A Fossil Paleozoic Subduction-Dominated Trench-Arc-Basin System Revealed by Airborne Magnetic-Gravity Imaging in West Junggar, NW China

A Carboniferous trench-arc-basin system related to oceanic slab subduction has been thoroughly imaged by various geophysical probing approaches and proposed for the formation of West Junggar, Northwest China, located in the southwest of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. However, debate on the origin of West Junggar still continues. Here, we present an integrated aeronautic magnetic–gravity observation to further identify the trench-arc-basin system and constrain the subduction mode. By deploying an integrated aerial magnetic–gravity survey consisting of 66,000 survey-line kilometers from August 3, 2015 to April 22, 2016, we determine the magnetic and gravitational anomaly across the study region by using geophysical potential-field processing. Our results reveal curial crust-scale variations in magnetic and gravitational structures beneath West Junggar and that a prominent Bouguer gravity high is located between the Darbut and Karamay–Urho faults, likely corresponding to a trapped oceanic slab. Notably, the Tacheng Basin is characterized by high-frequency magnetic signal and gravity highs, as well as the Carboniferous rifting–related sedimentary cover, which could be reasonably interpreted to be a back-arc basin. Integrated with these comprehensive geological and geophysical observations across West Junggar, the previous model of West Junggar trench-arc-basin system related to a fossil intra-oceanic subduction during the Late Paleozoic is further renewed.

3D Inversion of Airborne Magnetic Data and Validation of it by Using Sourk Mine Drilling Data

The airborne magnetic method is one of the most significantly applied approaches in mineral exploration. This magnetic method has been widely used in recent years due to its extensive coverage, lower cost than other methods and coverage of impassable areas and forests. For many years in Iran, the magnetic method has been utilized by authorities to survey ore deposits and to prepare structural and geological maps. This paper presents part of the Dehshir area exploration data of airborne surveys by helicopter with flight line spacing of 250 meters and flight height of 40 meters conducted by Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran. Furthermore, among the potential areas in the Dehshir area is the studied hereby area of Block C2 of Sourk mine. This region in Yazd province with a 4.1 km2 area is located at 95 km northwest of Yazd city. The purpose of this paper is to present a three-dimensional model of magnetic data and its validation using drilling data. The three-dimensional modeling of magnetic data has been processed by Inversion method. Next, the locations of boreholes were proposed for drilling. Then, the boreholes data is used to evaluate the geophysical method model by comparing the three-dimensional modeling of magnetic data and three-dimensional modeling of the proposed drilled boreholes data.

Application of Airborne Magnetic Survey in Deep Iron Ore Prospecting—A Case Study of Jinling Area in Shandong Province, China

With the increasing demand for mineral resources, there is an inevitable trend to carry out deep prospecting in existing old mines to find a second or even third mining space. Deep prospecting is also an affordable and practical way to prolong the lives of mines and provide a sustainable supply of mineral resources. The magnetic survey is arguably the most effective method for iron ore prospecting. In this paper, a high resolution airborne magnetic (HRAM) survey for deep iron prospecting in the Jinling iron ore cluster (JIOC) was carried out in 2018, which renewed the field magnetic data of the JIOC obtained in the 1980s. From previous studies, almost all iron deposits in the JIOC are spatially distributed in the contact zone between the intrusive rocks and the surrounding rocks. The key prospecting areas were inferred by delineating intrusive rock boundaries via boundary enhancement and edge detection methods, and one of the areas was verified by drilling.