Airborne detection of magnetic anomalies associated with soils on the Oak Ridge Reservation, Tennessee
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Environmental Sciences Div.
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Dept. of Geology and Geophysics
Reconnaissance airborne geophysical data acquired over the 35,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), TN, show several magnetic anomalies over undisturbed areas mapped as Copper Ridge Dolomite (CRD). The anomalies of interest are most apparent in magnetic gradient maps where they exceed 0.06 nT/m and in some cases exceed 0.5 nT/m. Anomalies as large as 25nT are seen on maps. Some of the anomalies correlate with known or suspected karst, or with apparent conductivity anomalies calculated from electromagnetic data acquired contemporaneously with the magnetic data. Some of the anomalies have a strong correlation with topographic lows or closed depressions. Surface magnetic data have been acquired over some of these sites and have confirmed the existence of the anomalies. Ground inspections in the vicinity of several of the anomalies has not led to any discoveries of manmade surface materials of sufficient size to generate the observed anomalies. One would expect an anomaly of approximately 1 nT for a pickup truck from 200 ft altitude. Typical residual magnetic anomalies have magnitudes of 5--10 nT, and some are as large as 25nT. The absence of roads or other indications of culture (past or present) near the anomalies and the modeling of anomalies in data acquired with surface instruments indicate that man-made metallic objects are unlikely to be responsible for the anomaly. The authors show that observed anomalies in the CRD can reasonably be associated with thickening of the soil layer. The occurrence of the anomalies in areas where evidences of karstification are seen would follow because sediment deposition would occur in topographic lows. Linear groups of anomalies on the maps may be associated with fracture zones which were eroded more than adjacent rocks and were subsequently covered with a thicker blanket of sediment. This study indicates that airborne magnetic data may be of use in other sites where fracture zones or buried collapse structures are of interest.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 52734
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950450-5; ON: DE95009698; TRN: 95:011771
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 8. annual symposium on the application of geophysics to environmental and engineering problems, Orlando, FL (United States), 23-27 Apr 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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