Geophysical Methods for Locating Abandoned Wells

摘要

A preliminary study of the feasibility of using geophysical exploration methods to locate abandoned wells containing steel casing indicated that magnetic methods promise to be effective and that some electrical techniques might be useful as auxiliary methods. Ground magnetic measurements made in the vicinity of several known cased wells yielded total field anomalies with peak values ranging from about 1,500 to 6,000 gammas. The anomalies measured on the ground are very narrow and, considering noise due to other cultural and geologic sources, a line spacing on the order of 50 feet (15.2m) would be necessary to locate all casings in the test area.