http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
Laurentian University conducting 7-year, $104-million study into structures in earth’s crust
The large trucks seen recently along major roadways in Sudbury are conducting seismic testing. It’s all part of a major research project by Laurentian University.
That seismic testing is not to detect natural or man-induced mining seismic activity, rather the testing is similar to sonar or ultrasound, says Harold Gibson, director of the Metal Earth Project.
The vibration trucks send out seismic waves, which reflect off features in the earth’s crust and then back to receivers or geophones that have been spread out 20 to 30 metres apart. The data is compiled into a seismograph showing 40 kilometres below the surface of the earth.
“To get an impression of what does [the] earth’s crust look like in these metal-endowed areas versus what the earth’s crust and mantle look like in less-endowed areas, to see what the differences are. So we can understand the processes of metal enrichment and understand better where our resources are,” says Gibson.
The $104 million dollar, 7-year study is a massive development project led by the Mining Exploration Research Centre (MERC) at Laurentian.
“This is a major research initiative that has never been undertaken before.” Gibson says funding for the project is from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund and Laurentian University. They also have 22 additional partners from academia, industry and government.
For the rest of this article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-seismic-testing-merc-1.4368314