Archive for category: News

• Aircraft will survey eastern Waterford, parts of southern Tipperary and Kilkenny, and western Wexford
• Horse and livestock owners alerted to low-flying aircraft

The next phase of Tellus – a geological mapping project which collects and analyses geochemical and geophysical data on rocks, soil and water across Ireland – is ready for take-off over South East Ireland.  Due to fly over the next month (weather permitting), a small aircraft equipped with state-of-the-art technology will traverse the sky over eastern Waterford, parts of southern Tipperary and Kilkenny, and western Wexford collecting a host of geological information.

The resulting data has the potential to deliver positive economic, environmental and agricultural benefits. Previous phases of Tellus have prompted significant international interest in mineral exploration and provided information for more detailed radon risk maps.

The Tellus project, run by the Geological Survey of Ireland and funded by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR), aims to survey 50% of the country by end 2017. This latest airborne phase of the survey is a partnership between DCENR and Unicorn Mineral Resources Ltd, an Irish mineral exploration company.

Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Koen Verbruggen said:

“This is an important and exciting project which is already paying dividends in terms of investment in mineral exploration. Earlier this year, the Tellus Programme announced it had identified more platinum, gold and precious metals in the streams and rivers of south east of Ireland than previously mapped. We are looking forward to unearthing more information from the airborne survey, particularly in an area prospective for metallic minerals that includes Waterford’s Copper Coast UNESCO Global Geopark, which has a rich mining heritage spanning centuries”.

To gather data the Tellus project has commissioned an aircraft equipped with the latest geophysical technology, which surveys rural areas at a height of 60m – approximately eight times the height of a two storey house.  The aircraft is a white twin propeller plane operated by the specialist survey company, Sander Geophysics Ltd and is easily identified by its red tail, black stripe and registration number C-GSGF.

The survey will operate safely within Irish Aviation Authority permits, however, the sound of the plane flying overhead is similar to that of a passing lorry and could startle sensitive livestock, such as horses, pedigree cattle and lambing ewes. The Tellus survey team is taking every precaution to ensure that the public is fully informed of the flight plans, a point highlighted by Tellus Project Manager, Mairéad Glennon:

“We are in close contact with the local community in the area to make sure that people and animals on the ground are not disturbed by the low flying aircraft. We would like anyone  who has concerns in relation to sensitive animals to get in touch through our information line on Freephone 1800 303 516”.

Check here for this week’s flight lines.

 

• Findings unearth ‘building blocks’ of Ireland
• Results set to assist mineral exploration industry

The long buried geological history of the Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, Offaly and Laois region has been revealed in new detail as the results of the most recent phase of the Geological Survey of Ireland’s Tellus Programme are published.

Taking almost 30 million geophysical measurements over a 5,810km² area, the low-flying Tellus Survey aircraft traversed the sky over Eastern Ireland from June to October last year. Flying over 32,000 km – the equivalent of travelling from Ireland to Australia and back – the resulting data has uncovered new findings which will feed into Ireland’s first seamless cross-border geoenvironmental mapping project which began in 2007.

The geophysical magnetic maps reveal the join between two ancient continents which collided 400 million years ago, to form Ireland as we know it today. The complex fault lines of this collision, located in a wedge-shaped area in Co. Meath between Navan and Drogheda, are highlighted in new detail. The location of Europe’s largest zinc mine, operated by Boliden Tara Mines Ltd, is shown to be at a junction of these ancient fault lines. It is anticipated that further study of the data by geologists will enhance exploration for base metals and other natural resources across Ireland.

Data is available to view and download, free of charge. The new data release will be shown at a major geological conference, the 59th Irish Geological Research Meeting, at the National University of Ireland, Galway on 19-21st February, 2016.

The Geological Survey of Ireland is pleased to announce that merged airborne electromagnetic data for the border and midlands region of Ireland, are now available to view and download free of charge.​​

 ​​The merged time and frequency domain electromagnetic data is derived at 5m depth intervals.  This includes data from the Tellus North Midlands and the EU INTERREG IVA-funded Tellus Border surveys.

• The data is now available to view and download free of charge
• A data processing report accompanies this data
• The data is also available to download on tellus.ie
• Please note, only Republic of Ireland data are available for download.  For information on licensing the Tellus Data for Northern Ireland please contact the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland.

 

Upcoming data releases in early 2016

Archive stream sediment samples for the south east Ireland have been re-analysed using modern analytical methods by the Tellus programme. Gold, platinum and palladium data to be released early 2016

 

 

 

 

Data from the recently flown A1 airborne geophysics survey block will be released in early 2016.  Magnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic data will be available.

• Fine autumn weather ensures on-schedule completion for fourth phase of airborne surveying
• Tellus team extends thanks to all for support and co-operation
• Minister McHugh welcomes conclusion of successful campaign

A major airborne geophysics survey over Counties Meath, Kildare, Offaly, rural Dublin, and northern parts of Laois and Wicklow has touched down for the final time – bringing to an end the fourth phase of Tellus, a significant geological mapping project led by the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI).

The project, which involved the collection of geophysical data on rocks, soil and water across the region, was supported with a comprehensive communications campaign to ensure key stakeholders were informed of the survey and its purpose.

Throughout the summer and autumn, the specialised twin propeller plane operated by Sander Geophysics Ltd on behalf of the GSI, traversed the skies over Eastern Ireland.

In total, 32,642 km were flown over the four month period, with the fine autumn weather throughout October providing a welcome boost to flight plans. Flying at a height of 60m over rural areas, the plane was a familiar sight to many local people, particularly to those involved in horse breeding and other livestock owners.

“I am delighted to announce the current phase of airborne surveying is now complete, on-schedule, marking another significant milestone for this important national project”

commented Minister for Natural Resources, Joe McHugh T.D.

Tellus Project Manager, Mairéad Glennon commented:

 “We have always been very focused on the potential effects of the low-flying plane, particularly over areas such as Kildare and Meath which are famous for horse-breeding and racing. To minimise disruption we implemented a campaign which involved direct communication with as many organisations and individuals as possible”.

“We extend our thanks to all who worked closely with us to spread awareness and particularly to the horse breeders and livestock owners who co-operated so effectively to ensure the survey ran safely and to schedule.”

Following a period of data checking, mapped results will be made freely available online during 2016 and will enable scientists, planners, industry specialists and environmentalists to better understand and manage our natural resources.

“The Tellus Survey continues its rollout across Ireland. It is already delivering many benefits to different sectors of our society, and it offers enormous potential for the future”

added Mairéad Glennon.

The Tellus team has extended its gratitude to Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association, Weatherby’s Thoroughbred Stud Book Authority, the Irish Farmers Association, and all other groups who helped raise awareness of the airborne survey.

In addition to the airborne survey, Tellus is currently undertaking a geochemical soil survey in Mayo and west Galway. Teams of agricultural scientists will work throughout the winter months, gathering soil samples every 4 km2.

An update on Tellus and other Geological Survey of Ireland programmes will be presented as part of the GSI’s Geoscience 2015 conference at the Clayton Hotel, Dublin on 4th November 2015.

The Geological Survey of Ireland has published a new call for short research projects across all areas of activities including Tellus.

It is open to both industry and researchers, with a lead partner on the island of Ireland. Proposals are invited for projects less than one year duration, to a maximum value of €25,000.

Application is via a simple template here and deadline for applications is 5pm on 3rd November 2015. Enquiries to research@gsi.ie.

Modelled on previous successful research programmes by INFOMAR and Tellus, this call invites researchers to propose projects across diverse themes. Example topics for investigation of Tellus data are given below. Selected previous Tellus research topics are summarised on the research page.

Land resources

• Exploration and assessment of natural resources, including metallic minerals, aggregates, energy resources and groundwater;
• Structural geology; in particular stress/fault mapping and crustal structures and history;
• Quaternary deposits; in particular to map soil/quaternary sediments and provenance/morphology of quaternary sediments

Environment and health

• Natural and/or artificial radioactivity; in particular radon;
• Micro and macro nutrients for human and animal health
• Assessment of element anomalies, deficiencies or excesses in the environment;
• Investigate specific element mobility and bioaccessibility in the near-surface environment;
• Investigate potentially harmful elements, element toxicities, and risk to human, animal and ecological systems
• Enviro-economic assessements of the above topics

Soils, sediments and surface waters as natural resources

• Soils as a resource for agriculture;
• Improving communication and use of soils-related data for non-expert users;
• Solid/aqueous phase interactions in catchments;
• Nutrients and micro-nutrients in soil;
• Soil as a carbon source and sink;
• Soil contamination, risk assessment and remediation;
• Protection of soil resources;
• Soils in a changing climate;
• Anthropogenic activities and impacts on soils;
•  Mine waste impacts
• Heavy metals distribution and accumulation;
• Persistent organic pollutants;
• Using soil characteristics as predictors for chemical and physical properties;
• Mapping the extent and thickness of peat;
• Forestry and ecological research;
• Habitats, protection and assessment of sensitive landscapes e.g. wetlands;
• Effects of crop and land treatments on the soil and water environment (e.g. Fertiliser, pesticides, sewage sludge application)
• Use of sediment geochemistry to map provenance of agricultural pollutants;
• Sediments as a source of legacy contaminants;
• Phosphorus speciation in soils and sediments and the measurement of phosphorus in soils and sediment

 Ground and surface water

• Ground water/surface water interaction; e.g. baseflow influences on stream chemistry
• Groundwater dependent terrestrial ecosystems;
• Mobility and speciation of elements in groundwater and/or surface waters;
• Groundwater pollution and groundwater protection;
• Acidification of waters and buffering capacities of surface and shallow groundwaters;
• Quality issues with regional water supply;
• Surface water geochemistry as a mineral exploration tool;
• Temporal variation in water chemistry in catchments;
• Phosphorus speciation in waters and the measurement of phosphorus in waters;
• Freshwater and saline water interactions in coastal settings;
• Identifying the geophysical signature of karst features and subsequent mapping;
• Groundwater contamination associated with industrial and waste sites.

Ecology and its links with geology

• Balancing the competing objectives of agricultural productivity and environmental management;
• Terrestrial, freshwater and wetland ecology;
• Quantifying the regional impact of point-source polluting activities e.g. septic tanks
• Geochemical influences on ecosystems
• Ecosystem and geosystem services
• Assessing environmental pressures on ecosystems
• Diffuse aerial anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems

GIS and Remote Sensing technologies for data management and utilisation

• Novel use of socio-economic spatial datasets for geological dataset mining;
• Mapping and classifying land-use and land cover using remote sensing techniques;
• Compare and contrast remote sensing datasets to geochemical and geophysical datasets;
• Satellite observation of soil moisture and other properties;
• 3-D geological (continuous surface) models;
• Natural capital management;
• Assessing the economic impact of freely available GIS data.

Data analysis

• Relationship between gamma-ray spectrometry data and soil geochemistry data, for e.g. radon distribution;
• Height attenuation of gamma-ray spectrometry data;
• Corrections for gamma-ray spectrometry data based on influence on footprint of signal from overlapping measurements;
• Relationship between Frequency Domain EM and Time Domain EM data; effects on data inversion and merging;
• Spatial statistics, uncertainty.
• Analytical method development.

Open Topic

•             For example and not limited to: Geoarchaeology, geochronology, geoforensics, popular science, developing education tools, knowledge transfer, developing technologies or applications (apps) for novel uses of geoscientific data, projects that link the arts with science etc.