Thomas Belgrano: Geological mapping in the 21st century - geology research talk

Thomas Belgrano,
University of Southampton
  / tmbelgrano  

This research seminar is part of the University of Portsmouth, School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences Research seminar series.
https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/struc...

As society’s demands on Earth’s geology evolve, so do the expectations of our geological maps. With particular urgency, mapping of ore districts must evolve to match the requirements of modern exploration approaches, as well as penetrate the shallow sub-surface where the next generation of e-tech-fuelling ore bodies are concealed. Substantially improving the awe-inspiring geological maps of the 20th Century requires a revamped, multidisciplinary, and opportunistic approach. Identifying or acquiring geospatial datasets with continuous coverage and levering discontinuous field data to interpret them will be central to many of these approaches.


I will discuss these topics with reference to a regional geological and hydrothermal alteration mapping project recently completed in the Semail ophiolite (Oman–UAE). We will cover high-throughput geochemical identification, aeromagnetic interpretation, remote sensing of alteration, and the digitally-driven fieldwork and lab work that allowed a small team to produce maps covering thousands of km2. Among others, a key conclusion of this work is that not all successful geological mappers need hiking boots – crucial work is equally as likely to be carried out behind a monitor or a mass spectrometer as behind a rock hammer.