{"id":31756,"date":"2023-09-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/usgs-helicopter-begins-mapping-geology-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:45:23","slug":"usgs-helicopter-begins-mapping-geology-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/usgs-helicopter-begins-mapping-geology-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"USGS helicopter begins mapping geology in Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Harmen
Harmen Keyser, the president of Precision GeoSurveys, will fly a helicopter equipped with a magnetometer and a gamma ray spectrometer over parts of Southwest Colorado for the U.S. Geologic Survey\u2019s \u201cEarth MRI\u201d project. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Later this week, a helicopter equipped with a pointy red \u201cstinger\u201d will appear over the La Plata Mountains \u2013 but no, the region is not under attack.<\/p>\n

A helicopter carrying specialized equipment to gather geophysical data will be making low-elevation passes throughout Southwest Colorado beginning Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"Harmen
Harmen Keyser, the president of Precision GeoSurveys, points to the gamma ray spectrometer in the helicopter he will fly over parts of Southwest Colorado for the U.S. Geologic Survey\u2019s \u201cEarth MRI\u201d project. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The project, dubbed \u201cEarth Mapping Resources Initiative,\u201d is being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey at the request of Congress. The data collected will allow geophysicists to create highly detailed three-dimensional maps of the region\u2019s underlying geology, which can be used by mining companies in search of critical minerals and to better understand the geologic history of the region.<\/p>\n

\"The
The U.S. Geologic Survey\u2019s \u201cEarth MRI\u201d project will map the geology of several areas in the Colorado mineral belt. (Courtesy of U.S. Geologic Survey)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cCongress wanted us to do this is to promote exploration by the private sector,\u201d said Tien Grauch, the lead USGS geophysicist on the project. \u201cThere is a lot more to it, though, because basic geologic information informs an awful lot of different applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

The data will also help geologists understand groundwater pathways, including the hydrological connections to contaminated historic mines. It will also yield a better understanding of the Colorado mineral belt \u2013 the ore-rich strip of land stretching from the toe of the San Juan Mountains up to Boulder \u2013 and a better understanding of naturally occurring radon.<\/p>\n

The USGS contracted with NV5 Geospatial, out of Florida, which hired Canada-based Precision GeoSurveys to gather the data and EDCON-PRJ out of Denver to process it.<\/p>\n

The helicopter, piloted by Harmen Keyser, carries two instruments to record data.<\/p>\n

A long \u201cstinger\u201d protrudes from the front of the aircraft carrying a magnetometer. The device measures changes in the earth\u2019s magnetic field.<\/p>\n

Inside the helicopter, a 250-pound box contains a gamma ray spectrometer that measures the energy released by decaying radioactive elements.<\/p>\n

\"Michael
Michael Hobbs, the vice president of operations at EDCON-PRJ, will take the data collected and do initial processing for USGS scientists for the \u201cEarth MRI\u201d project. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Although the technology is passive \u2013 it does not collect imagery and will not affect anyone in the mapping area \u2013 residents and recreationalists may notice the helicopter flying approximately 330 feet overhead.<\/p>\n

The aircraft will fly in lines 660 feet apart at speeds between 70 and 90 mph. It will climb to 1,000 feet over populated areas.<\/p>\n

The survey area includes two swaths of land, one in the southwest and another near Buena Vista. Surveys will begin near Durango on Thursday and continue until snowfall makes data collection impossible. The flights will continue once the snow melts next summer.<\/p>\n

The flight paths are planned to avoid wilderness areas where speculation would not be possible.<\/p>\n

\"A
A low-flying helicopter equipped with a magnetometer and a gamma ray spectrometer will fly over parts of Southwest Colorado for the U.S. Geologic Survey's \u201cEarth MRI\u201d project. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Grauch warns that although the USGS\u2019 mandate is to map the geology in search of critical minerals, it does not necessarily mean another mining boom is on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress wanted to have us do this to promote the mining companies\u2019 interest in various areas,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that they\u2019re going to be interested because they\u2019re driven by economics.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

low-flying aircraft is not taking images, but collecting magnetic geophysical data<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,2925,28,435,239,1309],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-geology","tag-headlines","tag-metal-and-mineral","tag-mining","tag-san-juan-mountains"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81550,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31756\/revisions\/81550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31756"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}