Inversion and inference of geophysical data

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Mineral deposits are often buried beneath a cover and geophysical methods are required to discover them. Each geophysical survey provides information about a specific physical property and generally a number of different surveys are carried out to provide more complete information about the subsurface. Over the last two decades we have developed methods to invert data from individual geophysical surveys to generate 3 dimensional models of the physical property distribution. We can now invert gravity, magnetic, DC resistivity, Induced Polarization, and frequency and time domain electromagnetic data to recover 3D distributions of density, magnetic susceptibility, chargeability and electrical conductivity. With this foundation we can now focus upon other research problems. In this research we address two such problems: (a) how to design a survey that is cost effective and answers the question of interest and (b) how to construct an earth model solution that is compatible with all available geophysical and geological knowledge. Progress made in these two areas will make exploration more effective and continue to keep Canada at the forefront of mineral exploration and other applied earth sciences that involve subsurface investigations.