The objective to conducting radiometric surveys is to determine and map natural radioactive emanations, called gamma rays, from rocks and soils. All detectable gamma radiation from earth materials come from the natural decay products of only three elements at the surface ground; uranium (U), thorium (Th), and potassium (K). Gamma ray data are inherently noisy due to the statistical nature of radioactive decay. However, the properties of the noise are well understood, and can be described by Poisson statistics as discussed in module RS101. Radiometric Surveying is commonly used in mineral exploration for geologic mapping, uranium detection and delineation of various intrusives. This module covers the standard corrections to process radiometric data to acquire viable data for a geological interpretation.
Learning Objectives
After completing this module, participants will have understood all of the standard corrections to process radiometric data:
- Energy Calibration,
- Spectral Smoothing,
- Dead Time Correction,
- Aircraft and Cosmic Background Correction,
- Radon Background Correction,
- Stripping Correction,
- Height Correction,
- Conversion To Concentrations, and