Mobile Petrophysical Laboratory

Through initiatives like the Mobile Petrophysical Laboratory, it is anticipated that petrophysical data will become increasingly abundant.  To make full use of such data that may cover the full extent of a drill hole, this work aims to identify methods of integrating petrophysical and potential-field data in a holistic and consistent manner.

One such method is through geophysical inversion of potential-fields data which has been shown to be of value across a range of mineral exploration applications. While gravity and magnetic surveys can be readily inverted to create geophysical 3D physical property models, the inherent ambiguity of potential fields subsequently manifests in the geophysical models. Often, further information is needed to make sense of the geologic significance of the physical property models.

Petrophysical data are direct measurements of the physical rock properties that give rise to the gravity and magnetic anomalies used to interpret subsurface geology. While the use of petrophysical data in mineral exploration workflows is common, integrating the entirety of petrophysical data directly into quantitative geophysical interpretation workflows is less common. This work seeks to identify appropriate methods to use the full extent of spatially located logged petrophysical data in the context of a geophysical inversion workflow.