Ground Penetrating Abilities of a LIDAR-like Imaging Spectrometer for Finding, Classifying and Monitoring Subsurface Hydrocarbons and Minerals

In recent years, the technology for the production of laser light has become widely available, and applications of this medium to the examination of materials are constantly expanding. Whereas the earlier applications concentrated on the use of visible laser light, the development of systems using invisible laser light are now being further explored. In this contribution we wish to report on a series of field surveys in which rocks of different compositions and textures have been exposed to pulsed beams of wideband, laser light conditioned dielectric resonance, to produce a range of differing atomic dielectric energy and frequency responses detectable by suitable receivers. Conditioning the beam by dielectric optics creates a synthetic lens effect so that the sensors appear to have much longer chambers with wider apertures than their actual physical size. This effect produces narrow coherent beams of pulsed and lased radiowaves which are good for illuminating target interfaces and materials.

Atomic Dielectric Resonance (ADR) involves the measurement and interpretation of resonant energy responses of natural or synthetic materials to the interaction of pulsed electromagnetic energy from materials. The resonant energy response can be measured in terms of energy, frequency and phase relationships. The precision with which the process can be measured helps define the unique interactive atomic or molecular response behaviour of any specific material, according to the energy bandwidth used. ADR is measurable in both time and space. Time scales are in nanoseconds, and spatial scales in metres.

The conditioned ADR beam of photons penetrates the rock and as it encounters the component materials it stimulates the atoms to release energy according to their compositions. The nature of the return signal, its frequency, energy levels and phase changes (if any) are determined by the minerals encountered. Harmonic analysis of the emerging electromagnetic radiation enables the energies and frequencies of the signals released by the materials to differ sufficiently for the rock compositions to be recognised by computer processing. Adrok have found that by repeated characterisation of the ADR signals received from known rocks at known depths in quarries or boreholes, it has been possible to classify the principal rock types of the area under investigation and identify them with confidence in blind tests beside logged boreholes.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90142 © 2012 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 22-25, 2012, Long Beach, California