic, volcanogenic seafloor, and porphyry systems.
The new geophysical data will be processed to develop high-resolution three-dimensional representations of near-surface geology from the surface to depths up to 1,500 ft (roughly 500 meters) below the surface.
The 3D models and maps derived from this project are important for improving our understanding of critical mineral resource potential, water resources, groundwater pathways near legacy mining areas, parameters for infrastructure and land use planning.
The survey fits into a broader effort by the USGS, the Wyoming State Geological Survey, the Colorado Geological Survey, and other partners - including private companies, academics and state and federal agencies - to modernize our understanding of the Nation’s fundamental geologic framework and knowledge of mineral resources.
This effort is known as the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, and it includes airborne geophysical surveys like this one, geochemical reconnaissance surveys, topographic mapping using LiDAR technology, hyperspectral surveys, and geologic mapping projects. (Press Release).
The USGS has contracted Fugro and Xcalibur Smart Mapping to collect data.
Read the full project announcement for this survey here.
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