Introduction to exploration with Spontaneous Potential

Hello, All,
I just joined this group and would like to offer some of my ideas on exploration with Spontaneous Potential.
These very simple electrical concepts can be used to detect small currents present in the ground. Such currents may be produced by the oxidation of metals or minerals. A multimeter and special set of electrodes is all the equipment necessary.
Exploration with this technique will lead to areas where "more oxidation" is taking place. In turn, that may lead to finding iron or steel artifacts, may guide to location of rusting nails and tools. Those may or may not be associated with precious metal artifacts.
If you are interested in these topics, I will be posting some case studies and further information about the basic equipment necessary, ways to go about exploration with this technique, etc.
Alberto Lobo-Guerrero S.
Geologist, M.Sc., Min.Ex., Ph.D.
ageo@logemin.com
For those interested in Spontaneous Potential, here is a link to a PDF document about that.
It describes exploration for vein systems in arid terrains.

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A text document may be downloaded from that site. In addition, a PDF PowerPoint presentation may also be downloaded. Part of that is in Spanish, but fairly easy to understand for English readers.

Good luck with your exploration!
Hello again,
Here is another example of exploration using Spontaneous Potentials. This time in tropical and humid environments. An abstract may be found on the following link:

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In addition, PDF PowerPoint presentations, text documents, and other related documents may be downloaded from the same site.
If any of you have experience on these exploration techniques, it would be great to share ideas.

Alberto
Dear All,
Here is a document which you may find of interest. It describes several case studies where Spontaneous Potential was used to define archaeological sites.
I hope this is useful. More case studies and information on the technique will be posted soon.

The file was too large for inclusion here. I will email it to persons who are interested. Below is the full title and abstract. I hope not to break any copyright laws.

ApplicationoftheSelf-potentialMethod to Archaeological Prospection: some Case Histories
M. G. DRAHOR*
DokuzEylˇlUniversity,EngineeringFaculty,Department ofGeophysics,KaynaklarCampus
35160,Buca-Izmir, Turkey

ABSTRACT The self-potential (SP) method is very rarely used in archaeological prospection because related phenomena are not very well known.The aim of this study is to discuss the different SP phenomena that might be observed at archaeological sites, and therefore the SP method was applied at different archaeological sites in Anatolia (Turkey), such as Acemh˛yˇk, Amorium, Burgazand Ulucakh˛yˇk archaeological areas and the Sinopamphorae work shop site.
These studies indicated that SP anomalies existed over both burned or unburned materials at archaeological sites, such aswalls, pits, kilns, etc.
Furthermore, SP anomalies were also found over areas of complex soil distribution and visible physical changes on the surface. Other kinds of SP anomalies were also observed in those archaeological structures located very close to the coast line.These results were confirmed by archaeological excavations, which were carried out after geophysical surveys in the areas studied.All the studies supported that electrokinetic and electrochemical potentials might be the main cause of SP anomalies in the buried archaeological structures.The SP data collected with the gradient and total measurement techniques were processed by forward and inversion methods, and the main SP parameters (h, Qand x0) were determined. In addition, the SP results were compared with other applied geophysical methods such as resistivity and magnetic.

Keywords: Anatolia;archaeologicalprospection;electrochemicalpotential;electrokineticpotential;
self-potential


Good explorator?s luck,
Alberto

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