Date of Award

4-1998

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Geological and Environmental Sciences

Department

Geosciences

First Advisor

Dr. Johnson Asumadu

Second Advisor

Dr. Estella Atekwana

Third Advisor

Dr. William Sauck

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Geophysical field exploration using electrical resistivity typically employs the use of four electrodes which are progressively relocated to positions that differ from a few meters to hundreds of meters. Consequently, field operations are tiresome and often lead to imprecise locations of electrodes and poor data quality. This project develops an automated field resistivity system.

This automation of resistivity measurements is accomplished by using multiple sets of field electrodes, a programmable switch box, remotely controlling the acquisition instrument and digitally storing the results. Controlling the process is the Acquisition Control©software, for Windows 95© .The prototype switch box has the capability to switch sixteen electrodes, four of which are selected at any one time via multiplexers. Once the data is rapidly taken via a laptop computer, it can be processed as new data is simultaneously being acquired, therefore yielding essentially real-time results and immediately guiding further investigations.

Results of this project show a working prototype which efficiently and accurately gathered data with time improvements of 500% to 600% over manual data acquisition. Overall, the development and testing of this prototype was a complete success and a patent is pending.

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