[Rockhounds] USGS Using A Helicopter Hula Hoop To See What's Buried Under Southeast Wyoming

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting a
first-of-its-kind survey of southern Wyoming. Starting in February, the
agency will gain a bird's eye view of what lies deep under the surface.

When this survey's results are completed, they will be publicly accessible
to any agency, business, or individual who could benefit from knowing
what’s waiting to be unearthed between the Front Range and Medicine Bow
Mountains.

Starting this month, the USGS will use helicopters to conduct an airborne
electromagnetic (AEM) survey of areas of Albany, Carbon, Converse, Laramie
and Platte counties in Wyoming. The same survey will occur in Jackson,
Larimer and Routt counties in Colorado.

AEM surveys provide images of subsurface electrical resistivity, showing
how electrical currents move through materials buried underground. Those
images could identify anything from water, rare-earth minerals, and many
other items of interest under the surface.

The AEM survey will be able to detect materials up to 1,500 feet below
Wyoming’s surface. It’s the first public electromagnetic geophysical survey
in Wyoming’s history.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/02/06/usgs-using-a-helicopter-hula-hoop-to-see-whats-buried-under-southeast-wyoming/